Mondo Knows Facts
The skin sheds tens of thousands of dead cells every minute
Outer epidermal layers constantly slough off as new cells form underneath
The outermost skin layer, or stratum corneum, consists of flattened keratinised cells that continuously shed into the environment. Humans shed roughly 30,000 to 40,000 dead skin cells every minute, resulting in complete outer skin replacement about once every four weeks.
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Tags: skin, cells, epidermis
The skin sheds tens of thousands of dead cells every minute: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- Outer epidermal layers constantly slough off as new cells form underneath. The figure is taken from NIH, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a human body fact?
- Yes. It sits on the Human Body shelf, one of 1,090 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.