Why does a burn still feel hot even after running it under cold water?
In: Biology
Speaking from personal experience. Like previous commenters said the nerves are on fire and the cold water stops the burning but ALSO it helps to lessen the intense pain by deadening the sensation. I once had a burn from high school chemistry class, heat not chemical, on all four fingers of my right hand. School nurse gave me an ice pack to keep on it. I had to go home because I literally could not function even after an hour with the ice pack. Once home I sat with my hand in a small cooler filled with ice water for about an hour. Every time I took my hand out the same intense throbbing pain came back. Finally I made the choice of this is my life now vs fuck it let’s see what happens. I took my hand out and focused on the pain to see how long it would last. It started to hurt less and less and after a few minutes it was much much better so I proceeded to enjoy some daytime TV and video games. My suspicion is that I was delaying the natural response of my body’s nervous system that allows the brain to ignore constant signals and once I stopped trying to focus on stopping the pain and just feel it while distracting myself, my body did its thing and started healing and coping.
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