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Medical Video: Testimonial from a crystal meth user before he died
Failure to focus items for just one second when slicing onions, then slicing your fingers. Or you fall tripping over gravel when crossing a road, and now not only are your pants torn, but your knees are also victims. Normally, for fall-and-wake business like this, red medicine is often a savior. But why is it, the red medicine feels stinging when applied to the wound?
Why does the red medicine feel sore when applied to the wound?
Red medicine is an antiseptic fluid that is designed to weaken or stop the growth of germs and bacteria to prevent the risk of infection in open wounds, such as abrasions, scratches, or burns. In an antiseptic liquid product is usually contained alcohol and hydrogen peroxide. Well, these two ingredients activate pain signals in the body and trigger burning sensations.
When applied to the wound, alcohol activates vanilloid receptor-1 (VR1), which is responsible for creating a burning sensation when the receptor is exposed to heat or certain chemical compounds - such as capsaicin in chili. VR1 is usually only activated in high temperatures (40ºC or more). Therefore, these receptors will usually not be turned on unless your body is really burning alive. However, when alcohol comes into contact with VR1, the body's core temperature threshold drops below normal. So, you suddenly feel hot as if you're burning, even though it's not.
Meanwhile, hydrogen peroxide in the red drug activates another receptor, known as the potential transient receptor ankyrin 1, or TRPA1. TRPA1 is thought to be involved in a pain sensation caused by hydrogen peroxide. This is what causes the burning feeling under the skin after you apply the red medicine to the wound.
But, not all wounds can be treated with red medicine
To treat scratches, incisions, eroded, mild abrasions is actually unnecessary to treat with red drugs, such as hydrogen peroxide, iodine (Betadine®), or alcohol. Applying red medicine to minor injuries carelessly can actually irritate the skin and interfere with the healing process. So, next time your skin is scratched by falling marks (again), immediately rinse the wound with clean running water.
If there is no clean water available, you can use a solution of salt water, non-alcoholic wet wipes, or soft washcloths - so long as the fabric is not fibrous or hairy so that no strands of material are caught in the wound. Then dry well and cover the wound with gauze, to keep the wound area clean while recovering.
In precarious situations where no clean water or other materials are available to treat wounds, then only red drugs can be used. Remember to always wash the wound first with running water until it is clean and dry well before dropping the red medicine. After that, wait for the red medicine to dry on the skin first, then the wound is covered with bandages.
Do not use red medicine to treat open skin wounds - such as torn tears from an accident with a knife or other machine, deep incisions, animal bites, large burns (bigger than moles), or wounds. All of these are types of skin wounds with rapid and extensive bleeding. Povidone iodine (the active ingredient in Betadine®) does not have a healing effect on wounds like this.
Hellosehat provides special articles about first aid information on stab wounds, deep wounds, wild animal bites, and burns that you can see on our page.
