Hand Surgery: Twenty Interesting Facts About Your Hands Article

	1888 Articles Home \| Health Articles	Health RSS
Hand Surgery: Twenty Interesting Facts About Your Hands

Our hands are wondrous machines. Here are twenty tidbits about them that you may not know.

Author: Andrew Stratton

Article Tools:

How well do you actually know your hands, those miraculous little machines that dangle at the end of your arms and take such good care of you? You know you have two of them with a total of ten fingers. You know how to shake them, wave them, write with them and drive with them. But do you know these twenty interesting factoids?

1) There aren't any muscles inside of your fingers. All of the muscles are in the palm and arm region and attached to tendons inside of the fingers. The fingers are moved around like a puppet on a set of strings.
2) Caucasian children are much more likely to be born with webbed fingers.
3) African American children are much more likely to be born with extra fingers.
4) There are twenty-nine bones in your hand.
5) There are one-hundred and twenty-three ligaments.
6) The muscles which control the fingers are so strong that a couple of them can hold up the entire weight of one's body.
7) One out of every four athletic injuries involves the wrists and hands.
8) Each thumb is powered by nine separate muscles.
9) Fingernails do not have feeling but if you lose one, the feeling is altered in the corresponding area on the palm.
10) Fingernails are actually hair that has been modified.
11) Just like a snowflake, no two fingerprints are alike.
12) The skin on the palm is unique in its inability to grow hair.
13) Palm skin doesn't tan.
14) Julius Caesar had captured warriors' thumbs chopped off in order to send a message to their superior officers.
15) One out of every six birth defects involves the hand and wrist area.
16) When a nerve is cut in the palm, the skin in the area loses its ability to perspire.
17) Osteoarthritis is more common in elderly women than in elderly men.
18) One third of all emergency room visits involve the hands and wrists.
19) Thirty-four muscles work together to move the fingers and thumbs.
20) Hand surgery did not exist as a medical specialty until after World War II.

Take good care of your hands as they are two of your hardest workers. They are able to do intricate work as well as tasks that require strength. They are tough and they are sensitive. As Gandhi once said, “You can't shake hands with a closed fist.” Be sure to always appreciate your hands.

About Author

In Houston, hand surgery is done by a board-certified surgeon whose practice is solely dedicated to surgery of the upper extremity with a focus on pathology of the hand and wrist. For more, visit http://www.cyfairhandandwrist.com

Article Source: http://www.1888articles.com/author-andrew-stratton-4734.html