Spyke
asklemmy·Ask LemmybyDBT

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

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?

View original on lemmy.world

Yep. RIP 13-year-old me getting my first menstrual period. But probably died long before that after first needle prick.

18
lemmy.world

If you've ever broken a bone, just assume you'd be dead of infection.

Actually let's take this further: multicellular life wouldn't exist. Life wouldn't exist. Cell division requires both cells to heal themselves. This is a silly question.

31

You went too deep.

Yes it is a silly question. Just trying to have some fun.

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jet
hackertalks.com

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

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DBTreply
lemmy.world

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

1

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

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lemmy.ml

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.

22

Isn’t it less akin to carpet bombing and more like hitting both the enemy and your own troops/civilians/infrastructure with microwave emitters?

1

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.

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lemmy.wtf

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

13

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

2

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

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DBTreply
lemmy.world

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.

2

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.

1

I give Brandon Sanderson a hard time for being a bit shit, but I enjoyed the premise of this book.

3

Always felt like the immortality was extraneous. Everyone gonna choose the fire after a couple months of no healing.

2

In the last year alone I pulled a siatic nerve.... Burned my stomach (small scar) and broke the left most bone in my left foot in 3 places and barely dodged surgery as it is... So not great?

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jol
discuss.tchncs.de

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.

6

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

5

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

1
lemmy.world

just accounting for all mosquito bites ive ever had i'd probably have bled to death long ago

5

Broken ribs even with the self healing and medical aid can make life pretty rough.

2

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.

4

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.

3

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

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lemmy.world

Anime character villian looks.

I guess circumcisions wouldn't be a thing, so that would be nice; or they would still be done and male genital mutilation would be more unfortunate.

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kbin.social

Circumcised men would just constantly bleed from the penis. Just a bunch of raw, bloody stumps as far as the eye can see.

1
lemm.ee

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.

3

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

1

I ould have been dead for more then half a century. I wouldn't have survived my 1st year.

2

I'd be deaf, lame and have multiple missing fingers and toes.

Ran through a bunch of busted glass as a kid with bare feet, plus a bike accident.

2

Not great! I guess I'd be forever bed-ridden with a giant surgical cut across my chest from armpit to armpit.

2

I already have screws, bolts, and rods in me. I'd probably have thousands of staples and/or stitches. No healing means no scarring, so there may be some benefits in other ways.

2

cut myself on a glass desk near my wrist once. bled like hell but it healed by itself. i do live in europe, but my dad thought it wasn't neccesary.

so yeah, i'd be pretty much not alive. other than the occasional cut on my hands, that's probably my worst injury.

2

I think that's just what diabetic patient have to deal with, wound that never heal will get infection sooner or later. So i'll just die from paper cut.

1

I'd probably be dead from infection, and at the very least horribly disfigured. Was in a boating accident when I was 6 and had 3rd degree burns across my entire body.

1

I don't remember it, but my dad and I were going down a slide together when I was a toddler and he accidentally rolled over me and broke my leg, lol. I was only one at the time, apparently. I suppose I would've died then without any healing.

1

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.

1

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.

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