The Integumentary System: What It is and How It is Affected By Acne
The integumentary system plays a key role in the functioning of the body. This system is
made up of the hair, nails, glands and the skin, the body’s largest organ (Goodheart, 2006). “In
an adult, the skin covers about twenty one and a half square feet and weighs about eleven
pounds. Depending on location, the skin ranges from two hundredths to sixteen hundredths
inches thick (Integumentary system).” The major objective of these body parts is to act as a wall
to protect the organs that lie beneath the integumentary system (Acne, CareNotes). The
integumentary system serves many protective functions for the body and is the bodily system
that falls victim to acne.
The integumentary system has four main features: hair, nails, glands and the skin, the
functional unit. The skin is the most important of these and protects the body in several ways.
The first of these is that the skin prevents excessive water loss from the body. The next function
the skin serves is to protect underlying tissues from the outside world. There are several dangers
that the world poses to the body, such as ultraviolet rays from the sun. The skin protects the
body from these harmful rays using melanin, a pigment in the skin that absorbs and reflects
ultraviolet rays (Acne, CareNotes; Leikin & Lipsky, 2003).
The skin does many more actions to serve the human body, such as helping to regulate
body temperature, producing vitamin D, and working as the sensory organ by providing feeling
and touch (Acne, CareNotes). This is what the integumentary system is best known for and it is
a very complicated process. According to The World of Health, “nerves carry impulses to and
from hair muscles, sweat glands, and blood vessels, and receive messages from touch,
temperature, and pain receptors. Some nerve endings are specialized, such as sensory receptors
that detect external stimuli. The nerve endings in the dermal papillae are known as Meissner's
corpuscles, which detect light touch, such as a pat, or the feel of clothing on the skin. Pacinian
corpuscles, located in the deeper dermis, are stimulated by stronger pressure on the skin.
Receptors near hair roots detect displacement of the skin hairs by stimuli such as touch or wind.
Bare nerve endings throughout the skin report information to the brain about temperature change,
texture, pressure, and trauma (Integumentary system).”
The integumentary system works as a minor excretory system by producing sweat to cool
the body. This sweat can have a negative effect on the integumentary system. Sweat combines
with dirt and dead skin to act as a “plug” to hair follicles usually located on the face. These
plugs block the pore and the pore in turn swells and reddens causing acne, the dread of every
teenager. This swelling can lead to itchiness and overtime may cause scarring of the skin (Mayo
Clinical Staff, 2006).
There are many risk factors involved in contracting unsightly acne. The first of these is
the most obvious, being a teenager. Women who are pregnant or are two to seven days before
their periods are also at risk of developing acne. Patients taking such medications as cortisone or
steroids may be affected as well. Acne can also be considered hereditary because having a
family history of acne puts a person at risk. Exposing the skin to oily or greasy substances is
also a cause for acne. Adding friction to the skin by using cell phones, wearing tight collars or
backpacks can lead to a person contracting acne (Acne, CareNotes).
When a person gets acne, it can come in several different types, shapes, and sizes. These
include whiteheads, blackheads, pimples and cysts. Whiteheads occur when pores become
blocked and clogged with oil secretions and dead skin. Blackheads are essentially whiteheads
that open up to the skin surface and darken. Pimples are the raised, reddish spots that are caused
because of inflammation or infection in the hair follicles. Cysts are thick lumps beneath the
surface of the skin. These are formed via deep secretions in hair follicles and are visible because
they form a lump in the skin (Acne, CareNotes).
Today there are many treatments used to eliminate cysts and all other types of acne.
Some of the most common of these are topical treatments. These are used because they may dry
up oil, kill bacteria, and promote the sloughing of dead skin cells. Another way to fight acne is
to take antibiotics. Antibiotics help to eliminate acne by reducing acne and fighting
inflammation of the hair follicles. One of the more drastic measures to take against acne is
Isotretinoin, a drug that belongs to the family of drugs called retinoids and is used in the
treatment of acne and psoriasis, and it is also being studied to be used as a measure to prevent
cancer. This is a very effective treatment, but it has very severe side effects such as a chance of
increasing cholesterol and it has been associated with severe birth defects. Oral contraceptives
and cosmetic surgery are two other ways to treat acne today. Cosmetic surgery freezes away
damaged skin to reduce scarring from acne. Laser resurfacing is a type of cosmetic surgery that
reduces the scarring. An example of a future
treatment for acne is Micro-Dermabrasion, which
is actually beginning to gain some ground for
those who suffer from more violent acne. Other
than that, the only future treatment that can be
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expected is improved topical treatments (Leikin
and Lipsky, 2003).
The diagram shown to the left is a visual
aid to help understand the development of acne
in the integumentary system. Acne develops
when hair follicles, or pores, are clogged with plugs of oil and dead skin, which causes the pore
to swell and redden. This diagram shown is an example of a blackhead. This can be told by the
fact that there is an oily secretion found in the hair follicle. This is very similar to a whitehead,
but the difference is that the secretion is exposed to the surface of the skin. This would cause the
area to darken, forming a blackhead (Acne, CareNotes).
Ninety percent of all teens are affected by acne, and one hundred percent develop the
occasional zit. Five percent of babies suffer from acne. Baby acne normally occurs a few weeks
after birth, but babies are sometimes born with it. Baby acne is very common and is suspected to
be caused by hormones that are given to the baby from the mother at the end of pregnancy. Five
percent of women over the age of forty suffer from acne. One percent of men over age forty are
affected by acne (Acne, Gale).
The integumentary system protects the human body from the outside world, from
everything ranging from ultraviolet rays to scrapes on the knees. The integumentary system is
like knights armor and is the primary system for the protection of the body. Sometimes a
knight’s armor gets a mark on it, much like the skin develops acne. In the end, however, the
armor still protects the knight, or in this case, the body. Due to the fact that the integumentary
system serves so many functions for the body it is the most important bodily system.