The skin is the largest organ in the human body weighing approximately ten pounds and covering an area of about 16 square feet. People often take skin for granted and tend not to take optimal care of it. Our skin is responsible for protecting our internal organs from the toxic external world. Our skin protects us from heat, cold, and physical injuries. It also provides us with sensory information about the nature of the external world, and is our first defense against invasion by bacteria, viruses, and other toxic elements. The skin is also an excretory organ, removing toxins from the body via perspiration. The skin, as the outermost barrier of the body, is exposed to various sources of oxidative stress, in particular UV-irradiation and environmental toxins such as cigarette smoke, air pollution, etc. Internally, the skin is attacked like any other organ, through processes involving glycation (protein cross-linking), collagen-elastin degradation, and free radical-induced injury. Since
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