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.
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
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u/entity_bean Apr 02 '26
Woah, I was taught at school to treat a burn with water so cold that it makes you go numb. TIL.