Malassezia is a type of yeast that lives and dines on all over scalps. And in about half of the Human population, its activity causes dandruff. Our skin hosts billions of microbes, malassezia yeasts make themselves at home on our skin shortly after we are born. Follicles, the tiny cavity that grows all over our body, make for especially popular living quarters. Malassezia are fond of these hideouts because they contain glands that secrete an oil called sebum that’s thought to lubricate and strengthen our hair.
Malassezia evolved to consume our skins proteins and oils and because of its many sebum secreting follicles, our scalp is one of the oiliest places on our body and consequently one of the yeastiest. As these fungi feast on our scalps oil, dandruff may form this is because sebum is composed of both saturated and unsaturated fatty acids. saturated fats neatly packed together. Unsaturated fats, on the other hand contain double bonds that create an irregular kink in their structure.
Malassezia eat sebum by secreting an enzyme that releases all of the oils fatty acids. But they only consume the saturated fats leaving the unsaturated once behind. These irregularly shaped leftovers soaked into the skin and pry on its barrier open, allowing water to escape.
The body detects these breaches and responds defensibly causing the inflammation that gives dandruff its itch it also makes the skin cells proliferate to rep[air the damaged barrier. Usually our skins outer surface completely renews itself every 2 or 3 weeks, epidermal cells divide, move outwards, die and form the skins tough outer layer, which gradually shuts of in single cells far too small to see.
Ways to get rid of dandruff
Using antifungals in things like shampoos, applied directly to the scalp to kill malassazia. For those who experience dandruff, it usually comes and goes as sebum secretion vary throughout once lifetime due to hormonal changes but despite the fact that malassezia colonized everyone to a similar extent, not everyone gets dandruff. Some people are more susceptible.
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