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How does the skin help control blood pressure?

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Learn how regenerative properties of the skin helps to protect the human body from the external environment — human skin Human skin, whose cells are generated continuously by the body, serves as a protective barrier between the inside of the human body and the environment.

The skin plays a significant role in the regulation of blood pressure by controlling the volume of blood flowing through its extensive network of blood vessels.1

This regulation is achieved through the action of sphincterlike vessels located within the skin. These vessels can open or close to dictate whether blood circulates through the peripheral capillary beds or bypasses them entirely by being shunted directly from small arteries to veins. By adjusting the width of these vessels—a process involving vasoconstriction and vasodilation—the body can influence systemic blood pressure. While these mechanisms are primarily associated with thermoregulation and the dissipation of body heat, they are essential components of the body's broader vascular control system.12