Medical mysteries

A Prickly Probe

WRITER: FRED HILTON

WHAT CAUSES GOOSE BUMPS AND HOW DID THEY GET THAT SILLY NAME?

We have all had goose bumps. You remember when you left the pleasant warmth of the Florida sunshine and walked into that store where the air-conditioning was blasting away, making the temperature slightly above zero. Tiny bumps formed on your forearms. The same condition can happen when you are watching a scary movie and something creepy happens.

Goose bumps are caused by an involuntary action that has been with humans since our ancient ancestors ate mastodon steaks. According to the Mother Nature Network, “goose bumps are one of those fight-or-flight responses of the sympathetic nervous system. When you experience cold or fear, for example, a nerve reaction is sent to the muscles that control the hair follicles on your skins, which causes them to contract. This muscle contraction causes the hair follicles to elevate about the skin and your hair to stand erect.”

Back in the days when our ancestors were a lot hairier than we are today,

DID this reaction made the human look larger and might have helped scare away a hungry bear or tiger. Goose bumps are a vestigial reflex — something left over from days past but is no longer useful.

As you would expect, folks in the scientific field have fancier terms for this phenomenon than “goose bumps.” Goose bumps are known as piloerection or horripilation and occur in many mammals. Horripilation comes from the Latin words for “stand on end” and “hair.” Medical people have their own term for goose bumps: cutis anserina, which comes from the Latin words for “skin” and “goose.” e have ungry umps m eful. , eld his se on m d ical is m or e

That brings us back to the question of the day: why are these things called “goose bumps?” It is not very complimentary to the goose, but not many sayings about that poor critter are positive. For example, you have “wild goose chase,” “goose-neck lamp,” and “blank through a goose.”

The term “goose bumps” goes back more than 200 years. Goose feathers grow from openings in the skin similar to human hair follicles. When a goose’s feathers are plucked, its skin has protrusions where the feathers were. These bumps resemble the human condition.

When a goose’s feathers where the feathers when their “goose bumps” could just as

Other birds also show protrusions when their feathers are plucked. Our “goose bumps” could just as easily be called “chicken bumps” or “duck bumps.”

Goose bumps can also be caused by drug withdrawal, which gives us the term “cold turkey.” An addict suddenly stopping drug use can experience cold sweats, clammy hands, and goose bumps — much like a cold (dead) turkey.

FRE D HILT ON 36 for James Madison in as s

FRED HILTON spent 36 years as the chief public relations officer/spokesman for James Madison University in Virginia and 10 years prior as a reporter and editor for The Roanoke Times in Roanoke, Virginia. He is now happily retired in The Villages with his interior designer wife, Leta, their Cadillac Escalade golf cart, and their dog, Paris. (Yes, that makes her Paris Hilton).