Each of us once had a wound that seemed to take forever to heal.
It’s been more than three weeks since you cut your hand trying to prepare food, but your wound doesn’t show signs of healing. When it’s more than a month since you got your wound and it doesn’t heal it can be something serious.
Usually, the process of healing starts with bleeding and ends with a scar. But sometimes it also includes infection, and affects your overall health. Researchers state that the average wound healing process includes three stages, inflammatory, proliferation and maturation. But what seems a simple cut at the start it can easily turn into a chronic wound. Why does your body take more time to heal?
What is a wound?
Wounds can be internal and external, and they’re breaks in the continuity of tissue. External physical forces often cause acute wounds, but medical problems like diabetes and medical treatments like surgeries can also do it. The most common types of wounds include incisions, abrasions, avulsions, punctures, and lacerations.
When you get an acute wound, you immediately need first aid because you need to stop bleeding and remove foreign objects from the open cut (when existent). Open wounds are subject of infection and contamination, so you need to clean and cover them with a sterile dressing. If you never had a booster or been immunized in the last 10 years get tetanus toxoid to prevent further issues.
You can easily manage scrapes and abrasions at home if you have cleaning solutions and antibiotic ointment dressings. But if you notice signs of fever, tenderness, redness, swelling, swollen lymph glands or you experience a sensation of heat, immediately contact your doctor.
When your wound doesn’t show healing signs in a month or it doesn’t form scarring in 8 weeks, it’s chronic and it needs complex care.
Signs that your wounds aren’t healing
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Drainage from the cut
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Warmth and redness around the wound, especially when they appear on an extensive area
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Increasing pain
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Bad odour
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Fever
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Darkening skin at the edges
If it’s more than a month since you wounded yourself, and you notice the above signs you should see a doctor because the site may be infected.
Healing stages
A clean wound goes through three stages of healing as it repairs the tissue. But, the healing process isn’t liner so your wounds can progress both backwards and forwards, depending on your overall health condition.
Swelling – immediately after you get a wound, your immune system takes action to solve the problem, so the surrounding area becomes tender and swollen. Sometimes, the wound also secrets a clear fluid because the body is cleaning the wound itself by flushing out debris. Because the blood vessels open up and expand to encourage the flow of blood, nutrients and oxygen repair the wound, you’ll notice that the damaged area turns pinkish or reddish.
This stage often lasts from 2 to 5 days because the white blood cells fight infection and repair the cells to keep you healthy. It’s advisable to wear wound care dressing until your skin grows a scar to prevent infection.
Tissue re-growth – around day 5, the tissue starts to grow back and it takes around 21 days for a minor wound to repair the damaged tissue and cells with healthy ones. The new cells are also called granulation tissue and soon a new layer of skin will cover them. During the healing process, the skin pulls the edges of the wound inward and the wound gets smaller.
Scar formation – the last step of the healing process can take even two years. At first, the area is red and itching, and the scar smaller than the original cut. During the first days, the skin under the scar is weaker and less flexible, but in time the red tissue fades and the mark of the wound entirely disappears.
Factors that influence wound healing
But often wounds don’t follow the three-stage healing process, and they progress backwards and forwards. Some factors can influence their development.
Your age – your age affects your overall health and body processes, and this includes the function and structure of the skin. As you age, every process slows down, so you can expect wound healing to take longer. Because, as you age your skin is thinner and shows a decreased inflammatory response, it can easily get hurt and heal slower than when you were in your 20s.
Your nutrition – your diet is vital for your health and proper nutrition assures optimal healing. Your body cannot heal your wounds when you don’t provide it with the needed nutrient to repair the cells and re-grow them.
You’re obese – people dealing with weight issues experience complex health problems and slow healing is one of them. When surpassing your ideal body weight with 20% you have a greater risk of infected wounds.
You experienced repeated trauma – if you underwent a surgery recently or you have multiple wounds, your immune system is limited and it slows down the repair.
Dry skin – your skin needs a proper amount of moisture and fluid to stay healthy and recover. If you have dry skin (and you’re an elder) your skin is more inclined to thickening, infection lesions and slow healing. Also, when your skin is too wet, you’re more prone to infections and maceration, so it’s advisable to maintain an optimal level of skin moisture.
You’re suffering from chronic health problems – some chronic conditions can directly influence your body’s ability to recover. When suffering from cardiovascular diseases, diabetes or immunodeficiency problems the healing process takes longer.
Medication – often, medication (even prescription one) can negatively impact the healing process. Surgeons inform their patients that the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs people take for arthritis, ibuprofen and aspirin can interfere with the healing process. Immunosuppressants boost the risk of infection and anticoagulants can stop blood clotting, so they can influence the tissue repair.
Depending on the type of wound you get, you can treat it at home or you need professional help. We hope the above guidelines can help you.
