why when you get a sunburn, it’s feels like your skin it’s still really hot even after hours of you going out of the sun and taking some cold shower?
In: Biology
Remember sunburns are literally radiation damage.
When you have a sunburn, the sun’s UV rays have damaged your skin cells at the molecular level, shredding DNA like tiny bullets. Your damaged cells respond by a mixture of intensive repair and the too-damaged ones killing themselves (apoptosis) to avoid becoming cancer. Both the repairing and dealing with the mass cell suicide aftermath requires a lot of blood and other resources carried in by the immune system. To make this transport easier, your body uses “inflammation”, a response where blood vessels widen and lots of blood and immune cells rush to the damaged area. All that extra bloodflow is what makes the sunburned skin feel warm long after the sun’s heat itself has faded.
When your skin is damaged it becomes inflamed, swelling with blood which is why it looks pink. That blood carries heat from inside your body to the surface which makes it feel warmer than normal skin.
Latest Answers