Hands - your showpiece and a treasure trove of knowledge
Hand plastic surgery
To the rescue of overworked hands
It is commonly believed we pay most attention to the face on first contact with someone. If we wish to get to know somebody, we note their facial expression and emotions and follow the person’s gaze. We build an image of the person and attribute certain features to them in this way. It turns out, though, not only the face, believed to be the mirror of your soul, can tell a lot about somebody. Our hands are a treasure trove of knowledge about ourselves, too. At the very beginning of a meeting, even before we launch into a conversation, we greet someone by shaking their hands. How forcefully we do it shows if we are self-confident or, to the contrary, nervous or uncertain. Our gaze also unconsciously follows somebody’s hands when our interlocutor makes gestures to express themselves. By looking at the hands, we are highly likely to find out if someone does manual work, cares for their hands, and more or less how old they are.
Most of us take little note, but our hands are one of the busiest parts of our bodies. They can be seen as continually working tools using which we carry out thousands of activities every day. We begin using them jut after we wake up and it’s them that switch off the light when we go to sleep. Employing this invaluable instrument, we expose it to adverse outside conditions, cause it numbers of injuries and, regretfully, don’t always look after it properly. Anything our hands experience affects their appearance, while they are our trademarks we should take special care of, not only because they betray a range of our secrets, but also to make them healthy, good-looking, and functional.
The hand as a symbol
Hands have been a major motif in art, often used to symbolise God. Those in Michelangelo’s fresco ‘The Creation of Adam’, where the Creator reaches His hand to Adam and giving him the power of life, are among the best known and often seen.
Manus Dei, or God’s hand emerging out of heavens, has been an artistic symbol of the Creator for ages. It can be seen in the oeuvre of Jewish, early Christian or medieval artists. The slightly raised arm and its blessing hand are depicted in numbers of icons. The hand or palm are also self-contained parts in many an in-depth anatomical analysis of this body part.
With a little pinch of salt
Hands, or their inner sides, have been of interest to chiromancers or palm readers. This profession came into being about 5000 years ago, probably in the Far Eastern countries like India, Syria, China, and Egypt. Specialists read a range of important information about somebody, what they are like, and what future awaits them from anatomy of this body part, its size, contours, skin condition or lines. Palm readers believe palm lines are unique, each person has a different web, just like fingerprints are different, while diverse characteristics of the left and right palm supply complementary information. This is the peculiarities of the palm lines that are supposed to demonstrate someone’s individuality and their unique path in life. Hippocrates himself, the ancient Greek physician and father of medicine, is believed to have treated chiromancy as a reliable source of information about man’s health condition and used its potential in his diagnostics and planning of treatment. Interestingly, palm reading is gaining in popularity in the 21st century. It’s not linked to medicine nowadays, however, since doctors are able to find out a lot about their Patient’s afflictions by reading their hands themselves.
What else can we learn, then?
It turns out hands can indeed say a lot about their owner’s health. Observing their skin and its changes, assessing the nails and their mobility, we find out about a range of disorders developing in someone’s body. Hand trembling when you are immobile, also when sleeping, is an initial textbook symptom of Parkinson’s. Malfunctions of the liver, which is a nerveless organ and doesn’t notify a disease with pain, may manifest themselves as changed pigmentation on the outer hand side. Aside from discolourations of this part, erythema caloricum and lumps may arise, characteristic of cirrhosis. A malfunctioning thyroid may also affect appearance and condition of your hands. Swollen fingers and cold hands are present in thyroid insufficiency, red, dry skin, and sweaty skin may be evidence of the hyperthyroidism. Pale and cold hands point to circulatory disorders. Anaemia may manifest itself in this body part as well, causing dry skin and fragile nails. These and many other disorders may produce a number of changes in the hands.
Hands have their lapses too
Hands are not only a kind of signboard including details of our health, but they may fall ill, too, and change with age just like any other parts of our bodies. While the face is still charming and there’s a youthful glimmer in your eyes, your hands, especially if they’re very hard-working, may show first symptoms of ageing. When you are younger, they are related not so much to cellular processes as to insufficient protection and care. Frequent washing, detergents, and UV radiation cause reduction of the lipid layer of the skin. It becomes coarse, unpleasant, and red to boot. Frequent exposures to the sun without protective filter creams are bound to give rise to discolourations.
Hands are precise tools made of a relatively high number of bones, joints, and tendons. Their abuses and injuries may cause a number of disorders that restrict their mobility and lead to contractures or oedemas. There comes the pain, a symptom of many diseases. You shouldn’t ignore any prolonged complaints. Appropriate diagnostics of causes of pain will help to plan a relevant treatment process that may involve physical or drug therapies or surgical procedures.
Hands begin to age in time. Their skin loses collagen, which provides for flexibility. Shrinking fatty tissue causes the skin to droop. Hand blood vessels and bones become more prominent. Wrinkles arise and increasingly intense discolourations draw attention. Hand ageing is inevitable and faster to affect women than men.
To the rescue
Hands can be helped in a variety of ways, from restricting their use to application of adequate protection and everyday care. In medical conditions, physical or pharmacological therapy mentioned above will be in order. Interest is also growing in hand plastic surgeries. These procedures not only hep delay effects of ageing but also bring back attractiveness and hand and finger mobility lost to a range of disorders. We offer treatment of the carpal tunnel syndrome and Dupuytren’s contracture, hand lipofilling, as well as innovative surgical hand rejuvenation procedures. Surgeries can be complemented with aesthetic medical procedures. All of that will prolong efficiency of our hands, which will look better and become our genuine trademark.
