The skin
The skin does more than just cover the surface of the body; it performs many essential functions for the body such as cooling, preserving heat, throwing off poisons, and absorbing sunlight. Fifty years of this continuous service, however, exacts from the skin a toll of natural oils and some of its elasticity. The well-oiled firm skin of youth eventually becomes the dry, stretched skin of later years with its lowered resistence and vitality, and it begins to experience problems unknown in its younger years.
Some diseases of the skin are localized and confined to its own structure, but other skin diseases reflect the state of the entire body or of specific internal organs.
Examination of the Skin
With good light and double mirror, examine carefully with the fingers, the scalp, face, trunk and the extremities. Note any obvious color changes, and any weeping or itching areas. Note also any growths or sores, whether large or small, smooth or ulcerated, painless or bleeding. Note any sores, in particular, about the face, eyelids, chest and tops of the hands.
Skin Abnormalities
Pallor-A pale skin for some people is normal and often enviable; but a rapid change from a healthy complexion to a pale skin after the age of fifty years, may signal diseases of the blood, or perhaps some other type of internal disease. A continued and progressive pallor of the skin, especially if combined with weakness and fatigue, is most certainly worthy of an examination for possibilities such as anemia.
Florid Complexion-A very florid or reddened complexion, without any obvious cause such as a sunburn, may mean a disease of the blood vessel system. Such difficulties may include high blood pressure, growth in the adrenal gland, neurologic diseases which create a continual flush, or happily it may also mean nothing more than very good health.