Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
When I put Icy Hot on my hand, I can only feel the effect on the top part of my hand. Why?
Hey, Matt:
I put Icy Hot on my hand the other day because my thumb was hurting. Unfortunately I was nearly struck mute with astonishment when I found that I could feel the "icy yet hot" sensation on the top of my hand but not on the palm side at the base of my thumb. Why is this? I thought that the palms and fingertips were MORE sensitive.
-- Jeremy Barwick, Spring Valley
Well, I guess you thought wrong, bubba. But hey, the situation's epidemic. "Common knowledge" is one of those viruses you don't hear much about but is known to be the cause of most human suffering. True, true, our fingertips are loaded with nerve endings that enable us to make fine discriminations and manipulations. But your palm is designed for heavy-duty tasks -- whapping vending machines to get your change back, stuff like that. If fingertips are among the most sensitive body parts, palms are among the least sensitive (along with our backs). Fewer sensory nerve endings in your palm and at the base of your thumb. Icy Hot and other hot/cold balms work by stimulating our head and cold receptors, creating a counterirritant that takes our minds off the pain of the injury. So I guess putting the stuff on the base of your thumb wasn't such a hot/cool idea.
Here's something you might be interested in.
When I put Icy Hot on my hand, I can only feel the effect on the top part of my hand. Why?
When I put Icy Hot on my hand, I can only feel the effect on the top part of my hand. Why?
Hey, Matt:
I put Icy Hot on my hand the other day because my thumb was hurting. Unfortunately I was nearly struck mute with astonishment when I found that I could feel the "icy yet hot" sensation on the top of my hand but not on the palm side at the base of my thumb. Why is this? I thought that the palms and fingertips were MORE sensitive.
-- Jeremy Barwick, Spring Valley
Well, I guess you thought wrong, bubba. But hey, the situation's epidemic. "Common knowledge" is one of those viruses you don't hear much about but is known to be the cause of most human suffering. True, true, our fingertips are loaded with nerve endings that enable us to make fine discriminations and manipulations. But your palm is designed for heavy-duty tasks -- whapping vending machines to get your change back, stuff like that. If fingertips are among the most sensitive body parts, palms are among the least sensitive (along with our backs). Fewer sensory nerve endings in your palm and at the base of your thumb. Icy Hot and other hot/cold balms work by stimulating our head and cold receptors, creating a counterirritant that takes our minds off the pain of the injury. So I guess putting the stuff on the base of your thumb wasn't such a hot/cool idea.
Comments