Integumentary System VI
Were almost there this the next to last installment for this system of the body. This is a review intended for massage therapist and students that wish to pass the national exam.
Nails are accessory organs of the skin which are produced by cells in the epidermis, nails are hard due to the substance keratin. The visible part of the nail is called the nail body and the root of the nail is that which lies in a groove, hidden by a fold of skin called the cuticle. The crescent shaped white area of the nail is called the lunula. The nail bed is a layer of the epidermis that lies under the nail.
Suderiforus also known as swat glands are littered throughout the epidermal layer of skin and allow us to sweat, while the sebaceous or oil glands piggy back on the parts of the hair root. The suderiforus glands are the most numerous of glands in the skin. There are two types of these glands and they are eccrine and apocrene. Eccrine are the most numerous of the sweat glands. They assist in the production of ammonia and uric acid which are waste products that are eliminated by sweat. The eccrine sweat glands aid the body in maintaining a constant temperature. Once water is secreted the flow or air across the body assists in the cool down of body parts. Water secretes from the pores or outlets of small ducts from the eccrine sweat glands. Appocrine sweat glands are found under the armpits and around the genitals and are not microscopic in size. Body order is caused by the secretions being contaminated and decomposing of skin bacteria in these areas. These sebaceous glands have tiny ducts which open into hair follicles.
Sebum secretions form the sebaceous glans hat lubricate the hair and skin are made of a substance that also makes up pimples and blackheads or comodones. Sebum increases wrinkling and cracking of skin in late adulthood and is due much in part by the lack of production of sebum. Sebum is in fact a lubricant made by the body and excreted by the skin. Pimpes and blackheads are caused by the obstruction of the flow of sebum to the surface of the skin by debris.
