Why does salt in a wound hurt so much?
In: Biology
There is probably more going on than just this, but to me what comes to mind is its dehydrating effects. Salt relative to its size takes a lot of water to dissolve and in the way dry things do it attracts water. Salt even has utility along these lines, in the past being used to dry out and preserve meat.
So salt is going to rapidly dehydrate whatever flesh it has immediate contact with, this flesh being in a wound is unprotected by skin which would insulate against this. The pain is this dehydration happening until the cells taking the brunt of it die off.
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