Info about Melanin
Melanin – What This Term Really Mean?
Many people know that there is something called melanin in our body but they do not really know what it is. Well, it is the pigment that is responsible for giving color to the skin; also, this responsibility of melanin highly depends on the blood flow of an individual’s body. The primary place of melanin is your hair and skin only. Also, several people might not know this but melanin is not only found in human beings; it also exists in many animals and plants. Although there are other factors as well that decide over a person’s skin color but melanin is the primary one in making this decision.
If a person’s skin is carrying a lot of melanin in quantity then he or she would carry a darker a skin. Similarly, people who tend to have less melanin in their skins carry a lighter skin color as well. Melanin is also said to be natural skin protector for our body; it works like a sunscreen providing protection to the skin against the sun’s UV rays. People who are living near or around the earth’s equator belt tend to carry a lot more melanin content in the skin compared to people who live near the poles because the sun’s rays are a lot of stronger at the equator belt. You can see a clear difference in the skin color of people who live near the equator and the people who reside in Antarctica or Arctic region; the colder areas offer a fair skin.
Melanin in our skin is produced through a cell that is known as melanocytes. Basically, many small molecules having various bonding and proportions come together in order to make melanin; therefore, even melanin is of different types in different people. Eumelanin and Pheomelanin are the 2 basic melanin types that are found in our bodies. These two types of melanin decide whether your skin color would be dark or fair. Fair people tend to carry a lot of Pheomelanin in their bodies while the darker complexion comes from a lot of Eumelanin in the body.
If there is a melanin deficiency found in someone; this issue can lead to genetic disorder known as albinism. Darker people tend to carry a lot more melanin amount then fair people; they can stay in the sun longer, fight against its rays more easily, therefore they have a big advantage over the fair people.