How do our wounds heal themselves?

Our body has a wonderful self-defense mechanism. Many health problems can be cured by themselves if the body is provided with the right kind of food and exercise.

An injury is a break or opening in the skin. Our internal organs are very delicate and hence need to be protected always. Thus when the skin is injured or torn it creates an opening for the germs and foreign objects to enter our body which might lead to serious issues.

The minute you cut or tear a blood vessel, the body's healing elements start their duty.

Stop Bleeding

• Vasoconstriction − When there is a cut on the body and bleeding starts, like self-defense, blood vessels tighten to restrict the flow of blood to the harmed region thus reducing the loss of blood from the body.

• Platelets − Platelets in the blood gets activated by proteins spilled from the torn vein. They immediately get activated and bunch together and later cling to the sides of the torn vessel, making a plug.

• A fibrin net is formed by the clotting proteins in the blood, which holds the platelet plug in the region of the tear, and in only a couple of minutes bleeding stops, on account of coagulation. The fibrin plug turns into a scab that will, in the long run, tumble off or be reabsorbed into the body once healing is finished.

Once the bleeding has been controlled, the next thing is preventing infection. The vessels that were contracted now expand to convey white platelets to the damaged area. White platelets engulf and crush any germs that may have gotten into the body through the open injury. When the germs and blood loss have been taken care off, the body turns its functions to rebuilding and healing.

The Actual Healing Process

• Fibroblasts (cells that are specialized in shaping skin and other tissue) accumulate at the site of damage and start to deliver collagen, which will gradually fill in the injury under the scab and make new vessels to convey oxygen-rich blood to the wound which is recovering.

• The skin along the edges of the injury ends up noticeably thicker and afterward step by step moves (or extends) under the scab to the center point of the injury, where it meets skin from the opposite side and forms a scar (around three weeks after the underlying damage).

• Scar tissue will wind up noticeably stronger and fade slowly as time passes (can be many years) as more collagen is added to the skin, however, it will just have around 80 percent of the strength of the first skin.

Not all injuries heal similarly. As a rule, more serious injuries take more time to heal. Many factors to impact how rapidly your body can recoup from an injury, including

• Age − Older people heal slowly compared to young ones for obvious reasons.

• Nourishment − The body needs a decent supply of vitamin C to make collagen. Thus proper intake of food leads to better healing.

• Smoking − Smokers heal slowly when compared to non-smokers.

• Stress − A lot of stress can retard the process of healing.

• Infections or sicknesses − Hypertension, thyroid infection, diabetes, and poor circulation of blood can decrease the healing ability of the body.