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When you touch something hot... Get instant relief from a burn

Submitted by Steve Martin

As you're undoubtedly aware, the parts of the body which receive the most burns, scalds and blisters are the finger tips, particularly the tips of the index, middle finger, and thumb of your preferred hand.

You know the feeling - you accidentally or unwittingly touch something which is very hot and the tip of your finger 'lights up' with an intense stinging pain. Well, here's a tip which came from my great grandmother, (I remember her speaking about it to my mum and gran when I was young)... The moment you get burned, touch the tip of the offended finger to your ear-lobe. You will find that if you do this quickly enough, the stinging will go away almost instantaneously and there'll be no lasting pain or damage!

Why does this work? Well, I've examined the problem scientifically and I can tell you and my dear old granny, (if she were still with us), that it's all about heat conductivity…

You see, when your finger tip touches something hot, kinetic energy is transferred to your finger tip which is poorly conductive. It will, therefore, linger there for a few moments and the immediate pain you feel is that energy firing off pain receptors, (while also 'burning up' and destroying healthy cells in your finger tip!)

What happens when you touch your ear lobe? Well, have you ever noticed that your ear lobes always feel slightly cooler than the rest of you? That's because the fatty tissue and cartilage in there is a particularly good conductor of heat. So good in fact that if you can manage to make your reflexive response to the pain in your finger tip be to quickly touch that finger to your lobe, the laws of thermo dynamics mean that the heat will be conducted away very quickly, (because of the conductivity differential between finger tip and ear lobe), stopping those pain receptors from firing, and even preventing the destruction of healthy cells by heat which would have otherwise lingered in your poorly conductive finger tip for several moments longer!

So, the next time you catch a finger in a flame, touch a hot pan on the stove, decide to test a soldering iron the SILLY way or whatever, you know what to do - just whip that finger STRAIGHT to your ear lobe!

(By the way, don't worry about your ear, the fat cells in your lobe will be just fine, all you'll feel is immediate and sweet relief from that terrible stinging!)

Visitors comments

Practical Experience with finger burns Comments By: Bob Short I am not a scientist but I have had almost sixty years experience putting burned fingers and other hand parts on the ear lobe to keep the burn from hurting more than a few hours and keep it from blistering. The scientifice explanation hear does not hold water against my personal experience, many times a year for many years. First misstatement, the pain does not stop immediately, in fact the pain level is slightly more while it is on the ear. The pain will stop in a short time unless it is touched or put in warm water, all pain will stop in a few hours and will not return, also the burn will not blister. The mater of tissue damage; I have personally had burns on two fingers and my thumb from touching hot steel (over 1000 deg.F). These burns were checked by a Doctor who said one place was a third degree burn and others were second degree. The only treatment was the ear lobe. This burn healed completely without a blister or pain after the first four hours. This disproves the theory of heat transfer to prevent tissue damage. I feel many years of personal experience are worth more than scientific theory. I can't explain why or how it works, I just know it does work every time, if done right.   Well Bob, I AM a scientist... Comments By: Steve Martin Just thought I'd make a rebutal to Bob Short's comments... If heat conductivity is not the mechanism which makes this tip work Bob, then what is? Invisible fairies who live on your ear lobes? Regarding the action on pain, your comments are just plain wrong in my experience; while I don't have your 60 years, I think my 25 years or so using this method are quite sufficient; I have always found that getting the burned digit to my ear lobe quickly enough, (i.e. while it still has that immediate and intense initial stinging), gives instant and effective relief from the pain. Of course, if the amount of heat involved was far greater, as in your 1000 degree experience, this may not be so true, but in general terms touching the ear lobe; 1. gives relief from stinging pain, and 2. prevents subsequent blistering of the burned area. By your own admission Bob, you are 'not a scientist' and this is quite plain by your comments, I put it to you and anyone else who cares to read / use this tip that conductivity of latent heat is the ONLY viable scientific explanation for the effectivness of this method. Of course, if you want to believe in ear lobe fairies or similar, that's up to you ;o) I also note that you only scored the tip 1 star; considering that your own comments attest to it's effectivness, (aside from your non-scientific arguments regarding my explanation), that is blatantly unfair!   U are correct! Comments By: Brenda Abbarossa <font color =sexypurple>yes,yes,yes i am also a scientist well actually a science professor at Yale. I think that the scientist above is firmly correct and knows what he is talking about Bravo!<font color =black>   Ha Comments By: Yale Biology Student I find it amusing when those who cannot spell or write with proper grammar claim to be scientists, or professors at Yale :)   Also interesting... Comments By: Charles Marlee Don't you love people that go on blogs and chatrooms and correct spelling and grammar? Btw, the tip always worked for me:)   grammar and spelling Comments By: Ahhah I type their "output" and never was there a group more likely to mangle grammar and spelling :-)