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Is melanin a substance?
Melanin is one of the complex pigment which human beings are responsible for producing the coloration in our skin, hair eyes, and skin.We will discuss about What are the Advantages of Having Dark skin or Melanin?
While melanin is often referred to as a single pigment there are two kinds of melanin that are responsible for the pigmentation of hair eyes, skin, and eyes of both humans and animals:
- Eumelanin. This pigment is often associated with dark toneslike black and brown.
- Pheomelanin. This pigment is linked to different hues, like yellow and red.
What are the advantages of melanin?
Alongside being a source of pigmentation for animals and humans melanin also serves crucial biological roles in offering against the damaging effects of the sun.
- Protection from UV light. Melanin protects the epidermis’ cells the skin’s outer layer from ultraviolet light. This protection is available to all types of ultraviolet radiation (UVC, UVB, and UVA) and blue light. It absorbs ultraviolet light before it is capable of damaging the delicate DNA of skin cells.
- Reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenger. Melanin also exhibits antioxidant properties by scavenging reactive oxygen species that are produced by ultraviolet light damage. In the absence of protection antioxidants, ROS cause an increase in oxidative stress which can cause serious damage to cells.
It is believed that there may be additional mechanisms of melanin’s action in the body, like protection of the liver, the intestines and even our immune system.
However studies on these possible advantages is scarce, therefore photoprotection and pigmentation remain the two main advantages of melanin to humans.
In India the Indian market, creams for skin whitening as well as bleaches and treatments are unfortunately of great importance.
Dark-skinned and dusky beauty queens have to be made feel guilty over their beautiful appearances without a reason. We have today notable celebrities who have dark skin and are not concerned about the sexist perceptions of the average Indian society. Actresses like Nandita Das Bipasha Basu Konkana Sen Sharma Deepika Padukone, Priyanka Chopra, Sushmita Sen, and Freida Pinto are excellent examples of this. If you’re being bullied for these reasons or have experienced it yourself and still are experiencing it even though your peers believe it’s a joke, be aware that these factors will provide your defense with incredible fights! Make sure you are taking their side as there are many advantages of being dark!
In the beginning, your dark skin tone is a huge benefit to protecting your skin from sun. Our skin is protected because of the large amount of melanin that are produced by our skin. Dark pigmentation helps protect the DNA against damage, and also absorbs the proper amount of UV radiation required by our body, and also protects us from folate (Vitamin B) depletion.
We are less vulnerable to sunburns. Skinny white people often have flared sunburns after exposure to sunlight.
There are people who suffer from painful sunburns that require medical attention. The benefit of being in the dark is that we are not prone to experiencing such negative side effects as a result of the sunlight!
Darker skin is stronger A New View of Human Skin Color
Many theories about the reason why our ancestors of humankind developed and lost dark skin tone over the course of evolution might be wrong according to a recent study by UC San Francisco authors, who propose that highly pigmented skin has evolved so that it provides a better defense against various environmental threats. Since skin that is heavily pigmented needs more power to make, the authors suggest that our ancestors shed certain pigments as a result of natural selection when they moved to the north and required less protection from these dangers.
“Work at our laboratory has demonstrated that skin that is darkly colored performs better and provides a stronger protection against loss of water, better cohesion, as well as a more effective antimicrobial defense. And we began to consider the evolutionary implications this,” said Peter Elias, MD, professor of dermatology at UCSF. Elias co-authored the latest research paper, which appeared in the June 21st online edition of American Journal of Physical Anthropology, with his wife and frequent collaborator Mary L. Williams, MD, clinical professor of dermatology at UCSF.
Many anthropologists believe that dark pigmentation is a feature that was present in our ancestors, either to shield against skin cancer or to prevent degrading of folic acid an important nutrient within the blood vessels of the skin’s. Folic acid deficiencies are linked with congenital anomalies that affect offspring. Both of these presumed protection functions could have developed due to the high doses of sunlight’s ultraviolet (UV) radiations when our hairless predecessors moved out of the forest and into the open Savannah.
On the other hand when our human ancestors moved north from Africa There are many theories that suggest that their skin became thinner to permit more light from the sun to be absorbed by the skin since a part that is part of the ultraviolet spectrum light is required for formation of vitamin D within the skin.
