Hands are the most important part of your body. We use our hands everyday and it is almost impossible to imagine our life without them. But what do we know about our most active parts of the body.
The following are the most interesting facts about our hands that show about your health:
If your palm is getting red and remain so for a long period of time this can indicate palmar erythema, a sign of liver disease. This is a sign of nonalcoholic fatty liver. It should be noted that if you are pregnant its normal to have red palms due to increased blood flow.
The length of your fingers can tell a lot about your condition. In women if the ring fingers are longer than the index fingers, it indicates that they are at a higher risk of osteoporosis. Males usually have larger ring fingers than index fingers and that’s normal in men.
If your fingers are stiff and swell like little sausages for no reason it may be an indication of hypothyroidism. If the thyroid is under-active then the rate of metabolism decreases which results in weight gain, fluid retention and swelling. This is one of the important signs that hands show about your health.
If your nails are pale and they remain white for a minute after pressing them, it may be a sign of anemia. Iron deficiency causes pale nails as there are not enough red blood cells. If anemia is not treated it can result in slightly concave shaped nails.
They are tiny red or brownish spots of blood under nails called as splinter hemorrhages. They can alarm you about the blood infection or heart diseases. There may be an infection of the heart valves called as bacterial endocarditis.
If the circulatory systems of the heart or lungs are impaired, oxygen levels in the blood are likely to drop. Over time, this causes the soft tissues of the fingertip pads to grow thickened and bulge outward. This is known as ‘clubbing’. This is one of the signs you definitely shouldn’t ignore.
If your fingertips are often blue or gray, it is possible that you have Raynaud’s disease which causes narrowing of smaller arteries that supply blood to your skin and causes limiting blood circulation to affected areas.
These brown or reddish spots reflect advanced diabetes. In diabetes nerves and blood vessels become weak including the nerves of the hand. This causes red spots on hands due to internal bleeding and hemorrhage.
