MadSci Network: Medicine |
Hello Chris, Thank you for the question. Funny I should be answering this when I am actually experiencing it after attending a baseball game in Boston. The burned skin feels hot/warm because of the way the body responds to this type of injury. The immune system senses damage and calls for help. Help is delivered by increasing the blood flow to the region, essentially causing inflammation of the area. The increased blood flow to this area of the skin makes it feel warm and appear red. Naturally, this hot feeling will continue for as long as the area of skin is "under repair", which varies from person to person (a few days to perhaps weeks, depending on the severity of the sunburn). As a comparison, there are similar inflammatory responses which we see after many types of injury, such as insect bites. I hope this helped out. Tye Morancy
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