If the human body didn't heal itself, how'd you be doing rn?

DBT@lemmy.world to Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world – 35 points –

Your body doesn’t heal itself. Cuts need stitches that must be permanent. Bones need to be screwed together even if just cracked. How you doing?

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People think that the immune system is like this pinpoint accurate machine that kills invaders. In reality, it is more like a carpet bomber that functions under the principle that we can heal and viruses/bacteria cannot. Inflammation is basically your body carpet bombing and healing.

We would also not be able to build muscle mass as the repair of microtears is what leads to hypertrophy.

So we would all be dead. Healing if fundamental to life.

I was thinking of purely physical injuries, so nothing immune system related. But the muscle building part… Damn. Yea we’d all be a bunch of wet noodles. Hadn’t thought of that.

Very very very dead. The first cut you get would cause you to bleed out and die. It would be a miracle to survive to one year old

Stitch that bad boy up to stop the bleeding. You’re just stuck with the stitches for life.

Unfortunately most stitching doesn't work by itself, you still need natural clotting. The stitching can help hold the wound together so the clotting is more effective and blood losses lessened. But without clotting factor you're going to need to glue it closed

Everyone in the world is dead next question

I wouldn’t be dead, but I’d probably prefer to die in this scenario.

Sounds like the sort of question someone under 30 asks

Most decent people tend to learn to keep their rude comments to themselves as they age, so the same could be said about your comment.

How does that strike you as rude?

It kinda came off like you were calling me young and dumb.

But I think I see where you were coming from. I wasn’t really thinking about old age pains and injuries, even though I’m currently dealing with one.

This was a shower thought where I was mostly thinking about cuts and broken bones. Not meant to be super serious or deep.

Does "heal itself" include immune responses? Like, could you recover from a cold on your own or would you need anti virals?

No. Purely physical. I should’ve clarified that.

This is just too unrealistic. I mean, some people actually suffer from conditions where they have a really hard time healing wounds, like lack of plackettes. And some people bruse extremely easily. But if you were unable to heal at all, you would be long gone. Kids get scratches all the time, and even one scratch would lead to an infection that would overwhelm you immune system.

4 more...

Have you read Elantris?

Covers this pretty well.

I have not, but I will. Thanks.

Absurd.

Every one of us a) wouldn’t have come into existence, because birth is a trauma with plenty of bleeding and potential for infection on both sides, and b) you’d die from your first infection or bleed out from your first cut.

Well, given I have a bunch of injuries that never healed, I’d say I’m doing alright considering.

Being a young person who hasn’t had one of these yet, you should be aware that older people don’t heal as well as younger people.

Oh I’m aware. I’m over 40 and am currently dealing with an injury that doesn’t seem to want to ever heal.

When I was 4 or 5 my 300 pound dad fell on me on the street.
Not well.

I basically still have a broken nose since then. The bone is blocking my left nostril for the most part. When I was at the hospital, none of the doctors noticed my broken nose. I did however need to get X-Ray or CT scan (I don't remember which one it was) done urgently. The "urgently" took a month. "Oh, look, your nose was broken. You'll be able to get plastic surgery at 18 for free, since it limits your breathing."

Anyway, I'd still have bleeding face scraped from the asphalt. Perhaps even broken rib(s). It's not unlikely for that to happen in such case, and it's not like anyone would notice.

But this seems to be nothing special.
My dad broke his knee, called an ambulance, they took him to the ER. Then they took an X-Ray of his knee, someone just told him "It's not broken. Go to checkup in a week." He also had to get home somehow, on his own.
Well, anyway, he went to that doctor for the "Checkup" right next day. He looked at the X-Ray, said it's very obviously broken and will need a surgery.

He also had some problem with his spine, took over 10 years for anyone to look at it, at which point it was late. Now his left leg is basically paralyzed and he's on strong drugs.

My grandma had a badly done amputation, it kept bleeding and oozing pus. She also had some infusions recommended, but the doc who recommended those said she'll need approval from GP. But the GP would have to visit her at home as transporting her would be too risky. Response from GP? "Not worth it, she'll die soon anyway."

Anyway, this kinda turned into rant. At the very least my whole mouth would be bleeding as I keep accidentally biting my cheeks and tongue.

Makes you think a bit about how things are. Solid rant 10/10.

Ded. I'd be nothing but a mass of stitches and have been burned enough times, if that didn't heal id be dead.

Slow healing is the one thing I notice the most about getting older. I'm in good shape and all, well nourished, it's not lifestyle. I broke my finger and it took two years to heal completely. As a kid that would have been 6 weeks, at 50 something it took 104 weeks.

I have spent time lifting weights in the gym, every muscle in my body would be soup.

Same. Hadn’t thought of that. It wouldn’t be possible to get swole.

I'm 50% of the way there and it sucks. Everything hurts at some point.

Yeah, i would be boned. Even just recently i had a wrist reconstruction

Depends on what you're talking about. If you consider all the injuries we've ever picked up in life, we'd all be dead. If you're just talking about the injuries I have now not healing, then I'm fit as a fiddle.