# Doper Docs: scary veins?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-docs-scary-veins/415793
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [August 16, 2007, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-docs-scary-veins/415793 "2007-08-16T05:29:10Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oslo_Ostragoth)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2007, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-docs-scary-veins/415793/1 "2007-08-16T05:29:10Z")
Is there anything to be inferred from Madonna’s scary [hand veins](http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/showbiz/article-23408495-details/Madonna+shocks+airplane+passengers+with+mid-air+vitamin+jab/article.do)?
Is this the right forum?
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### Author:  [@Pullet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pullet)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2007, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-docs-scary-veins/415793/2 "2007-08-16T05:45:14Z")
IANADoctor, but my 50 something mom has hands just like that. Lifetime of being a piano tuner, carrying tool boxes and working with wood, and being a musician, I think.
I don’t respect Madonna for much, but her devotion to exercise is truly awesome. She got those veins because she worked for them.
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### Author:  [@Chief\_Pedant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chief_Pedant)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2007, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-docs-scary-veins/415793/3 "2007-08-16T11:58:59Z")
[QUOTE=Oslo Ostragoth]
Is there anything to be inferred from Madonna’s scary [hand veins](http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/showbiz/article-23408495-details/Madonna+shocks+airplane+passengers+with+mid-air+vitamin+jab/article.do)?
Is this the right forum?
[/QUOTE]
It’s a function of her genes–natural physiology–and working out. This creates increased flow and back pressure, and the veins respond by enlarging and thickening.
I see from the story she injects herself with vitamins. Those veins do not look like she is using them for intravenous injections. She is probably just using tiny needles and injecting subcutaneously, the way a diabetic might.
As a aside, although I’m not very familiar with Madonna, it would seem that prominent hand veins are low on the list of her scary characteristics. 😉
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### Author:  [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2007, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-docs-scary-veins/415793/4 "2007-08-16T13:02:48Z")
According to teh Internets, veiny hands and arms is what slightly older celebs get when they are skinny and exercise a lot.
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### Author:  [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2007, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-docs-scary-veins/415793/5 "2007-08-16T13:31:47Z")
According to teh Internets, veiny hands and arms is what slightly older celebs get when they are skinny and exercise a lot.
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### Author:  [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2007, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-docs-scary-veins/415793/6 "2007-08-16T13:34:44Z")
[QUOTE=Oslo Ostragoth]
Is there anything to be inferred from Madonna’s scary [hand veins](http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/showbiz/article-23408495-details/Madonna+shocks+airplane+passengers+with+mid-air+vitamin+jab/article.do)?
Is this the right forum?
[/QUOTE]
Very low body fat - look at the definition in her arm.
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### Author:  [@ZomZom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZomZom)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2007, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-docs-scary-veins/415793/7 "2007-08-16T13:40:44Z")
[Angelina Jolie](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/showbiz/showbiznews.html?in_article_id=462047&in_page_id=1773) is also so vein.
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### Author:  [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2007, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-docs-scary-veins/415793/8 "2007-08-16T17:48:19Z")
[QUOTE=ZomZom]
[Angelina Jolie](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/showbiz/showbiznews.html?in_article_id=462047&in_page_id=1773) is also so vein.
[/QUOTE]
I bet she thinks this thread is about her. 😉
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### Author:  [@Savannah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Savannah)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2007, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-docs-scary-veins/415793/9 "2007-08-17T04:43:00Z")
Groan.
If you have veiny hands, and you want to look pretty for a posed picture, hold them above your head, until just before the photographer snaps. The gravity really makes a difference, but they fill back up fast!
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### Author:  [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2007, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-docs-scary-veins/415793/10 "2007-08-17T10:14:20Z")
I was gonna say, I’ve had hand veins since I was a teenager - I’m not a celebrity, but I am an amateur musician, was quite atheletic in my younger days, and work with my hands a lot even now. I was probably pre-disposed to this anyhow, but workin’ the hands probably accentuated the tendency.
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### Author:  [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2007, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-docs-scary-veins/415793/11 "2007-08-17T18:03:01Z")
I remember pushing and squishing on the veins in my mother’s hands as a kid. The other day I looked down and one of my children was doing the same to me. I totally have Mom’s hands! Veiny and age spots. (My grandmother used to tease me that hers came from drinking coffee. I have just decided that’s what I’ll tell kids too.)