Naked Science Forum
Life Sciences => Physiology & Medicine => Topic started by: neilep on 15/03/2007 19:35:43
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We've all heard the phrase ' rubbing salt in the wound ' designed to demonstrate how a bad situation can be made even worse.
.......but what does happen when you do rub salt into a wound ?..does it make it hurt more ?...does it damage the wound more so ?...............as a firm believer in empirical study my little 19 month old son has a little graze on his knee.....shall I ? .........
*this site does not condone the rubbing of salt into wounds and my offer to do so is not verified*
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No....that would hurt worse...don't do it! LOL
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It burns like fire!! Not good!
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Thank ewe LO *hi LO..giggles* and thank ewe Karen Mam.
But is it doing any good ?...making it habitable for sea life for instance ?
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I don't don't know , but as much as it burns, you would think it would be sterilizing it,LOL or preserving it...LOL I really can't imagine any benifits!
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http://www.hhmi.org/cgi-bin/askascientist/highlight.pl?kw=&file=answers%2Fgeneral%2Fans_073.html
Provided by Walter Sipe, M.D., clinical fellow of pediatric gastroenterology, hepatology, and nutrition, University of California, San Francisco (former HHMI medical fellow)
Before we get to the science part of your question, let me start by saying: Do not put salt on your cut. The single most important aspect of wound care in the backcountry is vigorous and copious irrigation with clean water (filtered or chemically treated so it is drinkable). You can generate a high-pressure stream by filling a zip-top plastic bag with water, poking a tiny hole in a bottom corner of it with a needle, and then squeezing the bag so water comes out through the hole. For dirty wounds, vigorous scrubbing to remove foreign bodies is also important. Exposing wounds to iodine, alcohol, peroxide, and pure salt is no more effective than water irrigation at preventing infection and can potentially damage tissues. The safest way to slow bleeding is to hold direct pressure on the wound until the bleeding stops.
The reason that salt stings a cut is that as the salt dissolves, it causes the fluid surrounding damaged tissues to become extremely hypertonic (which means that the concentration of salt and other electrolytes is higher than it is in normal body fluids).
Pain-sensing neurons have receptors on them that respond to a variety of stimuli. For example, there is a specific receptor that responds vigorously to capsaicin, which is the substance that gives jalapeño and habanero peppers their kick. So, quite literally, when you are adding hot pepper to food, you are (carefully, I hope!) inducing the sensation of pain to complement the other flavors of the meal.
More recently identified is a receptor that responds to changes in electrolyte concentration—such as the change that a large amount of salt induces. Thus, putting salt on a wound stimulates pain-sensing neurons in much the same way hot pepper does.
When tissue is damaged, many pain receptors become sensitized—that is, they need a much lower level of stimulation to respond than they normally would. (For example, after you have burned your mouth, try eating some spicy food that you could normally handle—ouch!) Salt may then compound the pain by further damaging injured tissues and making them more sensitive in general.
10/16/06
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THANK YOU GEORGE !
That covers it !
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Cool, I could not imagine how salt would help. Only make me cry!!! LOL
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It
Cool, I could not imagine how salt would help. Only make me cry!!! LOL
It might help ' Cure ' a Smoked Salmon !!...(Think about it !! )
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YEPEROO!! Pretty tasty too!
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We also answered this question on the programme in the past; this reference might add to what's been said here:
https://www.thenakedscientists.com/articles/questions/why-it-recommended-put-salt-cuts
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One thing I can add is that a cut in the ocean is not that painful at all, as the sea water is at almost the same osmotic potential as your blood plasma, so does not trigger the pain reaction. however washing with sea water is not a good idea, not from the salt water itself ( sterile saline is a very good wound irrigator, and surgical saline is often used to clean wounds in the ER as it is both sterile and non irritating to the exposed wound) but from the contaminants in it, from heavy metals to pesticides to things like plankton and larval forms of many animals that can infect the wound itself.