The past decade has unearthed a myriad of discoveries about the human skin. Some of these may be ‘rediscoveries’, but the new science is redefining skin as we know it and while this may not be on the radar of the majority of spa professionals yet, it has the potential to have a huge impact on therapists, skincare suppliers and spa-goers alike.

More and more research shows that the skin, far more than a fragile veneer, is in fact an integrated part of the nervous and neuroendocrine systems and even the digestive system. Findings show that skin is intimately tied to the functions of other organs and may reflect our psychological and physical wellbeing more than we ever imagined. We’ve always known that a blush gives away our mind’s secrets, but could a persistent redness be triggered by the skin’s own manufactured hormones? Or can we learn about the ageing brain by examining the ageing skin?

As science furthers our knowledge about our body’s largest organ, we can take comfort in knowing that the skin possesses an array of talents that we may one day tap into for enhancing our health and our experience in the world.

A social organ
In the 90s, the science of touch ramped up, with neuroscience techniques leading the way to a greater understanding of ourselves – via our skin. We all feel the benefits of a massage, or simply of holding a loved one’s hand. Researchers like Tiffany Field (see SB07/1 p70) and Paul Zak made strides in boosting our understanding behind the power of touch, with their work on infant care and oxytocin, respectively. But there was a parallel discovery that’s now shedding light on the mechanics of how we’re wired for touch.

A patient, known to Swedish scientists as GL, was 31-years-old when she lost sensation across many parts of her body after taking penicillin for a cough and fever. Her unique condition, which left her numb to any pokes, tickles and pressure, but receptive to warmth, bolstered the discovery that humans have a specific neural network devoted to a gentle caress. Sensations of pressure and vibration were always thought to travel along fast-conducting nerves that terminate in a part of the brain known as the somatosensory cortex. But studies on GL, conducted by the University of Gothenburg, revealed that there was a particular type of touch that she could still feel and that relayed to a different part of the brain altogether. This type of touch, a gentle stroke in fact, reached the brain at a much slower rate than traditional touch, meaning it came from slow-conducting fibres. The scientists named these slow fibres c-tactile, or CT, fibres. The interesting thing is that CT fibres are only stimulated by specific light touch at skin temperature – the kind that we feel during a gentle massage. Unlike the nerves that transmit what we touch, these special nerves signal how we feel when we are touched. We are, in fact, wired for social touch.

Whether you’re a spa-goer or a therapist, the benefits of touch go beyond momentary skin contact. It helps release bonding hormones like oxytocin – making a massage or facial a bonding experience that can have wellbeing benefits beyond the treatment room. And it doesn’t hurt that clients who are touched gently tend to tip more than those who don’t receive a welcoming pat or embrace. That feeling of intent travels through the skin and neuroscience is only beginning to shed light on how this complex dynamic of touch and connection develops.

The listening skin
Imagine a mosquito buzzing around your bedroom at night. Your hearing becomes acutely tuned into the high-pitched whizzing and your skin may even become hyper-aware of any light touch, in case it’s the darn mosquito landing on your skin for a feast. Scientists are currently exploring why our sense of touch is influenced by our sense of hearing. Both rely on mechanical tweaks to cells, with ears and skin using similar mechanisms to make sense of the vibrations or sound waves. Not only do the two senses use similar processing mechanisms in the body and in the brain, but scientists theorise that hearing actually evolved out of the sense of touch.

Researchers are currently exploring how touch affects our hearing. In a study by the University of British Columbia, Canada, participants listened to the similar sounding syllables ‘pa, ta, ba or da’. Aspirated sounds such as ‘pa’ or ‘ta’ require the speaker to expel a puff of air, but in this experiment all four sounds were randomly accompanied by puffs of air hitting the skin. Whenever the syllables were combined with the air, participants would indicate that they heard aspirated sounds of pa or ta, whether correct or not. While this shows how our skin sensations affect our hearing, other studies show our brain integrates information from various senses to build a bigger picture of our surroundings. For instance, researchers from Duke University, USA found that smelling something awful can modulate how pleasant a touch feels, while those from Liverpool John Moores University, UK believe pleasant touch can make us feel like time is shortened. Clearly, there’s more to our skin’s role in sensory perception than we ever imagined.

Music is often used in spas and this research, while scant, suggests there may be more to the synergy between sound tracks chosen and the effects of bodywork. So it couldn’t hurt to offer a selection of music in the treatment room. Our bodies are constantly receiving (sometimes invisible) information about the world and designing spa areas with all senses in mind could, from a scientific perspective, enhance wellbeing even more.

The seeing skin
A few years ago, Brown University scientists in the US found that melanocyte skin cells detect ultraviolet light using a receptor previously thought to exist only in the eye. The team discovered that melanocytes contain rhodopsin, a photosensitive receptor used by the eye to detect light. This eye-like ability of the skin to sense light triggers the production of melanin within hours (more quickly than previously thought) in an apparent rush to protect against damage to DNA. So when the tanning process is fast, it’s a signal that our skin is quickly producing pigment to prevent DNA damage. And this process happens much more rapidly than the UVB-induced redness and burning.

So it’s believed that skin is built with similar machinery to the eyes to process light. The skin could potentially work in concert with other sensory organs to not only help us understand our environment, but to drive whole-body changes. For instance, the light hitting our eyes modulates our circadian rhythm; perhaps the light hitting our skin can also contribute to our daily sleep cycle.

As we learn more about the new
science of skin, it opens up a whole new world of possibilities, not only in skin science, but also in treatment and care of skin. More than any other industry, including the medical world, the skincare and spa sector is poised to make a lasting impact on society’s wellbeing. The complex neuroscience of supportive touch is not only validating centuries-old techniques, but providing a haven for human connection.