Example: i burn my finger cooking. It still burns after I expose the heated area to cool water or ice. Even if i deeply cut my finger to release the hot energy and put it in ice water, 10 seconds later it still burns. why? how do i stop it from burning?
In: Chemistry
Damage by cold and damage by heat feel the same most of the time
You get burned by both hot and cold
Your injured part is very sensitive to either right now because it’s already damaged and your body knows it needs to heal, so it’s telling you to avoid further damage with pain signals
>Example: i burn my finger cooking. It still burns after I expose the heated area to cool water or ice. Even if i deeply cut my finger to release the hot energy and put it in ice water, 10 seconds later it still burns. why? how do i stop it from burning?
I’m not sure what you mean by “release the hot energy”. A burned finger hurts because its tissues have been **damaged** by heat. It will continue to hurt until the damage has been repaired. There’s nothing to release or to cool.
You’ve damaged tissue & it’s repairing itself (which is the thing that hurts), severe burns are notoriously difficult to provide pain relief for as it’s your nerve endings repairing that hurts, for bad enough burns they’ll put people in medically induced comas just so they don’t have to suffer it.
When you get a burn, the nerve endings are damaged. So even if you cool it down, those nerves will still send pain signals. Best bet is to cover it up and let it heal.
Maybe don’t do additional self harm while you’re experiencing a burn?
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