ph, no p
I have a longer post brewing, but it's getting a bit late, so have another quick one instead.
Our sysadmin at work wears a lot of rings, but only ones made of non-precious metals, such as copper or iron. I finally asked him why that was, and he said that it was because he'd been born 3 months early.
As you may know, the normal human skin pH is around 5.5, with +/-1 still within normal range. What he claims is that it changes if you're born too early or too late. Too early, and your skin turns acidic; too late, and your skins turns alkaline.
Our sysadmin didn't know how alkaline skin affects your life, but said that his acidic skins corrodes precious metals! He said he'd received silver rings as a young boy (a Muslim tradition I wasn't aware of), and within a weeks they started turning black and basically crumbling apart.
He's no chemist (and neither am I), so he didn't know what in precious metals reacts with acid in this way, just that it does. Even his wedding ring is made of surgical steel.
I've done a quick google search and haven't been able to corroborate his story, but it could just be buried under all the skincare instructions that are coming up. It sounds interesting, but I need to dig further to see if that's how it really works. I don't think he'd intentionally lie to me, it could just be one of those factoids that people believe. If it is true, I wonder why being born early or late affects skin pH.
Originally posted at Dreamwidth. You can also comment there using OpenID.
Our sysadmin at work wears a lot of rings, but only ones made of non-precious metals, such as copper or iron. I finally asked him why that was, and he said that it was because he'd been born 3 months early.
As you may know, the normal human skin pH is around 5.5, with +/-1 still within normal range. What he claims is that it changes if you're born too early or too late. Too early, and your skin turns acidic; too late, and your skins turns alkaline.
Our sysadmin didn't know how alkaline skin affects your life, but said that his acidic skins corrodes precious metals! He said he'd received silver rings as a young boy (a Muslim tradition I wasn't aware of), and within a weeks they started turning black and basically crumbling apart.
He's no chemist (and neither am I), so he didn't know what in precious metals reacts with acid in this way, just that it does. Even his wedding ring is made of surgical steel.
I've done a quick google search and haven't been able to corroborate his story, but it could just be buried under all the skincare instructions that are coming up. It sounds interesting, but I need to dig further to see if that's how it really works. I don't think he'd intentionally lie to me, it could just be one of those factoids that people believe. If it is true, I wonder why being born early or late affects skin pH.
Originally posted at Dreamwidth. You can also comment there using OpenID.