The Color of your Skin

What is the color of your skin? This is not a racist question it is quite simply an endeavor to find out the reasons for different types of skin pigmentation. It has been seen that the human skin color can vary from a very dark brown appearing to be black to the palest of pale so that it looks almost colorless. The amount of the skin pigment ‘melanin’ lends color to the human skin. The difference in the color of the skin depends primarily on genetic factors and on the environmental factors to a certain extent.

Health and Melanin- Studies have shown that people with dark skin are protected from the harmful effects of Ultraviolet Rays. Pale skins are more prone to skin cancers as well as birth defects caused by the ultraviolet radiation which destroy the folic acid in the body. Dark skinned people residing in high altitude areas often suffer from Vitamin D deficiency and may suffer from rickets, multiple sclerosis and diabetes. This is especially true of the African Americans who have a risk of developing fatal diseases like cancer of the lung, colon and prostrate due to Vitamin D deficiency.

Whether Light or Dark, our skins contain some amount of melanin. The complete absence of melanin is known as Albinism. People suffering from Albinism are characterized by very light eyes, almost white skin and hair.

Culture and Skin Color- Throughout the ages, people with pale skins have been known to enjoy a favored status. This has also been found to be true of people who had no knowledge of the Europeans and were generally dark skinned.

Genetics and Skin Color- Extensive research and statistics accumulated from these studies show that:-

Our primitive ancestors or the first human beings were all as dark skinned as the Africans of today.

The skin tone became lighter with the migration northwards due to the need for production of Vitamin D by absorption of the sunlight into the skin.

The light skin color of Europeans differ from that of the South East Asians due to difference in genetic mutation.