Earlobe relief

Factual Questions
1

Perhaps an odd question:

Is it true that squeezing an earlobe right after burning a finger (using the hurt finger, of course) relieves the burn? And if so, why?

2
      • ? -All I know is, if you have hemorrhoids, not to stick your finger in your ear. - MC
3

Squeezing the earlobe would be accupressure, which has been shown to relieve pain (and before anyone jumps me, I’m not going to go searching the net for the studies, so shove off <sg>) although to a degree it may be the placebo effect. As for using the injured finger, maybe pressure on the damaged nerve endings overloads them temporarily, thus deadening the pain?

4

Never heard that one. I do know that squeezing the flesh between your thumb and fourth finger will alieviate a headache temporarily. It has to do with nerve endings and pressure points. Modern science does allow that there is some truth in accupuncture (you know, the old oriental method of inserting thin needles at certain places to relieve certain aches and pains). Perhaps you have stumbled across one of those pressure points.

“A single lifetime, even though entirely devoted to the sky, would not be enough for the investigation of so vast a subject.” - Seneca

5

Uncle Cecil does briefly mention this old wives tale and it’s lack of scientific merit in one of the classics:
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_129.html

6

We got an answer to this one in one of Uncle Cecil’s classics:
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_129.html

7

Thanks for the link. I never would have guessed that that already came up in a SD column. Anyway, like Cecil said, it could be psychosomatic, although Otto and Gabriel’s answers are also interesting possibilities. Although I can’t imagine that there is a finger skin pressure point in the earlobe. Nice bit of divergent thinking, though.

8

[nitpick]More precisely, he discusses “touching” a burned finger to the earlobe. “Touching” is not “squeezing.”[/nitpick]

9

Yes, the trick as I know it consists of more or less pinching the earlobe with the affected finger (and another one). I don’t know if there is another variant where just touching the earlobe suffices. It’s more convincing if you try “pushing” the heat into your cold 'lobes.

10

I’ve always done it, and thought it worked because the earlobe is the coldest part of the human body. A good substitute if you don’t have cold water available to cool your burn. Or is THAT another old wive’s tale, that you should run cold water over a burn?

11

Cold water is appropriate first aid for a burn as long as the skin is still intact. (1st or 2nd degree burns with redness or blistering)

Sue from El Paso
Siamese Attack Puppet - Texas

Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.

12

My old camping manual says that the oil on your earlobe will help seal the burn from the air, making it hurt less.

13

Actually, squeezing the earlobe is much more effective if you squeeze the earlobe on the opposite side of your head with your arm reaching around the back of your head.

But where were the Spiders?

14

If you can distract yourself, you’ll feel better. I do this if I feel faint. I just stab myself a little with a fingernail, it distracts me from feeling faint.

Recently there was a woman here who said sex during a migraine kept her from feeling it.

If you have extreme emotional stress & you put a pin in your hand, it actually feels kinda nice because it distracts your mind from what its emotional about.