How does your body know when a wound is fully healed and when to stop healing?
In: Biology
Your body never knows it’s fully healed, it just stops sending a healing response when it lacks a signal saying you’re hurt. When a cell is damaged it releases calcium, which then triggers a bunch of healing responses. Once the calcium has been removed (dispersed, taken up by other cells, bound to other things) the initial signal is gone, and then the secondary/following signals kinda just peter out. This varies widely based on the location/type/severity of the injury. There is no final “tada” signal saying everything’s back up and running.
Just to set the background: The main goal of the body is to maintain balance. Cells in our body are usually “covered” by materials such as cell membranes that help them maintain balance in the body. Once these membranes are damaged, the inside of the cell is exposed to a different environment causing a reaction which is viewed as disruption of the balance inside the cell.
Basically what happens is that the damaged cells release certain “clotting” substances that react on platelets on your blood which results to blood clots. This will close the wound in a series of steps with the last one involving the removal of the clot itself. Once the damaged cells are no longer exposed or “wounded”, it stops sending the clotting signals and release normal substances that prevent the formation of blood clots. This event returns the body to its balance
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