Influence of race, gender, age, and diabetes on the skin circulation

The circulation to the skin is important both for the skin's nutrition to maintain it as a live barrier to protect the inner organs and also to support its role in thermoregulation. Because of this latter role, as much as 99% of skin circulation may be for thermoregulatory purposes. Thus, the skin has a complex control system allowing it to respond to local stimuli such as pressure and heat, and also to central sympathetic control to dissipate or save heat and to maintain blood pressure with changes in body position. This chapter will explore how the skin circulation is controlled by local and central mechanisms and how this is altered by age, race, sex hormones, and pathologies such as diabetes.