How come you don’t feel the effects of a car crash (like sore muscles or strain) immediately instead of a day or two after?
In: Biology
In addition the the effects the others have described, the very slow repair process causes all sorts of pain in addition to whatever pain the damaging event may or may not have caused.
It’s called “shock”. When your body experiences extreme trauma like a car accident, it goes into survival mode by pumping you full of adrenaline, blocking pain receptors and even shutting out some of what’s happening around you so that you can get away from the danger and survive. This developed in the days before medical care was even a concept and we only had ourselves. You can’t maintain that state forever though and when it wears off you get to experience everything, plus deal with the side effects of your body going into overdrive
The adrenaline rush you’d get from the stress of the crash directs your body’s attention to other more important things (like making sure your heart stays pumping). This masks the pain you would feel. It’s similar to stories of people suddenly becoming very strong in dangerous situations and finding out after that they broke a bone in the process.
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