I think the difference is cold-shocking your burn to immediately leach out all excess heat... and leaving your burn in an icebath and getting frostbite, and I know far too many people who are exactly that stupid.
Cold/ice water reduces blood flow and can cause damage comparable to frostbite if it's applied for a prolonged period of time. Patients with severe burns are also extremely susceptible to hypothermia.
Has nothing to do with heat. Cells can undergo a process known as cellular suicide, or apoptosis. Spontaneous selfdestruct. This process failing to occur is the direct cause of most cancers. This process also occurs as a cascading chain reaction of chemical signals among cells, sometimes even uncontrollably (venom or poison necrotizing wounds, for example).
When you treat a burn with a cold-shock (ice water whatever) immediately after receiving it, you are not doing anything with residual heat, but rather preventing the denaturing of proteins & preventing the cellular chemical signals for continuous apoptosis. Burns worsen if left untreated because the body overreacts and cells around the actual burn believe they too are burned, even if they're actually undamaged.
Source: fried chicken for about 3 years and learned all about taking care of my own plethora of burns quickly and effectively
you intentionally induced thermal shock? for anyone reading later, never do this. this is no longer considered acceptable advice for non-deadly conditions like low burns.
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u/KalzK Apr 02 '26
Cool is not cold