How Does Funny Bones Groupon Work
Why does information technology hurt so much when yous hit your funny os?
Even the slightest bump of the funny bone can ship hurting rippling upwardly and downward the arm and a cord of bawdy expletives rippling off the natural language. So why does hitting this footling region of the elbow cause so much discomfort?
The answer is pretty simple: Information technology's a nervus, not a bone, that is being hit.
To sympathise the source of this discomfort, permit'south review a few key points of human anatomy. To begin, the funny bone is scientifically known every bit the ulnar nervus, which is the chief nerve in the arm. It travels from the spine through the neck, before snaking down the upper arm following a groove in the humerus, the bone that runs from the shoulder to the elbow. Past the elbow, the nervus travels past the ulna (the bone on the pinky side of the lower arm) and the radius (the bone on the thumb side of the lower arm) to the wrist. The ulnar nervus is responsible for transmitting information from some of the fingertips to the brain and back again. In particular, it allows a person to register sensations in their pinky and ring fingers, likewise as to control some movement in the paw.
For most of the nerve'south journey, it is buffered by bone, muscle and fat. As information technology weaves by the elbow, the nerve runs through a small channel chosen the cubital tunnel. Equally information technology traverses this space, it runs past a bony claw at the elbow where the radius and ulna meet the humerus.
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And then why is this region so sensitive?
"When the nervus runs through a bony tunnel at your elbow, information technology is exposed," said Dr. Dominic Male monarch, a sports medicine physician at Cleveland Clinic'southward Orthopaedic & Rheumatologic Institute. "When you hit the nerve confronting something difficult, you shrink information technology between the bone in your elbow and the hard surface that you hitting."
When it'south pushed against the bony ridge, the ulnar nervus experiences so-called ulnar nerve entrapment, or the rapid onset of sharp, electric shock-like pain that runs downwards the arm and into the mitt, and an odd numbness down the limb.
"Nerves are the way we feel anything in the body," Rex told Live Science. "This is one big nerve that is actually close to the skin, and you are feeling complete nervus pain."
Hitting the funny os rarely causes any impairment. While the pain typically subsides after a few minutes, it is plenty to make a person contemplate wearing elbow guards at all times.
Hitting a nerve
So, if it's a nerve, why is it called the funny bone? The most reasonable explanation lies in the arm's anatomy. Recall: The large os that extends from the shoulder to the elbow is called the humerus. Get information technology? Humorous. Funny. If it'south a joke, it is a bad one.
The second explanation lacks humor. Information technology is based on the "funny" awareness a person experiences when the nervus is bumped, suggesting it was described by a person with a pretty loftier hurting tolerance.
Other mammals as well have a similar configuration, but they rarely feel the same problem. These animals are protected past more muscle mass around the sensitive nervus that builds up around the unlike means animals move. The padding adds a level of protection against this not-so-funny experience.
Originally published on Alive Scientific discipline.
Source: https://www.livescience.com/why-bumping-funny-bone-hurts.html