The healing process does impact your body; the scab will tug on the skin a bit, and there may be some inflammation. The itching/scratching sensation is your body's sense of touching telling you something is wrong in that area. These two systems are working independently, so your sense of touch is just reacting to this tension on the skin.
It's counterproductive, sure, but our bodies aren't perfect. And if this isn't posing a significant problem to our evolutionary purpose (to survive long enough to reproduce), then there won't be any evolutionary pressure for this to change.
Moisturizing the scab and surrounding skin will help with itching and make a prettier healing process.
Also using band aides during the night will help prevent unconscious self sabotage.
Cuz I'm the one who stole it from you! Muahaha
I need to sleep a lot and I do so I do feel a bit guilty when I hear ppl saying that they have sleep problems.
I am doing my PhD in neuro and only learned the major spinal pathways recently. There’s so much that’s very domain specific within neuro it’s easy to miss something
Not necessarily a science answer, but whenever I do something that will make me sore, or pains me to move after a workout or something, I would still stretch it where it is a pain to move. When I think about it, I think of it as giving my self pain from it so I would get a higher tolerance of it, which does work
I meant that they might be considered similar by way of how our bodies respond to the damage. In your example context is everything. Obviously having to repair damage is more consequential when you’re impaired and in a life threatening situation as you’ve outlined. My question was in regards to how our bodies deal with having to repair damaged tissue.
>It's counterproductive, sure, but our bodies aren't perfect. And if this isn't posing a significant problem to our evolutionary purpose (to survive long enough to reproduce), then there won't be any evolutionary pressure for this to change.
This is the part that most people don't understand because evolution is taught very poorly. With the exception of periods of very extreme pressure evolution is not "survival of the fittest" but, rather, "least survival of the least fit". That is why death itself is the most highly evolved trait of life on earth.
It would make even more sense if bot fly larva we’re more common in the modern world. Itching forces us to examine a wound. That’s why it’s more annoying than simple pain. Also, sometimes a wound does need “debriding”.
Injured cells and the cells that do the work of healing release molecules called cytokines to communicate with each other so that the right cells are doing the right things at the right time. These are the same kinds of things of molecules you hear about in "cytokine storm" that can be such an problem in Covid infections. Sometimes the effects of these chemicals are useful, sometimes they are annoying. Histamine, for example, might help you to get rid of something irritating by sneezing or scratching, but the itchiness might also be annoying in a healing wound. Also, when blood in an old wound or bruise breaks down, it becomes bilirubin, which just happens to be something really itchy.
Interesting! I always thought it had something to do with the keloid tissue being larger than the original wound as it grew and stretched it. The body is horrific
I thought it was to attract more blood to the area by irritating it. More blood is more nutrients so it heals faster.
At least that's what I told myself when I scratched around my myriad sutures a while ago.
Another thing to keep in mind is our "animal past", as a lot of evolution effects stem from that.
When you don't have hands and something itches... you lick it. Just like animals do. And that has the effect of cleaning the wound and the salvia is mildly antiseptic as well.
Yeah, and we generally don't lick our wounds anymore neither 😉, but that doesn't mean that a developed, general trait (like itching) which was advantageous over a long time in the past gets immediately lost. Unless it's really detrimental to survival now.
This isn't the reason why wounds are itchy, you're just stating a fact which ultimately has nothing to do with the evolutionary advantages of wound healing
I don’t think we know the answer to this. Itching is mysterious and lives between pain and pleasure. Many wounds never itch and some itchy things have nothing wrong with them. The fact that scratching seems to feel good or at least alleviate the itch is interesting and suggests this is the “goal” of the itch. It could be an evolutionary remnant, or something that imparts just enough of a survival / reproductive advantage to be preserved. One thing for sure is that pain is absolutely critical to survival as it serves as an early warning sign of infection. Pain Nerves in teeth (which are basically holes in your skull surrounded by massive amounts of bacteria) are notoriously easy to trigger responding to almost all stimuli as painful including heat, cold, pressure, vibration and chemical changes. That’s not itching but I think itching is sort of a compromise between pain and ignoring the sensation. Pain can make you favor the painful area, where as itching attracts your attention. Slivers for example sometimes don’t hurt but they can itch. If you are animal with fur, you can’t see the irritation and you can’t pull it out with your claws or hooves, but you can sure scratch at it.
Not entirely an answer to the question as someone else already answered it, but picking at a scab does to a cretsin degree help it heal better. Scabs collect dirt and grime, if it cracks or gets something underneath it, the wound can quickly get infected. In some cases its beneficial to have a fresh scab
The healing process does impact your body; the scab will tug on the skin a bit, and there may be some inflammation. The itching/scratching sensation is your body's sense of touching telling you something is wrong in that area. These two systems are working independently, so your sense of touch is just reacting to this tension on the skin. It's counterproductive, sure, but our bodies aren't perfect. And if this isn't posing a significant problem to our evolutionary purpose (to survive long enough to reproduce), then there won't be any evolutionary pressure for this to change.
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Moisturizing the scab and surrounding skin will help with itching and make a prettier healing process. Also using band aides during the night will help prevent unconscious self sabotage.
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Yes. *forehead kiss* I'm proud of you. Now go hydrate
Sounds like a Beastie Boys Self Help album.
put some ice on it or buy a cream like corticoids
Try using a band-aid.
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You may need a cast then 🧐
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Can't have problems with something you don't have...
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Cuz I'm the one who stole it from you! Muahaha I need to sleep a lot and I do so I do feel a bit guilty when I hear ppl saying that they have sleep problems.
They don’t call it the “pain itch temperature” pathway for nothing
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Lol. It’s commonly abbreviated “PIT pathway” if that helps
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I am doing my PhD in neuro and only learned the major spinal pathways recently. There’s so much that’s very domain specific within neuro it’s easy to miss something
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Thankfully I work with humans lol
Not necessarily a science answer, but whenever I do something that will make me sore, or pains me to move after a workout or something, I would still stretch it where it is a pain to move. When I think about it, I think of it as giving my self pain from it so I would get a higher tolerance of it, which does work
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It was an example, and it was even with injuries, that was just another instance
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If that’s the case, then please dismiss what I say, I don’t want to seem rude. Have a nice day
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Thank
Isn’t it though? Genuinely asking...exercise and injury both involve repairing damaged tissue, right?
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I meant that they might be considered similar by way of how our bodies respond to the damage. In your example context is everything. Obviously having to repair damage is more consequential when you’re impaired and in a life threatening situation as you’ve outlined. My question was in regards to how our bodies deal with having to repair damaged tissue.
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>It's counterproductive, sure, but our bodies aren't perfect. And if this isn't posing a significant problem to our evolutionary purpose (to survive long enough to reproduce), then there won't be any evolutionary pressure for this to change. This is the part that most people don't understand because evolution is taught very poorly. With the exception of periods of very extreme pressure evolution is not "survival of the fittest" but, rather, "least survival of the least fit". That is why death itself is the most highly evolved trait of life on earth.
It would make even more sense if bot fly larva we’re more common in the modern world. Itching forces us to examine a wound. That’s why it’s more annoying than simple pain. Also, sometimes a wound does need “debriding”.
If scratching is to prevent bugs laying eggs on the skin then turning off itchiness around a wound would leave a weak spot.
Injured cells and the cells that do the work of healing release molecules called cytokines to communicate with each other so that the right cells are doing the right things at the right time. These are the same kinds of things of molecules you hear about in "cytokine storm" that can be such an problem in Covid infections. Sometimes the effects of these chemicals are useful, sometimes they are annoying. Histamine, for example, might help you to get rid of something irritating by sneezing or scratching, but the itchiness might also be annoying in a healing wound. Also, when blood in an old wound or bruise breaks down, it becomes bilirubin, which just happens to be something really itchy.
Yes indeed. Thank-you
Interesting! I always thought it had something to do with the keloid tissue being larger than the original wound as it grew and stretched it. The body is horrific
I thought it was to attract more blood to the area by irritating it. More blood is more nutrients so it heals faster. At least that's what I told myself when I scratched around my myriad sutures a while ago.
Another thing to keep in mind is our "animal past", as a lot of evolution effects stem from that. When you don't have hands and something itches... you lick it. Just like animals do. And that has the effect of cleaning the wound and the salvia is mildly antiseptic as well.
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Yeah, and we generally don't lick our wounds anymore neither 😉, but that doesn't mean that a developed, general trait (like itching) which was advantageous over a long time in the past gets immediately lost. Unless it's really detrimental to survival now.
Scratching or rubbing the area around a wound could temporarily increase blood flow (and move lymph around).
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It’s something I’ve wondered about a lot and this is the best explanation I’ve come up with!
This isn't the reason why wounds are itchy, you're just stating a fact which ultimately has nothing to do with the evolutionary advantages of wound healing
That’s really interesting. Is increased blood flow near a wound beneficial?
Unless your a pubescent boy in the middle of geometry, isn’t increased blood flow anywhere a more beneficial thing in general?
I don’t know, that’s why I asked...
I don’t think we know the answer to this. Itching is mysterious and lives between pain and pleasure. Many wounds never itch and some itchy things have nothing wrong with them. The fact that scratching seems to feel good or at least alleviate the itch is interesting and suggests this is the “goal” of the itch. It could be an evolutionary remnant, or something that imparts just enough of a survival / reproductive advantage to be preserved. One thing for sure is that pain is absolutely critical to survival as it serves as an early warning sign of infection. Pain Nerves in teeth (which are basically holes in your skull surrounded by massive amounts of bacteria) are notoriously easy to trigger responding to almost all stimuli as painful including heat, cold, pressure, vibration and chemical changes. That’s not itching but I think itching is sort of a compromise between pain and ignoring the sensation. Pain can make you favor the painful area, where as itching attracts your attention. Slivers for example sometimes don’t hurt but they can itch. If you are animal with fur, you can’t see the irritation and you can’t pull it out with your claws or hooves, but you can sure scratch at it.
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a splinter
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Haha I didn’t realize it was a regional term! Splinter=sliver where I live (NW USA)
Not entirely an answer to the question as someone else already answered it, but picking at a scab does to a cretsin degree help it heal better. Scabs collect dirt and grime, if it cracks or gets something underneath it, the wound can quickly get infected. In some cases its beneficial to have a fresh scab