Medical Mysteries SPLISH, SPLASH, WHY AM I WRINKLY AND PRUNEY?

There is no question taking a shower is the most efficient way to bathe. You jump into the shower, stand under the water, suds up, scrub a little bit, rinse, and you’re done. All squeaky clean and smelling much better. While showering might be the most effective way to get clean, it’s boring and totally lacking in creature comforts.

On the other hand, a nice soak in a tub of comfortably hot water gets you just as clean as a shower but, done properly, it can be something sublime. A long soak in warm, sudsy water can be an experience in decadent luxury. Just add some nice music, a good book, maybe a glass of wine… and perhaps a rubber ducky. You’re just as clean as you’d be after a shower but you’re happier and more serene.

The problem is after your nice tub bath your fingers and toes are wrinkly and yucky looking. It’s a lousy way to end a nice bath. So why does a nice, calming tub bath make you wrinkle up like an old prune?

For years, scientists believed wrinkly fingers and toes were caused by osmosis—the movement of water on dry outer layers of skin. They believed the water puffed up the skin covering the tips of our fingers and toes.

However, scientists soon discovered the wrinkling effect didn’t occur with patients who had fingertip nerve damage. This meant the wrinkling was due to an action of the nervous system rather than osmosis.

In 2011, neurobiologist Mark Changizi proposed a theory now widely accepted on the cause of finger and toe wrin- kling in response to water. According to the Dartmouth Undergraduate Journal of Science, “Changizi suggested that human ancestors evolved this behavior in order to get a better grip with their hands and feet under wet conditions…the wrinkles in the skin act like car tire threads, channeling water out of the way and allowing fingers and toes to grasp more effectively.”

Experiments comparing the gripping ability of wrinkled fingers and normal fingers on slippery objects confirmed Changizi’s explanation. “The ability to better maintain grip in wet conditions could give human ancestors a competitive advantage, especially in particularly wet climates,” the Journal said.

So live it up and enjoy your decadent soak in the tub. You can even pretend you’re

Cleopatra or Marie Antoinette, and your servants are fanning you. That may not be the best idea after all. Things didn’t turn out too well for either of them, did they?

Sources

“Science gets a grip on wrinkly fingers,” by Becky Summers, Nature.com, Jan. 9, 2013 http://www.nature.com/news/science-gets-agrip-on-wrinkly-fingers-1.12175

“Why does my skin get wrinkly in water?” by Sarah Jourdain, HowStuffWorks.com http://health.howstuffworks.com/skin-care/information/anatomy/skin-wrinkly-in-water.htm

“Why Does My Skin Get Wrinkly in Water?” reviewed by Steven Dowshen, M.D. KidsHealth. org http://kidshealth.org/kid/talk/qa/wrinkly_fingers.html

“Why Does Your Skin Get Wrinkly in Water?” Wonderopolis.org, National Center for Families Learning http://wonderopolis.org/wonder/why-does-your-skin-get-wrinkly-in-water-2 “Wrinkly skin theory doesn’t hold water,” by Karl S. Kruszelnicki, abc.net, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Jan. 22, 2013 http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2013/01/22/3673601.htm

“Why Do Our Fingers Get Wrinkled?” by Shawn Xie, Dartmouth Undergraduate Journal of Science, Feb. 26, 2013 http://dujs.dartmouth. edu/news/why-do-our-fingers-get-pruney#. VYMCu_lVikp

75% of Americans experience some type of foot pain, causing many to believe they must learn to live with it, but I’m happy to report that arthritis, bunions, hammertoes, heel pain, neuromas and other foot and ankle disorders can be improved – even cured – through the specialized reconstructive and reparative surgeries I’ve performed on thousands of revitalized patients.