- You have 54 bones in your wrists, hands and fingers!
- There are no muscles found in the fingers. Fingers have tendons.
- The tendons in the fingers are connected to muscles in the palm and mid forearm. That is how we are able to move our fingers.
- The touch receptors make our fingertips extremely sensitive to temperatures, texture, moisture, pressure and vibration.
Most of us take our hands or granted, but our hands are much more complex than most of us think. Besides all of the wonderful thing we can do with our hands, they can also give us important clues about what may be happening in other parts of our bodies. In fact, traditional eastern medicine and the more recent practice of reflexology have mapped both the feet and hand to show a correlation between the hand and internal organs and other external areas of the body. For example:
- The area between your fingertip and first knuckle refer to the head and neck. By massaging between the knuckle and the tip of your finger you are able to help relief sinus congestion, headache, and other symptoms relating to the head. By massaging this area the receptors send a message to the muscles of the neck.
- Located right below the pinky is the area that refers to the arm and shoulder. Massage of the hand in this area may improve some soreness in the arm and shoulder – especially if it is combined with direct arm and shoulder massage.
- The right palm area of the hand refers to the ascending colon which helps break down the food. If there is soreness here on your hand you may want to chew your food a little longer! The left palm is your descending colon. If you find tenderness here it could be an indicator of constipation or diarrhea and not getting enough water during your busy day. Fun, right?
My Disclaimer. I am not a reflexologist! But through my studies I have learned just how connected the body is. Our hands, eyes, and feet can sometimes alert us to things that might be happening in our bodies. So if you catch me looking at your eyes or spending an extra minute on your hands or feet, you’ll know why! If you want to do some basic hand massage on yourself, check out this video by Dr. Oz.
My next post will talk about some of the things that our fingernails can tell us about our health.
To your health!