Nayonika Chakraborty
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Written By: Nayonika Chakraborty | Published : August 5, 2019 11:31 AM IST
Goose bumps are the bumps on a person's skin at the base of body hairs which may involuntarily develop when a person is tickled, cold or experiencing strong emotions. © Shutterstock
Our body is like Pandora's box and we can find something new about it every time we try digging deep enough. But sometimes, it can act in strange ways that may cause worry. It makes us wonder if everything is alright. A bout of hiccups or the feeling of goose bumps on your skin are actually natural and nothing to be afraid of. Here we tell you about some involuntary body actions that are normal processes and not cause for any worry.
The joints in your knuckles and shoulders are called diarthrodial joints. These joints contain a solution called the synovial fluid that contain gases. Stretching the joint compresses it along with the fluid inside and releases nitrogen rich air. This produces a 'pop' sound as the air is released. But you cannot do this to the same joint immediately after popping it once. This is because the gases must be first reabsorbed by the fluid to be released.
You might have noticed your fingers and toes getting wrinkly after being in contact with water for a long time. Experiments have made clear that there is advantage with wrinkles when it comes to gripping objects in wet conditions. However, it was also found that there is no such advantage when it comes to dry objects.
Piloerection or goose bumps appear when you are feeling cold or afraid of something. This involuntary body action can be traced back to eons ago when our bodies had a natural thick fur coating our bodies. A small muscle at the base of every hair would contract to make your hair stand up and provide warmth when we felt cold by trapping air between them and forming an insulating layer. It would also help to ward off attackers by intimidating them.
You may have experienced a numbness in your arms or legs after they are subjected to pressure for a long time. Our nervous system works by sending electrical signals. But if there is a kink in the system, the message does not reach the brain. This happens because of temporary compression of nerves. There is a pinch in the nerves, but it does not communicate this to the brain or the spine.
If our body goes through sudden or continuous motion, many of us feel dizzy or sick and sometimes even feel like vomiting. Our state of balance is actually sensed and maintained by our inner ear. When in motion, your eyes sees something different than what your body senses. This contradicting information by the body's senses and visual senses may lead to a feeling of nausea.
A bout of hiccups can be quite annoying and especially so because it is an involuntary body action. It generally disappears after a while except in some rare cases. It is now believed that this odd phenomenon is actually an evolved way by which young kids expel air from their stomach. This helps them to burp it out and easily suckle milk.
Paresthesia or the pins and needles sensation is the one you feel if you have been sitting in an awkward position for an extended period of time. This involuntary body action is caused when the blood flow is stopped to a particular part of the body due to a pressed nerve. If the signaling of the nerves is interrupted it leads to this prickly feeling and it makes your hands or feet go to sleep. As we change position or stretch out, the feeling of pain starts returning as the communication between the nerves is resumed. However, if the pain does not go away soon it could be symptoms of diabetes, lupus or MS in rare cases.
Yawning is a ready response and a somewhat involuntary action by our body in which we breathe in air through our mouth. You might already know that we tend to yawn when we are tired or bored and sometimes even during stressful situations or before exercise. In these situations, the brain gets overheated and by yawning we draw in cold air from outside. This cools the brain and improves blood circulation. Yawning is considered contagious by many. You can find yourself following the action just by watching a photo or reading about it sometimes.
Globus sensation or the feeling of having a lump in your throat is the sensation of having a mass stuck in your throat. You may generally feel this involuntary body action when you are sad about something, hear bad news or are on the verge of crying. This is also accompanied with faster breathing. The feeling of having a lump arises in this situation when we try to sallow as the muscles work against each other.
Side stitches can be felt as a splitting or stabbing sensation at the lower edge of your ribcage. This can be felt after intense exercising session or from laughing too hard as a result of exertion of your diaphragm. While in these situations, we usually suck in a lot of air. This pushes out the diaphragm. But the abdominal muscles work in the opposite direction and push at it inside. This continuous process of compression is what produces the feeling of a 'stitch'.
