Function of the Hands in Correlation to the Body
The hands are extremely important to the body, and this is demonstrated by the amount of brain space devoted to them. The largest space in the brain called the motor cortex is reserved for the operation of the hands. Messages constantly zip back and forth from the brain to our hands. Even something as miniscule as moving your thumb requires thousands of messages from the brain.
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Messages
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Messages from the brain tell hand muscles when to contract and when to relax, which causes one tendon to pull and another one to relax. Every time you use your fingers, this requires coordination between the muscle and nerves, which carry messages from the brain. There are thousands of nerves per square inch in the hand, mostly in the fingertips. The nerves in our hands let us touch and feel heat, cold and pain. Because our hands and fingers are so sensitive, this allows us to feel our way through a dark room when we can't see.
Bones
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The hands have one of the most intricate bone structures of all the various body parts. There are eight bones in the wrist, 14 bones in all of your fingers, and five bones in the palms of your hands, totaling 27 bones in one hand. Counting both hands, they have more than a quarter of all the bones in the body.
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Injuries
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Hands and fingers are always busy, and as a result, they frequently get cut, mashed, bruised, pinched and burned. Sometimes hands acquire fungal infections or are afflicted with psoriasis, dermatitis and skin allergies. Arthritis can afflict the hand and finger joints. This painful condition can disfigure your fingers, causing them to swell and become distorted into big knuckles and crooked digits. Tendons in the hand can be pulled or torn, and the muscles in your fingers sometimes spasm.
Toughness
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Our hands, even when worked very hard at times, don't get as tired as the rest of our body. When you stop to think about how much and how often you use your fingers and hands, appreciate their toughness.
Reading Hands
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The cerebral lobes on each side of the brain respond exclusively to hand shapes. You might not be aware of it, but you do pay attention to hands and to the fingers and how they are shaped and used. Hands are great communicators. Hands speak for us to and to us.
Hand Symbols
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The way we use and position our hands can communicate a lot. The Nazi salute, in which the palm faced directly downward, is considered a symbol of tyranny and power. Often when hand-holding, the dominate person in a relationship will place the hand above the other person's hand, with the palm facing to back, while the other person's hand faces forward. This shows who is boss. An open palm means openness, while a closed palm means someone is concealing something.
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References
- Photo Credit Photos.com/PhotoObjects.net/Getty Images
