WEBVTT - Fingernails, Part 1 0:00:03.040 --> 0:00:05.360 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind production of My 0:00:05.480 --> 0:00:14.680 Heart Radio. Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:14.800 --> 0:00:17.880 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and 0:00:17.960 --> 0:00:20.560 today we're going to be embarking on part one of 0:00:20.600 --> 0:00:23.960 an exploration of nails. Not nails like you hit with 0:00:24.000 --> 0:00:25.759 the hammer, though I guess you could hit him with 0:00:25.760 --> 0:00:27.920 the hammer, though that would be really bad. I'm talking 0:00:27.920 --> 0:00:30.960 about the kind of nails on the human body. And 0:00:31.040 --> 0:00:34.640 I was thinking just the other day about how nails 0:00:34.840 --> 0:00:39.720 are sort of the mascot for idleness, for human idleness, 0:00:39.800 --> 0:00:42.960 because when humans are idle, what part of the body 0:00:43.080 --> 0:00:45.520 is going to get the most attention? I think it's 0:00:45.560 --> 0:00:48.320 almost always going to be the nail. Right, You're either 0:00:48.760 --> 0:00:51.680 some people bite their nails. If you're not biting your nails, 0:00:51.680 --> 0:00:54.240 you're often like looking at your nails and kind of 0:00:54.280 --> 0:00:57.120 observing like oh, they're too long, or like, oh, there's 0:00:57.120 --> 0:00:59.960 some kind of weird thing here. Perhaps this is idiosyncratics 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:03.600 psychology of mind, but but I think this is pretty common, right, Yeah. 0:01:03.640 --> 0:01:05.200 I mean even if you're not even looking at them, 0:01:05.200 --> 0:01:06.840 sometimes you just sort of feel them, like you're just 0:01:06.880 --> 0:01:10.160 sort of feeling the edges of your nails and you know, 0:01:10.160 --> 0:01:13.120 seem making sure everything's lined up there. For my own part, 0:01:13.160 --> 0:01:15.560 I tend to find that I noticed him the most 0:01:16.319 --> 0:01:19.400 when I am more in the more in the past. Really, 0:01:19.720 --> 0:01:22.119 But if I was driving into work, I'd be stuck 0:01:22.120 --> 0:01:24.160 in a light or something, and then I would notice 0:01:24.200 --> 0:01:26.200 my nails and I would be and that's when I 0:01:26.240 --> 0:01:28.560 would notice that I need to trim my nails. And 0:01:28.560 --> 0:01:30.120 I would of course be in a position where I 0:01:30.240 --> 0:01:33.360 really shouldn't be trimming my nails. Um. And then you know, 0:01:33.400 --> 0:01:35.480 the rest of the time, I'm not really noticing them. 0:01:35.520 --> 0:01:39.839 That's why the Good Lord made teeth. Well, yeah, we'll 0:01:39.840 --> 0:01:43.280 get into that. Uh, that's not particularly my style, but 0:01:43.319 --> 0:01:45.840 I know a lot of people do it. My cat 0:01:45.920 --> 0:01:49.920 is a big, big fan. I'm also not a nail biter, 0:01:50.080 --> 0:01:52.440 but I there are people very close to me who are, 0:01:52.520 --> 0:01:55.680 and I have observed the behavior for many years up 0:01:55.680 --> 0:01:59.400 close and with a lot of thoughts about it. Yeah, 0:01:59.760 --> 0:02:02.920 it's so much like our two episodes on Tomatoes last week. 0:02:03.480 --> 0:02:05.320 This is gonna be a pair of episodes that that 0:02:05.320 --> 0:02:07.440 that are going to get into some real weirdness. It's 0:02:07.560 --> 0:02:10.160 and and so I urge you to stick with us, 0:02:10.200 --> 0:02:12.040 even if you think, oh, fingernails, I have those. I 0:02:12.040 --> 0:02:14.440 don't want to hear two episodes about it. But really, 0:02:14.440 --> 0:02:16.720 I think I think you do. And I think a 0:02:16.800 --> 0:02:19.880 great place to start would be just to just touch 0:02:19.960 --> 0:02:25.080 on sort of the the obvious, weird aspects of our fingernails. 0:02:25.800 --> 0:02:29.239 I was thinking about this today because they're they're obviously living. 0:02:29.360 --> 0:02:31.320 They are, you know, they're part of our body, and 0:02:31.400 --> 0:02:33.840 yet they're not living in a way right there, like 0:02:33.880 --> 0:02:38.200 these things these like little uh you know, almost like 0:02:38.639 --> 0:02:43.359 like stones that come out of our our fingers, right, Yeah, Well, 0:02:43.400 --> 0:02:46.520 I mean we think of ourselves as non clawed animals. 0:02:46.600 --> 0:02:49.080 I think this is a pretty common intuitive grouping of 0:02:49.120 --> 0:02:51.480 animals that people make, is like the kind with teeth 0:02:51.520 --> 0:02:53.920 and claws and the kind without, And a lot of 0:02:53.919 --> 0:02:55.840 them have teeth and claws because you got to it's 0:02:55.840 --> 0:02:58.120 a hard world out there. But humans, you know, we've 0:02:58.160 --> 0:03:00.960 got tools, and we've got social relationships and we've got 0:03:01.000 --> 0:03:02.960 language and all that, so we don't really need claws, 0:03:03.160 --> 0:03:05.240 but we kind of do, because we kind of do 0:03:05.360 --> 0:03:08.400 have claws, and nails are not super formidable in a 0:03:08.440 --> 0:03:12.360 claw sense, but they're kind of claw like. Yeah, I 0:03:12.400 --> 0:03:15.720 was thinking about how they're define Our nails are definitely functional, 0:03:15.760 --> 0:03:17.440 and we'll get into a lot of those functions as 0:03:17.480 --> 0:03:20.480 we progress here. They do play a very real role 0:03:20.600 --> 0:03:23.360 in our lives and yet on the same time, at 0:03:23.360 --> 0:03:26.560 the same time, they're very ornamental, so that their condition 0:03:26.639 --> 0:03:31.640 and their upkeep inevitably communicate something about ourselves to the world. 0:03:31.760 --> 0:03:34.720 You know, um, we we can't help but think about 0:03:34.720 --> 0:03:37.120 our own nails at times when we're encountering other people, 0:03:37.480 --> 0:03:39.920 and like it or not, you're gonna notice other people's nails. 0:03:39.960 --> 0:03:42.920 Are they Are they all done up? Are they bright 0:03:43.000 --> 0:03:45.680 and colorful? Are they? Are they really making a statement? 0:03:46.080 --> 0:03:48.720 Are they? Are they kind of grimy? Are they you know, 0:03:48.760 --> 0:03:52.080 they're they spotted with paint? Did they show where? And tear? Like? 0:03:52.160 --> 0:03:54.040 These are these are some of the things that are 0:03:54.160 --> 0:03:58.320 nails communicate and and it's it's it's like if you're 0:03:58.360 --> 0:04:00.720 having a bad hair day or your hair is weird 0:04:00.800 --> 0:04:02.440 for whatever reason, you know, you can put on a 0:04:02.480 --> 0:04:05.760 cap and that's in many circumstances, and you know you 0:04:06.000 --> 0:04:08.960 can kind of get by. But a bad nail day 0:04:09.080 --> 0:04:11.760 or bad bad nail days or months or what have you, 0:04:12.120 --> 0:04:15.320 that's often kind of difficult to ignore, but on both sides, right, 0:04:15.360 --> 0:04:18.279 I mean, you can wear gloves everywhere, but that's gonna 0:04:18.360 --> 0:04:21.640 communicate something else entirely. You're gonna look like you're ready 0:04:21.680 --> 0:04:25.440 to do some strangling a Bond villain or something, right, 0:04:25.839 --> 0:04:28.440 or you know, there actually is another type of nail 0:04:28.520 --> 0:04:30.600 that you didn't get to that has always stood out 0:04:30.600 --> 0:04:32.320 in my mind ever since I saw this movie when 0:04:32.360 --> 0:04:35.120 I was a little kid, Which are the cyborg nails 0:04:35.120 --> 0:04:38.239 in Paul Verehoven's Total Recall. Do you remember the lady 0:04:38.240 --> 0:04:40.880 who has nails that she's like touching with the stylist 0:04:40.960 --> 0:04:49.960 from her computer, And wouldn't they invent that? Yeah? And 0:04:50.080 --> 0:04:53.800 for for the time being, we're just left with with paints, right, um. 0:04:54.000 --> 0:04:56.960 And we'll get into the use of paints and other 0:04:57.040 --> 0:05:00.000 ornamental techniques on our nails as well in these episodes, 0:05:00.440 --> 0:05:04.200 because ultimately, yeah, these these nails that we have, um, 0:05:04.240 --> 0:05:06.599 are kind of at this intersection of so many different 0:05:06.640 --> 0:05:09.640 aspects of the human condition. And if you look close enough, 0:05:09.720 --> 0:05:12.360 especially if you go far back into prehistory or or 0:05:12.800 --> 0:05:16.120 look around the world at different cultural treatments of nails, Uh, 0:05:16.160 --> 0:05:20.600 there's far more strangeness and magic and religious significance than 0:05:20.720 --> 0:05:23.360 than people might expect, especially if you're just an American 0:05:23.360 --> 0:05:25.159 who just kind of clips them into the trash can. 0:05:25.680 --> 0:05:27.680 But maybe we should start with a quick look at 0:05:27.720 --> 0:05:29.479 the anatomy of a nail. And now we're not going 0:05:29.520 --> 0:05:33.240 to go super deep on this, but the simple version 0:05:33.400 --> 0:05:35.440 is that you've got the hard part of the nail. 0:05:35.520 --> 0:05:38.320 This plays to fingernails and to nails. The hard part 0:05:38.320 --> 0:05:40.800 of the nail is known as the nail plate, and 0:05:40.839 --> 0:05:44.440 the nail plate is made out of these compressed layers 0:05:44.480 --> 0:05:50.280 of former epidermal skin cells that have been caratonized. Caratonized 0:05:50.320 --> 0:05:52.919 as kind of it's your body doing two skin cells 0:05:53.000 --> 0:05:57.000 what Medusa does to people who invade her garden of rocks. Uh, 0:05:57.080 --> 0:05:59.480 you know, it's it's filling the cells with keratin, which 0:05:59.520 --> 0:06:03.279 is this tough, fibrous protective protein that makes up not 0:06:03.360 --> 0:06:05.840 only the nails but also the hair and uh, and 0:06:06.120 --> 0:06:09.320 keratin is found in living skin cells as well. And 0:06:09.360 --> 0:06:12.720 then the keratinized cells in the nail plate make it 0:06:12.760 --> 0:06:16.600 not only tough, but relatively flexible and translucent. And the 0:06:16.600 --> 0:06:19.720 translucent quality of the nails is I think it's one 0:06:19.720 --> 0:06:22.080 of the most interesting things about them. If you look close, 0:06:22.160 --> 0:06:24.560 you can kind of see through it to the flesh underneath, 0:06:24.960 --> 0:06:27.760 and then to the capillary blood flow under that. If 0:06:27.760 --> 0:06:29.520 you look at it long enough, it might start to 0:06:29.520 --> 0:06:32.720 get a little creepy. Yeah, because because there's the sense 0:06:32.760 --> 0:06:34.880 that the nail is strong. We know the nail is 0:06:34.880 --> 0:06:38.680 is strong, and yet the flesh that we see through 0:06:38.680 --> 0:06:42.560 that nail window looks very you know, soft and delicate 0:06:42.600 --> 0:06:45.200 and and and we all often know from experience that 0:06:45.279 --> 0:06:48.120 it is very sensitive under there. Absolutely, it's sort of 0:06:48.160 --> 0:06:52.080 like a window through your skin, but like a frosted 0:06:52.120 --> 0:06:55.360 glass window, you know, not exactly a transparent, but translucent. 0:06:55.839 --> 0:06:58.120 But so where does the nail plate come from. Well, 0:06:58.160 --> 0:07:00.880 it comes from the nail matrix, which is found at 0:07:00.880 --> 0:07:03.039 the base of the nail, and this is sort of 0:07:03.080 --> 0:07:07.720 the cellular factory. It turns out new nail plate through 0:07:07.760 --> 0:07:10.520 cell division over time, and as new cells form at 0:07:10.520 --> 0:07:13.120 the base of the nail, it pushes the old nail 0:07:13.200 --> 0:07:16.320 out from the root, which is why nails grow. Now, 0:07:16.360 --> 0:07:18.880 it's interesting to note that there are nails are actually 0:07:18.920 --> 0:07:24.520 composed of three layers of that fibrous composite keratin, and 0:07:24.520 --> 0:07:26.600 and this is of course a fibrous protein like we 0:07:26.640 --> 0:07:30.640 said it's found in hair and feathers and hoofs, claws 0:07:30.640 --> 0:07:34.000 and horns. Uh. But I was looking a little deeper 0:07:34.000 --> 0:07:36.680 into just the with the structural integrity of the nail, 0:07:36.960 --> 0:07:39.840 and I read an article from back in two thousand 0:07:39.880 --> 0:07:42.720 four that was published an Experimental Biology by fairn at 0:07:42.760 --> 0:07:46.320 All in which the researchers quote examine the structure and 0:07:46.400 --> 0:07:49.640 fracture properties of human fingernails to determine how they resist 0:07:49.760 --> 0:07:55.480 bending forces while preventing fractors running longitudinally in the nail bed. 0:07:56.320 --> 0:07:59.360 So we we've all cracked a nail before. I imagine 0:07:59.480 --> 0:08:02.280 it's not a fingernail than a toe nail. That's a 0:08:02.400 --> 0:08:06.560 quick thing for me. Yeah, um, and it's you know, 0:08:06.920 --> 0:08:08.800 but you know it's it's a wonderful thing that we 0:08:08.920 --> 0:08:13.880 tend to see far more latitudinal cracks uh than the opposite. 0:08:13.920 --> 0:08:16.680 In other words, cracks tend to be more or less 0:08:17.440 --> 0:08:20.400 parallel to the edge of the nail as opposed to 0:08:20.560 --> 0:08:23.480 straight up the middle, which would obviously be far more traumatic. 0:08:24.000 --> 0:08:27.280 Not to say it doesn't occur, but um, but generally 0:08:27.480 --> 0:08:30.920 you're gonna have one that's going across the nail. So 0:08:31.200 --> 0:08:35.319 that means that our nails are an isotropic, meaning the 0:08:35.400 --> 0:08:39.119 material has a different value when measured in different directions. 0:08:39.440 --> 0:08:41.520 And this is much like wood, you know, which is 0:08:41.559 --> 0:08:44.360 stronger along the grain, or like meat, you know, the 0:08:44.640 --> 0:08:46.880 direction in which you slice a piece of meat makes 0:08:46.880 --> 0:08:49.120 a difference in how tender it is. Uh. The same 0:08:49.160 --> 0:08:52.560 thing would probably be true of your nails, right, Uh. 0:08:52.679 --> 0:08:55.440 And that's exactly what they ended up doing in this experiment, 0:08:55.520 --> 0:08:58.920 like tested like cutting on nails, uh, not living the nails. 0:08:58.960 --> 0:09:01.320 I believe they were. They were trimmings that they used 0:09:01.360 --> 0:09:06.679 in the experiment. But basically there are long, narrow cells 0:09:06.720 --> 0:09:10.000 in the thick intermediate layer, while tile like cells in 0:09:10.080 --> 0:09:13.559 the thinner dorsal and ventral layers increase bending strength and 0:09:13.640 --> 0:09:16.920 prevents cracking from forming. Well, that's very nice, and really 0:09:16.960 --> 0:09:19.319 all this lines up with just the way that we 0:09:19.480 --> 0:09:24.760 tend to use our nails, uh, scraping, prying, tweezing. If 0:09:24.800 --> 0:09:27.280 you've ever tried to use your fingernails as a screwdriver, 0:09:27.800 --> 0:09:29.880 you've hit up on some of the design limitations, but 0:09:30.000 --> 0:09:32.800 also some of the flexibility of the nail. You'll find 0:09:32.880 --> 0:09:35.360 that uh, yeah, if you're just pressing on something, if 0:09:35.400 --> 0:09:37.960 you're trying to like dig something out of your own skin, 0:09:38.040 --> 0:09:39.640 And you probably shouldn't do that, but if you are, 0:09:40.000 --> 0:09:41.959 you'll find that you have a fair amount of you know, 0:09:42.160 --> 0:09:44.400 um of pressure you can exert on that nail. Right, 0:09:44.679 --> 0:09:46.720 But if you start trying to go side to side 0:09:46.920 --> 0:09:50.160 with a with the head of a screw, you're gonna find, Oh, 0:09:50.280 --> 0:09:54.440 it's not really rigid enough to turn the screw. But fortunately, 0:09:54.440 --> 0:09:57.160 at the same time, um, it's not so brittle that 0:09:57.240 --> 0:09:59.920 I just ripped my nail to pieces when I'm trying 0:10:00.040 --> 0:10:02.480 and failing to do that. Oh. I've never thought to 0:10:02.520 --> 0:10:04.800 put it into words like that, but you're absolutely right, 0:10:04.920 --> 0:10:08.160 Like twisting pressure on the nail does not feel as 0:10:08.400 --> 0:10:11.720 as comfortable and easy as regular like tweezing or pressing 0:10:11.800 --> 0:10:14.080 pressure is. Yeah, I mean not to say you can't 0:10:14.520 --> 0:10:16.440 turn a nail. I mean turn a screw a little 0:10:16.440 --> 0:10:20.199 bit with your nail. But I think you'll find that 0:10:20.280 --> 0:10:21.960 if when it gets to the nitty gritty of trying 0:10:22.000 --> 0:10:25.160 to actually put some force into the rotation of the screw, 0:10:25.840 --> 0:10:27.760 you're going to realize that you should probably stop what 0:10:27.840 --> 0:10:30.280 you're doing and get an actual screwdriver. Now, there's a 0:10:30.400 --> 0:10:34.640 very interesting contradiction a sort of psychological contradiction that comes 0:10:34.679 --> 0:10:36.719 with the nails, which is that they're the parts of 0:10:36.760 --> 0:10:38.920 our body that should be the toughest, you know, the 0:10:39.000 --> 0:10:41.680 ones we would put out front as as defensive parts, 0:10:41.760 --> 0:10:46.400 the teeth, the nails. There there are defense mechanism. But 0:10:47.280 --> 0:10:49.280 one thing you've noticed if you if you ever tried 0:10:49.360 --> 0:10:53.880 to trim a dog's toe nails, is that they generally 0:10:54.000 --> 0:10:56.760 do not like this at all. They do not want 0:10:56.840 --> 0:10:58.880 their toe nails to be messed with, even though it's 0:10:58.920 --> 0:11:01.240 the hardest part of their body. You can mess around 0:11:01.240 --> 0:11:03.280 with the soft parts of their body. They're usually fine 0:11:03.320 --> 0:11:04.960 with it, but you start going in for the nails 0:11:05.040 --> 0:11:07.240 and they get all squirmy and say, I want to 0:11:07.360 --> 0:11:10.559 clatter around on the floor forever. Uh, And you will 0:11:10.600 --> 0:11:13.360 not get a chance to do this. And there's actually 0:11:13.440 --> 0:11:15.800 a similar kind of contradiction I think that goes on 0:11:15.920 --> 0:11:19.599 in human psychology because think about all of the horrifying 0:11:19.800 --> 0:11:23.520 images that people You know, they occur in movies, of course, unfortunately, 0:11:23.600 --> 0:11:26.880 sometimes they're practiced in reality, and they all probably just 0:11:26.960 --> 0:11:31.440 occur to us naturally. When you imagine something bad happening 0:11:31.559 --> 0:11:34.640 to your nails or your teeth, it's like a particular 0:11:35.080 --> 0:11:39.520 kind of vulnerability obsession. Yeah, and and I should add, 0:11:39.600 --> 0:11:41.360 if you don't want to hear about any of this, 0:11:41.880 --> 0:11:43.839 you know, feel free to skip, like maybe you know, 0:11:44.840 --> 0:11:47.000 ten fifteen, twenty seconds. But we're not gonna dwell on 0:11:47.080 --> 0:11:50.120 this long or in great detail. But but yeah, it 0:11:50.160 --> 0:11:53.640 should be noted that fingernail based torture goes back quite 0:11:53.679 --> 0:11:57.959 a ways given the delicacy. And certainly there are a 0:11:58.040 --> 0:12:01.280 lot of nerves in our fingers and the nail actually 0:12:01.360 --> 0:12:04.240 makes our finger more sensitive, which is something that that 0:12:04.320 --> 0:12:06.120 I hadn't really thought about before, but this was pointed 0:12:06.160 --> 0:12:10.000 out by Evan Writer, assistant professor in the Ronald O. 0:12:10.120 --> 0:12:13.679 Pearlman Department of Dermatology, n y U langon health, quoted 0:12:13.720 --> 0:12:16.880 in a Mental Floss article by Jordan Rosenfeld from two 0:12:16.920 --> 0:12:19.959 thousand eighteen. Yeah, the way I've read it put is 0:12:20.040 --> 0:12:23.760 that the by providing a counter pressure to your fingertip, 0:12:23.880 --> 0:12:27.160 it gives you special sensitivity in the skin cells in 0:12:27.200 --> 0:12:30.839 your fingertip that wouldn't be there otherwise. Yeah, which is 0:12:30.880 --> 0:12:32.319 something to keep in mind the next time you have 0:12:32.480 --> 0:12:35.440 some sort of issue with your nails where you find 0:12:35.520 --> 0:12:38.480 yourself asking that question, why do I have these What 0:12:38.760 --> 0:12:41.520 is what good are these nails doing me when they're 0:12:41.559 --> 0:12:44.520 causing me so much discomfort right now? UM I know, 0:12:44.720 --> 0:12:47.160 for for my own part, I in the past had 0:12:48.040 --> 0:12:51.439 ingrown toenails on both of my my big toes and 0:12:51.720 --> 0:12:54.160 uh and had to have the thing where the the 0:12:54.280 --> 0:12:56.880 the pediatrists goes in and like removes a section of 0:12:56.920 --> 0:12:59.679 the toenail and kills the nail bed underneath it, um 0:13:00.040 --> 0:13:02.199 to to prevent that kind of thing from happening. And 0:13:02.360 --> 0:13:05.160 I kind of get the impression that this is not 0:13:05.320 --> 0:13:08.559 all that uncommon because I have other friends who we 0:13:08.720 --> 0:13:10.480 we've compared toes and we're like, oh, yeah, you had 0:13:10.520 --> 0:13:13.679 the same thing done. Well, I'm sorry you had to 0:13:13.800 --> 0:13:16.080 endure that, Robert. But I also do find it quite 0:13:16.080 --> 0:13:19.720 amusing that you have you have toe parties with your friends. Well, 0:13:19.800 --> 0:13:21.240 you know, I have to say that the procedure is 0:13:21.320 --> 0:13:25.000 far preferable to an ingrown toenail. Uh. So if if 0:13:25.080 --> 0:13:27.319 you uh, you know, if you're having issues like that, 0:13:27.800 --> 0:13:30.160 and you should definitely try and get some some help 0:13:30.240 --> 0:13:33.800 with it. That is not yourself toying around and trying 0:13:33.840 --> 0:13:36.000 to perform some sort of amateur surgery on yourself in 0:13:36.040 --> 0:13:40.240 the bathroom, because that's only going to result in more pain. Um. 0:13:40.520 --> 0:13:42.480 Speaking of which, I have to admit that I did 0:13:42.559 --> 0:13:45.360 not have the stomach to really dive into this topic 0:13:45.520 --> 0:13:48.840 of of nail torture in depth. I know there's a book, 0:13:49.120 --> 0:13:52.960 famous book by George Riley Scott, The History of Torture 0:13:53.000 --> 0:13:56.200 throughout the Ages, and I skimmed that a little bit 0:13:56.240 --> 0:13:58.040 and quickly realized that my eyes were a little bigger 0:13:58.040 --> 0:14:01.000 than my stomach on that one. Um. But basically you 0:14:01.080 --> 0:14:03.000 have a lot of accounts of de nailing in there, 0:14:03.320 --> 0:14:05.920 either by just pulling the nails out or by first 0:14:06.320 --> 0:14:09.040 using the insertion of a red hot nail beneath the 0:14:09.120 --> 0:14:14.600 fingernail is a precursor to de nailing. George Riley Scott, 0:14:14.640 --> 0:14:17.199 by the way, also wrote a history of prostitution in 0:14:17.240 --> 0:14:19.320 the early twentieth century that I understand was one of 0:14:19.680 --> 0:14:22.440 one of, if not the first histories of prostitution that 0:14:22.600 --> 0:14:25.640 was not like, it was not coming from a super 0:14:25.720 --> 0:14:30.720 judgmental standpoint, like a moralizing standpoint. Uh. Well, that's interesting. 0:14:31.120 --> 0:14:34.360 So we're done with the nail torture that others inflict 0:14:34.560 --> 0:14:37.200 on us, I think at this point. But let's come 0:14:37.240 --> 0:14:40.200 back to that other form of sort of nail punishment 0:14:40.280 --> 0:14:43.880 that we sometimes do it to ourselves nail biting. Oh yeah, So, 0:14:44.040 --> 0:14:46.760 as I said before, I am not a habitual nail biter, 0:14:46.880 --> 0:14:49.200 but I have observed a bunch of it up close 0:14:49.280 --> 0:14:51.600 over the years, and so I don't know, I've I've 0:14:51.640 --> 0:14:53.920 sort of like mused on it for a long time. 0:14:54.520 --> 0:14:59.040 So habitual nail biting is known clinically as on ecophagia, 0:14:59.760 --> 0:15:03.360 and and studies have found somewhere between maybe twenty to 0:15:03.520 --> 0:15:06.280 thirty percent of people in total do it, though it 0:15:06.400 --> 0:15:09.600 varies a lot by age. UM. So the twenty to 0:15:09.720 --> 0:15:12.520 thirty percent figure comes from a study published in twenty 0:15:12.600 --> 0:15:17.160 seventeen and the Journal of Dermatological Treatment by Pierre Halte 0:15:17.520 --> 0:15:21.560 at All. But according to some sources, nail biding peaks 0:15:21.680 --> 0:15:24.960 in early years, especially in teenage years, with some estimates 0:15:25.000 --> 0:15:28.320 as high as forty five percent of teenagers doing it regularly, 0:15:28.400 --> 0:15:30.880 which sounds very high. But then again, I guess I 0:15:30.920 --> 0:15:33.200 don't know what teenagers do. I do have to come 0:15:33.240 --> 0:15:37.880 back to um the name of the habitual nail biding though, 0:15:37.920 --> 0:15:42.120 because the uh, the actual meaning of that is is 0:15:42.200 --> 0:15:45.440 the eating of of fingernails, right, I mean it, which 0:15:45.520 --> 0:15:48.200 is not actually what's going on right, at least not 0:15:48.280 --> 0:15:50.240 in most cases. I don't know, maybe who knows what 0:15:50.360 --> 0:15:53.280 some people swallow, but yeah, phagia, that's you know, that's 0:15:53.360 --> 0:15:55.720 used in the terms for the eating of all kinds 0:15:55.760 --> 0:15:58.160 of things. Into phagia is the eating of insects and 0:15:58.280 --> 0:16:01.000 so forth, copper phage. We don't need to get into 0:16:01.800 --> 0:16:07.080 hog eating of hogs, of great sandwiches. But even if 0:16:07.120 --> 0:16:10.560 you're not swallowing the nails own, acophagia can have a 0:16:10.680 --> 0:16:14.880 lot of negative consequences. For one thing, that your nails 0:16:14.960 --> 0:16:17.560 are very dirty. They are sort of a hot spot 0:16:17.680 --> 0:16:21.440 for bacteria on your body, and uh, and so I 0:16:21.560 --> 0:16:23.600 was reading several articles about this. One thing I was 0:16:23.640 --> 0:16:27.359 reading was an article in The Verge by Alessandra Potenza, 0:16:27.800 --> 0:16:30.360 and the author here pointed out that nail biding can 0:16:30.400 --> 0:16:34.880 also have dental consequences. So she pointed to some dental 0:16:34.960 --> 0:16:37.200 health blogs that I was looking at. Several of these 0:16:37.280 --> 0:16:39.960 had dentists citing an estimate from the Academy of General 0:16:40.080 --> 0:16:43.440 Dentistry that quote, nail biding can result in up to 0:16:43.680 --> 0:16:47.800 four thousand dollars in additional dental bills over one lifetime 0:16:48.640 --> 0:16:52.120 because there are a number of reasons. But apparently it's 0:16:52.160 --> 0:16:54.800 not good for your teeth to be chewing too much 0:16:55.160 --> 0:16:57.760 in any case, and it's especially not good to be 0:16:57.880 --> 0:17:01.480 always putting chewing pressure down with your front teeth. I mean, 0:17:01.560 --> 0:17:03.920 you think about it, that's not normally how you chew. Normally, 0:17:04.000 --> 0:17:06.600 you chew kind of like with the pressing of your 0:17:06.640 --> 0:17:09.600 back teeth, But when you're biting with your nails, you're 0:17:09.680 --> 0:17:12.520 kind of aligning your jaw in a strange way to 0:17:12.560 --> 0:17:15.720 bring your front teeth together and turn them into clippers. 0:17:16.280 --> 0:17:19.920 But beyond that, there's also just the the exchange of 0:17:20.600 --> 0:17:23.960 bacteria from one place to the other and it and 0:17:24.080 --> 0:17:26.639 it actually does go both ways. So you're getting bacteria 0:17:26.760 --> 0:17:29.840 from under your fingernails and your fingertips into your mouth, 0:17:30.160 --> 0:17:34.080 but you're also getting bacteria from your mouth under your fingernails, 0:17:34.119 --> 0:17:37.200 which can cause infections there. And apparently it can be 0:17:37.280 --> 0:17:40.480 bad both ways. Yeah, so there's really no upside to 0:17:40.600 --> 0:17:45.000 doing it. Um, obviously just stopping is easier said than done. 0:17:45.400 --> 0:17:49.840 But but but yeah, from from a purely health standpoint, um, 0:17:50.560 --> 0:17:52.760 it's best to stay away from it. But that leads 0:17:52.800 --> 0:17:56.080 to the interesting question of why we bite our nails 0:17:56.119 --> 0:17:58.680 in the first place, and why some people, especially in 0:17:58.960 --> 0:18:03.760 engage in oh nicophagia like the the habitual repetitive biting 0:18:03.840 --> 0:18:07.440 of the nails. I was reading an interesting article about 0:18:07.520 --> 0:18:10.800 this in Fox by the science writer Joseph Stromberg, and 0:18:11.400 --> 0:18:14.040 so he cites that there were several early theories on 0:18:14.200 --> 0:18:17.760 nail biting, of course, before we had modern psychology. One 0:18:17.840 --> 0:18:21.760 of course was Freud, and Freud grouped nail biting as 0:18:22.040 --> 0:18:26.440 one of the obsessions that fell under the oral receptive personality. 0:18:26.560 --> 0:18:29.639 And in Freudian theory, the idea was that if a 0:18:29.840 --> 0:18:33.480 if a child nursed too much during infancy, they would 0:18:33.520 --> 0:18:37.520 grow up to have this oral fixation, the oral receptive fixation, 0:18:38.359 --> 0:18:41.440 which caused them to always like chew on their nails 0:18:41.560 --> 0:18:43.480 and like put objects in their mouth. You know, the 0:18:43.560 --> 0:18:45.120 kind of people who are always like putting a stick 0:18:45.160 --> 0:18:47.800 in their mouth or something. But again, you know, this 0:18:47.960 --> 0:18:50.119 is Freudian is um. There's no real evidence for this, 0:18:50.640 --> 0:18:52.239 and as far as I could tell, there's never been 0:18:52.320 --> 0:18:55.400 any evidence that's turned up that there's any connection whatsoever 0:18:55.560 --> 0:18:59.720 between nursing in early childhood and and so called oral fixations. 0:18:59.760 --> 0:19:01.520 Did seems to be another one of those things that 0:19:01.640 --> 0:19:04.040 you know, Freud kind of said it, but there's no 0:19:04.119 --> 0:19:06.399 reason to believe it's true unless you're one of those 0:19:06.400 --> 0:19:08.360 people that has one of those bumper stickers that says 0:19:08.440 --> 0:19:11.240 Freud said it, I believe it. That settled it. Now. 0:19:11.320 --> 0:19:14.119 More recently, nail biting has been listed in the d 0:19:14.359 --> 0:19:16.320 s M as a form of o c D of 0:19:16.800 --> 0:19:20.520 obsessive compulsive disorder, but not all experts agreed that this 0:19:20.680 --> 0:19:23.879 is the best categorization for it, as not all forms 0:19:23.920 --> 0:19:27.960 of nail biting or universally considered really obsessive um. And 0:19:28.040 --> 0:19:31.760 so another theory has emerged that nail biting is sort 0:19:31.800 --> 0:19:35.639 of a form of emotion regulation. Just one example of 0:19:35.760 --> 0:19:39.480 this is a study from published in the Journal of 0:19:39.560 --> 0:19:43.479 Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry by Sarah Roberts at All 0:19:44.240 --> 0:19:47.840 called the Impact of Emotions on Body focused Repetitive Behaviors 0:19:47.920 --> 0:19:51.560 Evidence from a non treatment seeking sample. And this is 0:19:51.600 --> 0:19:55.640 a whole class of behaviors that body focused repetitive behaviors 0:19:55.720 --> 0:20:00.320 that can involve nail biting, hair pulling, you know, various 0:20:00.400 --> 0:20:03.800 things that were sort of often grooming related, skin picking, 0:20:04.440 --> 0:20:06.919 that kind of stuff. And so in this study they 0:20:07.000 --> 0:20:09.480 tested people in several different kinds of scenarios that we're 0:20:09.560 --> 0:20:15.159 trying to elicit certain emotional reactions. One was a frustration situation, 0:20:15.320 --> 0:20:18.200 in which subjects would be given a difficult job to 0:20:18.320 --> 0:20:21.320 do that that could not possibly be done in the 0:20:21.440 --> 0:20:24.680 time they were given to do it. Um. Another one 0:20:25.000 --> 0:20:28.040 was a boredom scenario where people were left in a 0:20:28.119 --> 0:20:31.320 room with nothing to do. Another one was an anxiety 0:20:31.440 --> 0:20:34.879 scenario where they were asked to watch an extremely terrifying 0:20:35.040 --> 0:20:37.720 movie scene. I think it was a plane crash scene 0:20:37.800 --> 0:20:41.240 from the movie Alive. I've never seen it. Is that 0:20:41.320 --> 0:20:45.680 the one where the soccer players give resort to cannibalism? Yeah, 0:20:45.720 --> 0:20:49.240 that's the one based on true occurrences, But but certainly 0:20:49.359 --> 0:20:51.800 is notable for having just a very terrifying and at 0:20:51.840 --> 0:20:56.400 least at the time, very convincing airplane crash scene. I'm 0:20:56.400 --> 0:20:58.919 not sure how it holds up today, but I imagine 0:20:58.960 --> 0:21:01.159 it holds up pretty well. And then finally, there was 0:21:01.200 --> 0:21:05.400 a relaxation condition where they're watching a video. They're sitting 0:21:05.400 --> 0:21:07.480 in a nice comfy chair and they're watching video of 0:21:07.800 --> 0:21:11.440 a pleasant beach scene. That's nice too. I like that 0:21:11.520 --> 0:21:14.760 movie a lot. What makes you wonder I kind of 0:21:14.800 --> 0:21:17.119