BY PEG O’BRIEN
“What do I do about these cracks in my fingertips!?” the 42-year-old construction worker exclaimed. Over the winter months the distant and exposed skin of the body loses moisture and integrity, until it finally fissures. Due to the highly sophisticated and sensitive nerve endings of the area, the pain is great. Grasping, gripping, and even holding gently become lessons in tolerance, or exercises in cursing. Cracks. How did they get here?
CAUSES:
Cold temperatures cause the body to keep the warmth of the blood close to the vital organs. The most distant digits, the fingers and toes, are left out in the cold. As the temperature of the skin drops below optimal, it becomes brittle. Dryness is another risk factor. Water, despite its wet feel, is a very drying element. After hands are washed or wetted, the water drying off the surface takes with it the natural moisture. The only things worse on the skin that water is water with some kind of chemical. This substance left on the dry skin acts as a desiccant and sucks moisture from deep in the epidermis. Couple this with low surrounding humidity, and a alack of water and oil intake, and the skin turns into a torn sow’s ear.
The third and most sinister factor in the terrible triad to tear the tips is shearing. Repeated pushing across skin separates the superficial from the deep layers of skin. If that skin is most and covered — such as a heel in a boot — a blister will bubble up; but if the skin is exposed and dry, it simply cracks. Ouch. This occurs on the thumbs of body workers, the index fingers of money and paper counters, the many digits of nail bangers, and clay throwers, and even on the elbows of deep crag climbers (imagine it if you must).
Treatment
Sometimes there is as pre-crack stage. The fingertip feels swollen and tender. Oh no. There is a crack on the way. . .what is to be done? Dip it in aloe, coat it with bag balm, cover it with tape, or just grab the sharpest knife in the kitchen and give the blooming bud a little slit to get it going. It all turns out the same. You are doomed. AS the unavoidable occurs, be comforted with the observation George Stranahan applied to another’s post-St. Patrick’s day hangover: “The effects are not permanent.” Ride it out. All the above attempts curtail the fault line might also be applied to get the now-cracked skin through the day. Other strategies include covering with an adhesive dressing (i.e. extra-thin Duoderm, after cleaning well with soap and water and hydrogen peroxide), or leading a full game of baseball. Covering up the offending finger with a big mitt for nine full innings, which feels like an eternity, must be enough time for it to heal. This also gives you a chance to see how uncoordinated you feel while trying to throw with your non-dominant hand — because all painful injuries by law occur to our dominant side — in the snow.
Prevention
Ah, prevention: the most useful and boring of all approaches. And in this, as in most cases, the most obvious. Look at the list of causes, and consider the opposite.
To subvert the cold: wear good gloves; keep the radiator of your body topped off with water; eat spices; cut out the smoking (which literally short-circuits the collateral circulation of the fingertips, leaving them with no fresh warmblood at all); wear a hat; or quit your bill-paying job, sell your gas-guzzling truck, and become and attendant in the vapor caves.
For dry out avoidance regarding repeated exposure to water and/or chemicals; throughly wash, dry, then coat the skin with lotion. Many report good reduction in dryness if a “Glove in a bottle” – type goop is layered on the skin before getting near water r chemicals. Finally, regarding chemicals, the very best approach is to run away. Use natural products; earth-based building materials and paints; natural essential oil, vinegar, or baking soda-based cleaning agents; glycerin soaps and edible lotions and oils; and organic dyes. Your skin will radiate gratitude, your lungs will sing with health.
Now, look at your humidistat. We live in a desert. House humidity of 30 percent is too low, 50 percent is too high. Go for somewhere in between., at least while sleeping. An electric humidifier is good. A simple teapot of boiling water emptied into a bowl by the bed will do. Add a few drops of essential oil for flair.
How about moisture in the body? We are simply filter s and sponges after all. Drink water. One quart to catch up for each cup of caffeine had, then two or three more quarts for yourself, per day.
What about lubrication? For smooth function, all our cell’s membranes depend on oil. Grease up their day with quality oils: canola or coconnut to cook with; olive oil to drizzle afer cooking: and avacados, nuts and seeds, and oily fish are all good sources.
Reducing shearing is tricky for a working person. Curing back on friction across skins means either doing less of the aggravating activity or putting a barrier between the object of assault and your skin (athletic tape, silky material gloves, blister cover, or even lubricant). It is also worthwhile to mix things up a bit. Perform the task intentionally, in a different way, or with a variety of tool-handle shapes. Show up , with a clown costume on. This will not do anything to save your skin, but will show the guys your inner archetype.
Skin injury also lets us know when we are too inactive. There is documentation of a man who ended up with a severe pressure sore on his hip after leaning it against a brick wall far too long. Baseball would be a good prescription for him as well.
Then and Now
In days past, folks used whatever they could get hold of to ease painful skin. My dad, Pat O’Brien, who grew up an Iowa farm boy, talks of how he and his brothers coated their cracked lips with the sticky protein from the inside of an eggshell. It didn’t work very well, which gave him yet another reason to hate chickens. In Aspen: The Quiet Years, Gaylord Guenin’s writing highlights the importance of bear fat in the treatment of chilblains, which reportedly worked quite well (p. 467: Jim Snyder’s account of the usefulness of Hannibal Brown’s remedies).
In these times we have the opportunity to use our resourcefulness and choose from the huge variety of available lotions, salves, and ointments. My preference right now is for coating dried-put lips and fingertips is Hoof-Alive. Yes, it is a nourishing, natural hoof dressing available at the CoOp in Carbondale. Apply it at bedtime for rose-petal soft lips in the morning. For daily treatment of all the skin on your body, pure oils are best.
Currently on my bathroom counter is a blend of sesame seed and grape seed oils with several drops each of rosemary, peppermint, and orange essential oils. To apply after a shower, before toweling off, is the slickest. Use of petroleum and toxic products on these receptive layers of the skin makes no sense. To treat them to products that taste good is wise.
One final note regarding the condition of our outermost reaches: the skin on the tips of our fingers is a signal of deeper health. The human body is a tube. If the skin is dry and cracked – you can bet the guts are, too. Steps taken to support the skin will improve the form and function of the entire intestinal tract as well. So get busy living, or get busy cracking up.
