Hmm... hives on me after running.. help!!

[weirdichi]

Ok, I just got back from running and I have all these hive thingies on me, but it doesn't itch. It's all over my back and my chest. Anybody ever experience this?

 

[b0mbrman]

<< Ok, I just got back from running and I have all these hive thingies on me, but it doesn't itch. It's all over my back and my chest. Anybody ever experience this? >>


Was it cold out? Same thing happens to me...

 

[weirdichi]

It wasn't extremely cold out or anything. It wasn't even windy. This is the first time it's ever happened to me. It's gone now though. Wonder what it was.. hmm...

 

[WhiteWonder]

would a bee sting do this, or some other sort of bite or sting?

 

[MomAndSkoorbaby]

Yeah that sometimes happens to me too!
After a nice cool shower, did they go away?

 

[HomeBrewerDude]

Perhaps your skin was irritated by your clothes as you began to sweat. Jog naked to test this theory.

 

[WhiteWonder]

<< Perhaps your skin was irritated by your clothes as you began to sweat. Jog naked to test this theory. >>



oh, good lord no.

 

[TheBlondOne]

<< Perhaps your skin was irritated by your clothes as you began to sweat. Jog naked to test this theory. >>



HA! But seriously, that's a good point. I know I usually break out a little bit after every workout, but then it goes away within a few hours. I have very, very sensitive skin.

--Sarah

 

[iamwiz82]

are you talking about goosebumps?



<< Question: What are goose bumps? Where do they come from?

Answer:
Talking about goose bumps means talking about something controversial (con-tra-VUR-shul).

When something is controversial, people think different things about the same subject and talk about it a lot. So here goes.

We get goose bumps because of evolution (ev-eh-LU-shun). Evolution is a thing some people don't believe in. But many people - like me - do believe it. That makes it controversial.

Evolution is a theory that says living things change over time as their environments change.






Experiment #1
Goosebumps On Purpose

WHAT YOU NEED: Just yourself - and the time to notice a few things.

WHAT TO DO:
The next time you take a bath or a shower, pay closer attention to what's happening.

After the shower is off, or you're out of the tub, step into the center of the room. Do not grab a towel.

Relax with your arms at your sides. Take a deep, deep breath. Let it all out slowly. What happened?

WHAT IS GOING ON:
You just had a reflexive event. Reflex means it happens without you having to make it happen. The body reacts on its own. As you let out that deep breath, you relaxed and gave up some muscle control. You probably had a big shiver.

Your muscles shivered on their own. The reason for the muscles doing that is to make more body heat. Believe it or not, your goose bumps are also about getting warm.

When it's hotand you need to cool down, little muscles at each hair (1) relax. Your hair is relaxed. Your sweat glands (2) pump out body heat in sweat. Your blood vessels (3) get big to take more heat to the skin to get rid of it.

When it's cold, the arrector muscle (1) pulls the hair up. The duct to the sweat glands (2) gets small to conserve heat. Our blood vessels (3) get small to save heat. Hair standing up doesn't make good insulation anymore - we don't have enough fur for that. Humans don't have very much hair on their bodies anymore. Millions of years ago, humans probably did. And that hair standing on end, helped keep people warmer. Those little muscles we still have on the end of each hair still work. They still make goose bumps (4).



P.S. from Beakman: Cold is not the only thing that can cause our hair to stand on end. Fear or anger can cause the same reflex. The same is true for other mammals. You'll notice that on a cat or dog. Their fur get bigger when they're angry or afraid.

>>