This may not seem like a very important question to you. And you’d be right.
This question came up, and I assumed yes. Cells do, generally. Cells absorb O2 and produce C02 … even plant cells do this … through passive systems. But I wondered if the fact that the epidermis is adapted to be a barrier might mean that it would not. But then I realized that the epidermis absorbs water. O2 and H2O both diffuse freely across cell membranes. So of course some of the cellular respiration in mammals is surface diffusion. It must be. (Warning: I don’t know this to be a fact. If you do, state so in the comments and provide a reference that you’ve actually read recently and can verify, please!)
The problem is that when you “google it” … ask the Internet if humans or mammals absorb any oxygen through their skin, you get an interesting result, an oft repeated phrase: “No. Human beings cannot usefully absorb oxygen through their skin.” Which is not really an answer to that question, is it? I wasn’t asking about “usefully.” Jeesh.
I’m pretty sure that the answer to the question “do humans absorb Oxygen through their skin” — which is clearly a yes or no question — is “yes.” But perhaps this leads to concerns that some of the dumb-ass humans will misuse this information thinking that we actually breathe through our skin in any meaningful way. Imagine the stupid Darwin-Award wining tricks people might think up to do with this factoid. Nonetheless, while “the widely held mis-belief” that humans “breathe through their skin” is a potentially dangerous concept, it is also simply true that all typical normal living eukaryotic cells respirate. Even plant cells “breathe” in O2 and “breathe” out CO2. So the answer “no” isn’t really acceptable.
In truth, the best answer to the question “do humans breathe through their skin?” is probably something like “Please re-phrase that question so I know what strange and inappropriate things will happen in your brain depending on the answer”
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A quick search on google scholar resulted in this paper: The cutaneous uptake of atmospheric oxygen contributes significantly to the oxygen supply of human dermis and epidermis
From the article: “It has been known since 1851 that atmospheric oxygen is taken up by the human epidermis. The contribution to total respiration is negligible.” and “In this study it has been shown that under normal conditions, atmospheric oxygen can supply the upper skin layers to a depth of 0.25Ć¢??0.40 mm. This is 3Ć¢??10 times deeper than has been calculated previously (Fitzgerald, 1957; BaumgĆĀ¤rtl et al. 1987). The whole epidermis and the upper corium can therefore be supplied with oxygen from the atmosphere. ”
So there. Have fun with the strange and inappropriate thhings in your brain š
Boris, thank you, my quick search did not get me that reference!
The real use I was hoping to put this to is pedagogic.
To the students in the AP cellular respiration lab: When you breathe, it is your cells breathing, and the plant over there in the corner of the room is also breathing. And, in turn, you are breathing in way that is similar to what the plant is doing, both via your lungs and even your skin surface, though that contribution is negligible….
If I recall correctly, in the James Bond movie Goldfinger a woman is killed by having her entire body painted gold, meaning that her skin can’t “breathe” and she dies. It’s a while since I’ve seen it so I don’t if I’m remembering it correctly – but if it happens in a Hollywood movie then it must be true right?
And Jeremy’s obligatory Goldfinger reference requires a reference to the two Mythbusters episodes in which they painted people gold.
Don’t worry about your skin breathing. However, do worry about overheating, since controlling temperature is one of the things we use our skins for.
Seems to me that oxygen would diffuse into the skin, CO2 out?, to some extent. Impermeability is one of those things we get misinformed about when we are young. Things get oversimplified and nobody makes any effort to clarify things. So we buy that the balloon ‘holds air’. That the cup holds water.
That in electrical terms there are insulators and conductors. Later we get semiconductors. Later, if we stay with it, we find out everything conducts electricity to some extent. That water vapor penetrates things we thing it shouldn’t and that tiny amounts of gases diffuse across seemingly impermeable barriers. Why should skin be special.
Which relates to another assumed fact – that the human urinary bladder is simply an impermeable bag. I suspect that when dehydration becomes an issue it helps conserve water by reabsorbing water to some extent. It would be interesting to find out if anyone has done any experiments.
I was going to cite the paper that Boris did. There are a few others. This is actually quite important in NO physiology, and why the skin is the organ that sets the basal NO level.
Because the external skin gets O2 from the external air, there is no hemoglobin in the external skin (obvious because the external skin is transparent) except when it is hyperemic. Hemoglobin is the sink for NO, so with the external skin hemoglobin-free, NO can diffuse into the plasma (the external skin is perfused by plasma) and attach to albumin forming S-nitrosoalbumin, the most abundant S-nitrosothiol in the blood.
In at least some mammals, the response to hypoxia is partially mediated through O2 sensing in the skin.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18423195
This actually makes a lot of sense. The skin is actually the tissue compartment that has the lowest O2 level. This can be seen in the graph of O2 levels in the paper Boris cited. Because it is close to the external atmosphere and is large in area, there is a big signal to trigger responses to hypoxia. This global hypoxia signal can be integrated over a large area and over a long time without subjecting critical tissue compartments (supplied by the heart and lungs) to low O2 levels. It decouples hypoxic sensing from O2 delivery and utilization.
The one thing I don’t like about this paper is that nitroglycerine really isn’t a Ć¢??NO donorĆ¢?Ā. It does have NO/NOx effects, but those are complex and not fully understood, but it is understood that they are not through prompt NO release.
The fact that in order to avoid asphyxiation, Shirley Eaton’s body was not 100% covered (a patch of bare skin remained on her stomach) belies a faulty understanding of the premise. In the faulty understanding, the surface of our skin is roughly equivalent to our nostrils. Everything will be OK if we have a bit of space for at least part of the skin to “breath through.”
Skin surface respiration would be because the skin is in direct contact with O2 bearing air.
The fact that the Mythbuster guy exhibited the early signs of asphyxia (e.g. change in pulse) yet the Mythbusters concluded that covering one’s body in gold paint can’t (eventually) kill you speaks to the nature of modern skepticism …. specifically, it is quite possible to call one’s self a skeptic but reject ideas because one believes they should be rejected.
If it does turn out that the epidermis gets, say, half of its O2 from the air, then it would turn out that the largest organ in the human body gets only half its needed oxygen from breathing. And no matter what, it is clear that this is … interesting. It is quite possible that this skin breathing issue can make it to my list of falsehoods (http://tinyurl.com/294cpjy).
Beyond that, I have one more comment for now: If it is true that the skin gets a lot of its O2 from the surrounding air, then that means that under some conditions the skin can stay alive after the person has died. The implications of this for ghost and zombie research is potentially mind boggling.
“Skin surface respiration would be because the skin is in direct contact with O2 bearing air. ” … to finish this thought: So leaving an uncovered portion would only help the skin right at that uncovered spot.
When you seal skin off with a bandage you eventually get dead skin.
If the skin is made hypoxic, it generates NO which causes vasodilation which increases blood flow in the skin. The skin probably can be sustained from the blood in terms of oxygen. The skin does not have a high metabolic load, it can operate on glycolysis.
Oil based make-up may not block O2. O2 has a much higher solubility in oils and hydrocarbons than it does in water. If the make-up contained flakes, and those flakes alligned with the skin surface, that may block O2 where make-up containing powder would not.
Pilots breathing oxygen in reduced pressure do have hypoxic skin. Hypoxic skin may be part of why climbing Mount Everest is so difficult.
daedalus2u: It is indeed important to note that “covering” the skin with some goo or another does not necessarily mean cutting off our atmospheric gases.
O_O;
And definitely disturbing.
As a nurse, I routinely cover skin with occlusive bandages…some of which ‘breathe’ and others which do not. Other than the shedding of dead skin cells which would have flaked off naturally had the bandage not been there, there is no difference.
ItĆ¢??s an interesting question for hard science fiction settings: if you have a mask on to let you breathe your native atmosphere, can you safely run around clad normally while in shirtsleeve-temperature-and-pressure pure carbon dioxide? Pure carbon monoxide? Methane?
As for skin “breathing”, if a covering blocks water vapor transport away the skin will usually become (somewhat) waterlogged. This may be the origin of the myth.
I recall reading an article (to which I no longer have access) about diffusion of water through the skin of various animals (including amphibians). IIRC it was mentioned that modern amphibians absorb oxygen partly through their skins. (A quick search couldn’t find that article, but I found several other mentions.
I’m not going to pass those along, because I found something much more interesting: The structural design of the bat wing web and its possible role in gas exchange
The article is open access but I haven’t (yet) read beyond the abstract.
Oh, yeah…
The bolding is mine.
AK: I’m not sure if we want to use the term “myth” here. After all, it appears that we do breathe through our skin, a little. If the myth is that can can hold our nose and mouth closed and still respirate, that would be wrong of course.
Bats breathing with their wings makes a lot of sense.
Well, I absorbe all my nutrients through my skin during sun worship. I havenĆ¢??t eaten actual food in years, so the possibility that we may absorb some or most of out oxygen through our skin comes as no shock. I also only obtain water through my hair on rainy/humid days.
I thought the mechanism of the fictional murder by gilding was that the body overheated.
Monando: It depends on if you use molten gold
what about when people go swimming then? if half our O2 is received through our skin how do we not drown while having only our heads out of water or otherwise feel oxygen deprived?
although my answer is not so called scientific but it is the fact that we respire though our skin .if you will cover your entire skin with thick layer of wax , you will feel your self oxygen deprived, previously in our country , BHARAT ( INDIA ) this technique was adopted by kings for slow death of criminals . i am sure death in such cases was mainly because of the lack of skin respiration . i will be thankful to you if you will do some concrete research work in this direction . thanks alot for giving opportunity to give comment , thank you again .
although my answer is not so called scientific but it is the fact that we respire though our skin .if you will cover your entire skin with thick layer of wax , you will feel your self oxygen deprived, previously in our country , BHARAT ( INDIA ) this technique was adopted by kings for slow death of criminals . i am sure death in such cases was mainly because of the lack of skin respiration . i will be thankful to you if you will do some concrete research work in this direction . thanks alot for giving opportunity to give comment , thank you again .
Greg,
Thank you for addressing this issue. I have another for you that has plagued me for a long time that hopefully you would be willing to tackle. Specifically, the explanation of the source of the sound when you “crack the knuckles” of your finger joints.
Cavitation is virtually always listed as the reason for the loud cracking sound that accompanies the “cracking” of one’s knuckles. I say…maybe! I understand that joints make several different sounds for many different reasons, but I think that the explanation of cavitation that is usually given is flat out incorrect.
See my post at: http://www.scq.ubc.ca/a-curmudgeonly-clarification-of-cavitation-and-a-call-to-correct-all-cracking-content/
I’d love to see what you think.
Thanks,
David
Interesting. I agree that your description of cavitation makes sense and the other descriptions are either too vague or don’t really seem to work. Also, there other things that “crack” that are simply tissues moving against each other, most likely.
I hope everyone goes and reads your description and chimes in!
I would like to agree.One can ingest Oxygen in through the skin.I enjoy using the form of gentle Oxygen infusion (Hospital grade) small quantities of Ozone and Steam
to the body …not inhalation…and the blood oxygen levels have been proven to increase.
Gee, I hate to burst the bubble of people getting their “science” from Mythbusters, but the fictional Goldfinger death was inspired by the very real hospitalization of Buddy Ebsen cast as the first Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz poisoned by the make-up.
Pete: Totally. Better to get our science from the Wizard of Oz than Mythbusters! š
Buddy Ebsen didn’t suffocate from the makeup, he had an allergic reaction to the makeup.
Although your skin does not absorb O2 (or release CO2), there *is* one part of your body that *does* depend on absorbing O2 (and releasing CO2) directly from/to the atmosphere, rather than relying on your bloodstream…
Clue: This part of your body has no blood vessels to bring corpuscles to provide O2… And it is in direct contact with the air (usually 2/3 of the day).
Answer: Your corneas.
I don’t think we’ve concluded that your skin cells to the extent that they have contact don’t act like normal cells. The argument from incredulity is the only valid one that has been made.
But good point about the cornea,
So what is the time limit for Divers? surely scuba divers should be hyper aware of this potentially fatal fact. They spend extended periods under water… FULLY SUBMERGED! no skin to air contact AT ALL. I can’t believe we have gone years with divers suffering serious medical issues because they have spent an excessive amount of time with their skin NOT in contact with life giving air. Also Iām kind of worried about my kid learning to scuba. Will the lack of O2 to its skin stunt its growth and cause it to become a pygmie (or pygmie-like)? or will all his skin fall off like a snake? While I’m certified and spend prolonged periods of time in water, my instructor never outlined the potential risk of not having my skin exposed to air for an excessive period of time. This could be rather major lawsuit in the works. Is Oxygen deprivation why my skin is so pale while everyone else’s skin get so brown during the summers? and why my fingers get pruney? It sounds like all my skin is getting close to death and could fall off if I’m not careful. Should I not be applying sunblock after getting out of the pool to allow oxygenation to occur? Is this a conspiracy by the bath companies?(Probably not, But might not). Fox new needs to do something about the public ignorance on this matter.
Jackie, I don’t think divers have a problem for the reasons discussed in the post.
Guys them injun yogis (the real ones) practice pranayama. CO2 is their friend. Link: http://www.normalbreathing.com/yoga-breathing.php
This source says 2%. Seems reasonable. http://www.saburchill.com/chapters/chap0022.html
Q. What about people with compromised circulation, especially older people, whose capillaries may not work so well? :Is complicated I suppose by waste products other than CO2 not getting removed so gangrene, etc. Hmm. Will be interested in any thoughts. Thanks.
Goldmember — Can I paint his youhoo goolddd??
Dr. Evil — How about no (because he has a sensitivity to latex and it might kill him).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0QbXfvbjFk
re: #33 pruny fingers
http://www.nature.com/news/science-gets-a-grip-on-wrinkly-fingers-1.12175
Daedelus what a brilliant piece of information, that is just the kind of depth required to by good researchers. Brilliant thankyou even though short a joy to read.
When in deep Samadhi meditation, the breath stops and the heart beat as well. In this situation that can last hours if not days, the only oxygen absorbed by the body is thru the skin.
And the answer is……a definite ……MAYBE! ( James Bond
Would not lie.)
When in deep Samadhi meditation, the breath stops and the heart beat as well. In this situation that can last hours if not days, the only oxygen absorbed by the body is thru the skin.
As a practicing Buddhist this is idiotic. The skin isn’t beating in this instance, in fact the monk is breathing at least 1 breath per minute with a simular heart rate, and with this low of a metabolic rate the body needs less 02 to sustain itself in my meditation I’ve gone as low as 29 bpm and an o2 saturation of 97% and 4 breaths per minute
Going through one of the blogs of Dr. Christopher S. Braid , I got to know that some of the eye cells and the upper layers of our skin can absorb oxygen , but he rate is negligible ……
link:http://sciencequestionswithsurprisinganswers.org/2015/06/25/are-there-any-parts-of-the-human-body-that-get-oxygen-directly-from-the-air-and-not-from-the-blood/
another blog said that during skydiving because of the pressure and freefall the oxygen molecules enter your body through normal breathing i.e. through lungs and because of the freefall oxygen molecules are forced into the skin until you open up your parachute…..
link:http://www.dropzone.com/forum/Skydiving_C1/General_Skydiving_Discussions_F18/Breathing_trough_your_SKIN_during_freefall_P4282857