Talk:Human skin color/Archives/2009/January

lighter feet and hands
Why do many (all?) people with darker skin have paler skin on the inside of their hands and the bottom of their feet? People with lighter skin don't seem to have paler skin in these areas. Herorev (talk) 07:17, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

The reason must be that the scin there is different to "normal" skin. For example, you have no hairs there, different somatosensory receptors and stuff like that. Dunno the English name, in German this kind of skin is called "Leistenhaut". It probably lacks of pigmentation as well, that's why the skin is much paler in people with dark scin compared to the rest of their body. But it might be that it's still a little darker than a pale person's inside of the hand. I guess the contrast between the lighter parts and the darker parts of the scin play a role so you get the impression as if the difference was very big. --EnduroLM (talk) 16:13, 3 January 2009 (UTC)enduroLM

No clear correlation with multiple sclerosis
Quoting from an article's abstract, "The prevalence of multiple sclerosis in the world: an update."
 * ''The rarity of MS among Samis, Turkmen, Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Kyrgyzis, native Siberians, North and South Amerindians, Chinese, Japanese, African blacks and New Zealand Maoris, as well as the high risk among Sardinians, Parsis and Palestinians, clearly indicate that the different susceptibilities of distinct racial and ethnic groups are an important determinant of the uneven geographic distribution of the disease.

These people have varying degrees of skin coloration, but African blacks and Maoris are clearly dark skinned and yet are listed within the low risk, at the same time that the high-hisk group also does not have an overall pattern of dark skin. Judging by this abstract alone, the pattern seems to be more likely the opposite, if any. --Extremophile (talk) 19:18, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

This article is written like a conversation between undergrad students; not very encyclopedic at all. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.66.144.115 (talk) 18:25, 20 January 2009 (UTC)