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Dr Karan Raj reviews whether a ‘pinch trick’ can tell you if you’re dehydrated
@dr.karanr/TikTok
A doctor has taken to TikTok to review a trend that supposedly tells whether a person is dehydrated or not.
In the original video, one TikTokker claimed: “Dehydration check to see how dehydrated you are. You have to squeeze your fingertip right here and if it goes back down you’re hydrated.
“If you squeeze it and it stays up like this you are dehydrated.”
Sharing and reviewing the claim with his 5.3 million TikTok followers, Dr Karan Raj explained: “This is known as a ‘skin pinch’ or skin turgor test.”
“The more hydrated you are, the more elastic your skin will be and it will bounce back immediately after pinching it.”
“If you’re dehydrated, the skin loses elasticity and it takes a while to return to normal and is more likely to tent up”
The video has since racked up millions of views and thousands of curious commenters.
Like many, one person had believed the trick to be a myth: “This is true? I thought it was an old wife’s tale. My gran told me this years ago”, she said.
One added: “When I was little I used to do this and was so proud for it staying up for so long”.
The revelation also prompted some users to up their water intake. “This made me drink 2 litres of water”, one said.
Some TikTok users were shocked at how ‘dehydrated’ they were TikTok
Dr Karan Raj added a disclaimer in the comments section to confirm that, while the principle behind the ‘pinch test’ is true, he cannot confirm whether the method in the original video is accurate.
“FYI: I’m not sure the person's method is accurate and certainly not on the knuckle BUT the principle behind the pinch test is correct,” he added.
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