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I know every single person who ownes or owned a saltwater tank knows what it feels like to get salt in an open wound.

my question is:
does anyone know why exactly it stings?

all i know is when it happens it hurts like $%#&@ !

thanks!

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pnh

I dont know why it stings, but i do know that when the water in a cell is not as salty as the liquid its floating in, the cell becomes dehydrated.

"The word "HYPER" means more, in this case there are more solute (salt) molecules outside the cell, which causes the water to be sucked in that direction.

In plant cells, the central vacuole loses water and the cells shrink, causing wilting.

In animal cells, the cells also shrink.

In both cases, the cell may die.

This is why it is dangerous to drink sea water - its a myth that drinking sea water will cause you to go insane, but people marooned at sea will speed up dehydration (and death) by drinking sea water.

This is also why "salting fields" was a common tactic during war, it would kill the crops in the field, thus causing food shortages."
http://www.biologycorner.com/bio1/diffusion.html


Maybe thats why?

I'll do graffiti,
If you sing to me in French.

I would assume it has to do with the sending of action potentials (electrical impulses that the brain interprets) along the nerves.

Having just finished my freshman university college course and henceforth promptly forgot everything taught to me, I seem to recall that sodium ions and potassium ions being quite important for the polarization of the neurons. If there was an influx of sodium ions, I would think that it would cause a whole bunch of wacky stuff to happen with the polarization and would cause a lot of action potentials to be fired along the pain receptors, causing a release of a neurotransmitter (Substance P seems to ring a bell) which would cause more nerves to fire more action potentials, all of which culminates into you saying "Ow."

Someone more knowledgable than me please correct me, as I'm sure that a fair amount of what I've just said is rubbish, and I'm too tired (or lazy ) to go fact checking at the moment.

Joe Potato

Yes, what Joe said is right. Sodium moving into the neurons (usually by opening sodium gates) causes sodium to move into the cell. However, I suppose that an extremely large concentration of sodium outside of a cell would indeed cause sodium to diffuse into the cell, which could trigger action potentials.

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

I suppose, as salt kills off the cells in your cut, your body sends you pain signals to warn you that you are doing yourself damage.
The good thing is though, that you also are killing off any nasties that might have decided to take up residence.

Well, not ALL the nasties...but a good many of them. Did you know a cut that has been bathed in salted water tends to heal faster? Or at least, thats what I am told. Never tested it, because im a baby when it comes to pain.

Lol. Nervous system.

Anything that goes on that wound is probably going to strike off an action potential, when you think about it.

Well really anything touches the open wound would hurt.
Especially sharp stuff.

With the Na+ causes the membrane of nerve cell to depolarise theory, seems logical but an action potential is caused by rapid depolarisation of membrane. So the Na+ gate has to be open. Besides Na+ is hydrophillic and doesn't diffuse through membrane, it diffuses through protein channels, well in my opinion.

Also, if you put solid salt on your wound it hurts more, and NaCl will be ionic bonded, so Na+ will not will not be present on its own.

In my opinion I think it would probably be something else.

When a wound is opened, specialized pain receptors detect changes in surrounding chemical concentrations, some chemicals being more responsive than others. Not all membranes exclude the passage of sodium. It depends greatly on when and where the location of said membrane is placed, as in many instances, being unable to diffuse in/out sodium would affect the body negatively (waste excretion comes to mind). It matters not how or with what the sodium is bonded to---so long as the chemicals are present in the wound, the receptors will fire off and proceed down the line of neuros into the brain. You also forget that NaCl dissolves readily in water---water molecules have partial charges, attract the salt, and wedges its way between the crystals, and if the body is abundant in any resource, water would be at the top of the list.

Sorry, bad grammar in there, but it's 7:03 am, what can I say?

Also, if you put solid salt on your wound it hurts more, and NaCl will be ionic bonded, so Na+ will not will not be present on its own

Well, as soon as the salt hits the wound, a few of the compounds would dissociate into the constituent ions as it would be into an aqueous environment, however limited. All it would take is a few Na+ ions to create the intended effect. I'm still guessing it has to do with action potentials.

Joe Potato

That's what I said .

Just clarifying, COL.

Joe Potato

Sup.

Soup?

Joe Potato

.....Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm soup........

Inky

You want bread? YOU WANT BREAD? NO SOUP FOR YOU!

but I want it~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



Soup is t3h yummy

Inky

Bit of salt in the soup and dip your finger in the salty soup.


Ok, people, salt here........I think we were talking about salt. I will have an answer soon, emailed the question to the professor who taught me at my uni's neuron science department.

Sit tight

ok i only understand parts of what everyone is saying but i put it all together haha


thank you!

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pnh

um is it because if it didn't sting then all the elephants would go in the ocean and drink all the water and there would be none left for the jelly fish. Wait! Elephants have thick hides so that can't be the reason. Ditto Rhinos.

I just don't know.

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~~~ My fish blow kisses at me all day long ~~~