The Life of the Skin: What It Hides, What It Reveals, and How It Communicates

In the tradition of Diane Ackerman's A Natural History of the Senses and Oliver Sacks's The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, this witty and elegantly written book offers fascinating new insights about our skin--and ourselves.

Leading dermatologists Arthur Balin and Loretta Pratt Balin take us on a wonderful ride beneath our most visible, revealing, and overlooked organ: the skin. The authors highlight the skin's functions in sensory perception and the immune system. They detail the amazing ability of the skin to communicate everything from sexual signals to the presence of dysfunctions and problems within the body. They explain why babies smell nice, why we get wrinkles, and how wounds heal. And they tell fascinating and moving stories from their patients' lives and their own--from the schoolteacher whose skin turned into a stiff shell, to the facelift Arthur performed on his own father.

With the Balins' passion for their subject and care for their patients bringing life to every page, this unique book will change the way you look at yourself forever.