Why does the body produce pus when you get a skin infection or a zit? To me it just seems like a counter-productive reaction as it often has to be drained in order to heal well.
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Googled this same thing a few months ago; iirc pus isn’t what the body’s trying to make, it’s the byproduct of your body fighting the infection. It includes dead white blood cells which can prolong the infection
Pus is the mass grave of the white blood cells that gave their lives defending you from infection. Pus is also slippery, so if you get a splinter it will eventually pop out with all that lubrication.
Pus is not produced for a specific purpose – it’s mostly dead immune cells and bacteria and tissue. It’s created as a byproduct of the body fighting off an infection, because you want to kill the invading bacteria, and once you do, they don’t just disappear like a video game. Also some immune cells deal with invaders by engulfing them and then committing suicide, killing the invader in the process. Pretty metal.
In small enough infections, the pus will eventually be broken down and reabsorbed by your body. In large infections, it can’t be broken down quickly and needs to be drained.
As for why our bodies don’t deal with pus very well? In an evolutionary sense, it isn’t very important to recover from severe infections well. Back before medicine became a thing, there was a pretty narrow window between “this is a minor amount of pus that doesn’t require dedicated biological systems” and “this amount of pus doesn’t require dedicated biological systems because whatever caused it killed you.” Since our inability to deal with pus was never a major factor in our survival, it never was selected for and now poor doctors have to deal with draining abscesses. Tip: cover your nose and also consider having your sense of smell removed.
My MD dad used to call it “laudable pus”, something they taught him in med school
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5538214/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5538214/)
Thank you, brave white blood cells, for your ultimate sacrifice. May your pus rest in peace.
Simply put: your body is releasing toxins through pus and pimples…
Is the same as peeing and pooping
A lot of pimples (and many cysts) aren’t excreting *pus*, but rather skin cells that have become trapped in the pore. If there wasn’t any inflammation, it’s probably just skin cells and oil.
There’s a growing theory that inflammatory acne may be caused as much by hormones as bacteria; *c. acnes* and other bacteria are present in most pores, but most don’t become inflamed. UV exposure is also a likely contributor.
Wow, our white blood cells are like brave soldiers sacrificing themselves for us. Pus, the ultimate memorial.
Antibodies are what happens when your body knows there’s an infection and what kind. Pus is what happens when it doesn’t know what kind. White blood cells, specifically neutrophils, swarm the area, eat all they can, and then kill themselves along with everything they ate. My immunology teacher compared it to carpet suicide bombing.
Your body sends white blood cells to the area to combat infection. The pus is the white blood cell.
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