Cool feelings where are you from

[yan-cha]

Yes , I made mistakes because I couldn't recognize the two iron bars,
and mistakenly laid my hand on a hot but soft one, got burnt a little but its okay for me though, since we all can immediately draw our hand back in such situations. I came to see my doctor right then and he gave me some capsules too. I found that when I let him see my burn, he gently rubbed on it with a kind of cream I am sorry i forgot to ask what its name was. but surely it felt very cool.

Could you tell me why he did that ? I had such a cool feeling because of the fact that I burnt with hot soft bar which increased the blood cell concentrations on the burnt surface and the cream is at normal temperature ?

Thanks a lot

 

[Almeisan]

Its probably something that can absorb a lot of heat, like... water.

 

[chroot]

I doubt that the cream was actually to absorb heat; the burned skin would no longer be hot only a few seconds after removing your hand from the heat source.

It was probably a corticosteroid cream (hydrocortisone or prednisone) to reduce inflammation.

- Warren

 

[Moonbear]

Some creams and gels intended for burns give a cooling sensation to the skin for a short time because they contain volatile substances that evaporate quickly (often menthol), thus carrying away heat with it. Some stuff sold for things like sunburn contain alcohols, but that can be drying when you need more moisture, so isn't very good for burns. These compounds would feel cool applied on any part of your skin, not just the burned area. Others contain some anesthetics (lidocaine, procaine, etc...look for a word ending in -caine as a possible topical anesthetic) that will numb the area slightly to take away the burning sensation. None of this does anything to treat the burn, just makes it comfortable while either allowing it to heal on its own (if it is a mild, first degree burn, you don't need to do anything for it) or while treating it with some topical antibiotics to prevent infection if it is a deeper burn that is at risk of becoming infected.