I tried to put on a bangle this morning and it wouldn't go over my hand. I haven't worn it for about 5 years and my hands aren't fat. It got stuck on the knuckle bones. So are my hands getting bigger due to ageing? (I'm in my 50s).

Topsy wrote:I tried to put on a bangle this morning and it wouldn't go over my hand. I haven't worn it for about 5 years and my hands aren't fat. It got stuck on the knuckle bones. So are my hands getting bigger due to ageing? (I'm in my 50s).

Um dunno, cobber! Ears and noses do grow. Could be a bit of swelling from a touch of arthritis maybe??

I don't know if this is correct since endocrinology would be my subject only in the next year, but since you're already over the 50s, it's pretty safe to assume you're a menopause, and men do have bigger hands than women, perhaps the recent rises in androgen makes that enlargement of the bones of your fingers and presumably, as well as the bones of your hand, is my assumption correct, topsy?

If it means that my cock ain't shrinking, then yeah, I'd go with my hands getting bigger...

Hi Topsy

Couple questions for a differential diagnosis:

- is the problem with the bangle limited to one side? i.e. are your right and left hands and knuckles similar in size?

- has your hand grown, overall? Can you wear old gloves? If they can't fit beyond your knuckles, how is the gloves' size when superposed to your hand on a flat surface? Are the gloves smaller?

Sphynxcat wrote:If it means that my cock ain't shrinking, then yeah, I'd go with my hands getting bigger...

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but...

But seriously, I've had to re-arrange a couple of rings I was wearing recently, but that's just because I gained weight...

I don't know about hands, but feet do increase by half or more in size after about 60 +/-. Podiatrists can confirm this, and they should know. One theory is that the arches droop somewhat and the feet spread laterally and longitudinally.

nar

Elena wrote:Hi Topsy

Couple questions for a differential diagnosis:

- is the problem with the bangle limited to one side? i.e. are your right and left hands and knuckles similar in size?

- has your hand grown, overall? Can you wear old gloves? If they can't fit beyond your knuckles, how is the gloves' size when superposed to your hand on a flat surface? Are the gloves smaller?

My hands are about the same size as each other - the bangle won't fit over either (and it used to). I don't have any old gloves to try on so I can't tell if it's the overall size. It feel like I can't close my hand as much as I could - ie when you close your hand to slip on a bangle - it's sounding like a touch of athritis in my knuckles but I don't get any pain.

Interesting to read above that ears and noses get bigger as we age - why is that?

Topsy wrote:

Elena wrote:Hi Topsy

Couple questions for a differential diagnosis:

- is the problem with the bangle limited to one side? i.e. are your right and left hands and knuckles similar in size?

- has your hand grown, overall? Can you wear old gloves? If they can't fit beyond your knuckles, how is the gloves' size when superposed to your hand on a flat surface? Are the gloves smaller?

My hands are about the same size as each other - the bangle won't fit over either (and it used to). I don't have any old gloves to try on so I can't tell if it's the overall size. It feel like I can't close my hand as much as I could - ie when you close your hand to slip on a bangle - it's sounding like a touch of athritis in my knuckles but I don't get any pain.

Interesting to read above that ears and noses get bigger as we age - why is that?

Neoteny basically. Humans retain juvenile features when they become reproductive. But eventually, the adult features come as we age. Neoteny [or pedomorphism] was strongly selected for [we suppose] because its a great way of adding relative brain size. And the resultant difficult births make the "grandmother effect", so we live a bit longer for our body size.

Topsy wrote:Interesting to read above that ears and noses get bigger as we age - why is that?

Bones stop increasing in length when the growth plates 'freeze', but cartilage keeps on growing. This raises interesting questions over what people would look like if we did manage to increase our lifespan to 200 years.

Osteoarthritis can certainly cause the knuckles to enlarge (Google "Bouchards Nodes and Heberdens Nodes). There doesn't have to be any pain involved.

Defiitely, my feet are still 'small' according to my kids but I've definitely gained a couple of shoe sizes since 60. And my hands are bigger,And don't start about ears, noses and chins, and arse, and gut. No wonder people died at 40 years ago, old age was just too freaking ugly.

My mum just had to get her wedding ring re-sized--arthritis has made her knuckles giant, and working with her hands all day hasn't helped any.

mmmcheezy wrote:My mum just had to get her wedding ring re-sized--arthritis has made her knuckles giant, and working with her hands all day hasn't helped any.

Yep I've done that as well, had my favourties resized. The rest can just sit in a jewellery box for a grand daughter to inherit.

Darwinsbulldog wrote:Neoteny basically. Humans retain juvenile features when they become reproductive. But eventually, the adult features come as we age.

Aldous Huxley used the idea in fiction:

When Dr Obispo finally finds the Fifth Earl of Gonister again in Europe, still alive at 200, the Earl has fully matured from the juvenile ape that man really is. Apparently, Huxley is referring to man as an immature, not fully grown ape.

Agrippina wrote:Defiitely, my feet are still 'small' according to my kids but I've definitely gained a couple of shoe sizes since 60. And my hands are bigger,And don't start about ears, noses and chins, and arse, and gut. No wonder people died at 40 years ago, old age was just too freaking ugly.

I passed on my beautiful leather gloves on to our daughter (which she promptly managed to lose ) because my hands had grown wider.
Anybody know by how much do one's ears grow? (percentage wise) -and i always thought they grew because we begin to lose our sense of hearing ( jk)

ConnyRaSk wrote:

Agrippina wrote:Defiitely, my feet are still 'small' according to my kids but I've definitely gained a couple of shoe sizes since 60. And my hands are bigger,And don't start about ears, noses and chins, and arse, and gut. No wonder people died at 40 years ago, old age was just too freaking ugly.

I passed on my beautiful leather gloves on to our daughter (which she promptly managed to lose ) because my hands had grown wider.
Anybody know by how much do one's ears grow? (percentage wise) -and i always thought they grew because we begin to lose our sense of hearing ( jk)

I don't know. I'm lucky in that I've always had tiny ears so they've not grown too much. I saw my sister last week, she'd just had a hair cut and for some reason the stylist cut it off right above her ears and they are enormous. I think if mine do get bigger, I'll just keep them covered, I don't want to look like Dumbo.