Pain and static electricity?

[ericmark]

I have an injured hand which is painful during the winter which I have for years blamed on the cold. However I was watching a BBC program on early electricians and I begin to wonder if it’s the dryness caused by central heating and static electricity causing the problem.

What I want is to work out some tests to work out if it’s an electric or a cold problem and if it is electric how can I cure it?

I have been wearing thermal glove on my right hand which being woollen may have been increasing the problem. The anti-static gear used for handling electronic equipment may be helpful but can’t really walk around with wires to earth me.

So ideas please. Both to test and if it is static to cure. In mean while I'll stop stroking the cat!

 

[Taylortwocities]

Sorry. Eric. this sprang straight into my head View media item 41349
PS Do not get a live-in physician, whatever you do

 

[ericmark]

I remember in my first house putting trays of water into the intake duct of the hot air central heating.

But with water filled radiators it was no longer a problem which came to mind. The one myson radiator may be compounding the problem however.

The pain comes sudden and lasts for about 2 - 5 minuets which means in the main pain killers do nothing to help. I just had not considered static as a likely cause triggering the pain. But just can't think of a way to prove or dis-prove theroy?

 

[JohnW2]

I have an injured hand which is painful during the winter which I have for years blamed on the cold. However I was watching a BBC program on early electricians and I begin to wonder if it’s the dryness caused by central heating and static electricity causing the problem.

What sort of pain? Injured or not, static electricity is not going to produce any pain other than the very brief sensations during a static discharge wth which we are all familiar. You could be constantly charged to 10MV and your body would be totally unaware of it except when discharges occurred.

What I want is to work out some tests to work out if it’s an electric or a cold problem and if it is electric how can I cure it? ... I have been wearing thermal glove on my right hand which being woollen may have been increasing the problem.

Try some gloves that are unlikely to provoke static. If you really think that static could be the problem, deliberately charge yourself with static electricity and see if that provokes the pain - although I very very much doubt that it would.

So ideas please. Both to test and if it is static to cure.

I really don't think that static will have anything to do with it.

Kind Regards, John.

 

[ericmark]

My thoughts were connected to the Leyden Jar and if I could be charging up something around me which then slowly discharged and the lack of material on the back of my hand was making me feel what would normally be kept away from my nerves which are due to accident closer to the surface.

The fact it normally comes on sudden then tails off would match this. And wearing gloves means there is contact to the skin which would normally be in free air.

Cold must be a factor but I wonder if static is also playing a part?

In the summer I rarely have pain it only starts as winter approaches and has been always blamed on cold. However this year I did not go to University or College and so was able to stop at home in the warmth. Yet the pain got worse rather than better which made me wonder if it was all due to cold.

Other than buying a gold leave electroscope I don't know how to test. Having a shower removes all pain. Yet sitting in front of the fire does not. Which again makes me wonder if the water removing any static charge could be a factor.

As you rightly say it does seem unlikely but still worth investigation. I have looked at anti static gloves and at under £2 worth a try but I have very large hands so think visit to local supplier is first option.

 

[JohnW2]

My thoughts were connected to the Leyden Jar and if I could be charging up something around me which then slowly discharged and the lack of material on the back of my hand was making me feel what would normally be kept away from my nerves which are due to accident closer to the surface.

I suppose very little is impossible, but I would be extremely surprised if this were the explanation.

Other than buying a gold leave electroscope I don't know how to test.

You can buy small quantities of gold leaf for a couple of quid on eBay and make a crude electroscope of your own. However, demonstrating that you were charged would not, of course, in any way prove that the static was a cause of your pain.

As you rightly say it does seem unlikely but still worth investigation. I have looked at anti static gloves ...

Using any sort of antistatic gloves has the potential to muddy the water a bit, since they are gloves as well as ant-static, and therefore would have thermal as well as anti-static effects. If your hands were charged, so would be the rest of your body, so you could eliminate static by earthing some other part of your body (e.g.with a 'wrist strap' on your arm). How often do these episodes of pain happen? Is it sufficiently often that you could spend a few hours 'earthed' in such a way and be able to tell whether this had reduced or eliminated the episodes of pain?

How severe is this pain, and what sort of pain is it - 'pricking', 'stabbing', 'burning', 'crushing' or what? ..and how often does it happen?

Kind Regards, John.

 

[bernardgreen]

The cause may be related to SAD ( Seasonal Affective Disorder ). In winter the reduction in day light hours has recognised effects on people with SAD.

While the majority have problems with moods, sleeping or eating there are some whose immune systems are weakened by SAD in the winter. It might be that your immune system is affected by SAD and then cannot suppress the injury's pain.

 

[JohnW2]

While the majority have problems with moods, sleeping or eating there are some whose immune systems are weakened by SAD in the winter. It might be that your immune system is affected by SAD and then cannot suppress the injury's pain.

I think you'd have to hypothesise some hitherto unknown and unsuspected physiology for the immune system to do any suppressing of pain SAD might modulate pain via neurological or psychological mechanisms, but even that is fairly unlikley.

Also, even if some 'failure to suppress pain' was at work, one wouldn't normally expect to see episodic symptoms of the type Eric describes.

Kind Regards, John.

 

[bernardgreen]

Sorry John but increased joint pain isa symptom of SAD and many injuries involving joints do create ongoing pain in the same way as worn or damaged joints do.

From http://www.morrisonshealth.co.uk/index.php?option=com_static&view=article&id=188&Itemid=47

Symptoms of SAD include:

Sleep problems; oversleeping but not waking refreshed; reluctance to get out of bed; needing a nap in the afternoon
Overeating; carbohydrate craving leading to overweight
Depression, despair, misery, guilt, anxiety; normal tasks become frustratingly difficult
Family problems, avoiding company, irritability, loss of libido, loss of feeling
Lethargy, too tired to cope, everything an effort
Physical symptoms, often joint pain or stomach problems; lowered resistance to infection
Behavioural problems, especially in young people

 

[JohnW2]

Sorry John but increased joint pain isa symptom of SAD and many injuries involving joints do create ongoing pain in the same way as worn or damaged joints do.

That's very differnt from the suggestion that the immune system could in some way suppress pain - for which, as I said, there is no basis

As I'm sure you know, SAD is a 'psychiatric' disorder (a type of depression), probably due to abnormal chemical levels in a part of the brain. As with any form of depression, although most of the symptoms/features are 'psychiatric'/behavioural in nature, various physical symptoms, such as joint pains, may be a feature - but, as I said, very unlikely the sort of symptoms which Eric has described.

Kindest Regards, John

 

[bernardgreen]

Before Eric gets worried.

SAD in its widest scope does include a number of purely physical symptoms though popular use of the term seems to be restricted to the psychologic effects.

 

[JohnW2]

Before Eric gets worried.

Thanks - but I doubt he'll get worried, because I doubt he has any reason to think or believe that he has SAD.

SAD in its widest scope does include a number of purely physical symptoms though popular use of the term seems to be restricted to the psychologic effects.

I would say you've got that the wrong way around ('AAF' as BAS would put it!). In medical terms, SAD is simply one type of depression (previously called 'Seasonal Depression', 'Summer Depression' {rare} or 'Winter Depression {quite common}), with the vast majority of symptoms being 'psychological', and only a small minority of sufferers also having some physical symptoms. To have only physical symptoms with any sort of depression would be extremely unusual.

It seems that it is the 'popular use of the term' (strongly aided and abetted by the purveyors of expensive 'SAD lamps') that tends to look on any symptoms, even if only physical ones, that occur only in Winter as SAD. It is worth pointing out that the 'A' of SAD is 'Affective' - meaning 'related to changes in mood'. To diagnose anyone with only physical symptoms as having SAD would be a very risky business - and would, at the least, require extensive efforts to exclude all other possible ('physical') causes of the symptoms.

You will probably be familiar with this, but some fairly authorititive material about SAD, designed for medically lay readers, can be found here and here - where I think you will find little, if any, mention of physical-symptom-only SAD, which is a definite rarity. Sorry if this has rambled a bit but, as you will realise, you've pressed one of my buttons

Kind Regards, John

 

[ericmark]

I don't think I have SAD and was just putting up with the pain. It normally does not last long enough for any pain killers to take effect so during winter just put up with it 4 or 5 times a day.

However when watching the experiments with frogs legs on BBC I started to wonder. But since not every day it would be hard to do experiments to prove if or if not static related.

Indoors it starts without warning and very sharp but outdoors more genital start which may mean the pain is caused by two different things. i.e. Cold outdoors and static indoors.

It was just a chance someone had some idea which had escaped me so worth a post. One thought is slightly salted water and plunging my hand in it when I get pain. As I would think that would get rid of any static. Maybe low salt diet is not helping seems it removed for everything today.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Do not get a live-in physician, whatever you do

A nurse should be OK though?

He could have a live-in nurse, right?

 

[ban-all-sheds]

outdoors more genital start

No, Eric - don't do that.

Especially at this time of year, and even more especially not with nursey, or you may end up on a register.