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  • 10 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
Cake day: June 5th, 2024
  • derek@infosec.pubto196@lemmy.blahaj.zone•hand Itch ruleEnglish
    5·
    1 month ago

    Disclaimers: This isn’t medical advice. Don’t hurt yourself.

    It’s only bad for you if you burn yourself. There was a study a couple of years ago showing a strong correlation between application of heat on insect bites and a reduction in percieved itchiness.

    https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10309056/

    My pet theory is that two things are happening.

    1. The mechanisms for sensing itch and heat from our skin overlap and can interfere with each other.
    2. Transferring heat quickly enough breaks down the chemical or cocktail causing the itchiness. My best guess is that the heat denatures them ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denaturation_(biochemistry) ) or the sudden shift provides a shock that’s disruptive enough to get the job done. Like moving something from hot, to cold, to hot again when sanitizing.

    The linked study suggests my first conjecture is, at least, a reasonable explanation for the immediate relief we feel.

    Itch and pain, distinct sensations with specific receptors and mediators involved, interact with each other. A painful stimulus, such as noxious heat, causes the inhibition of itch signalling.

    There are a few recent studies floating about which address aspects of mosquito bite itchiness pathophysiology. We still don’t know exactly why that happens though. Without that info I can’t draw the same conclusion for my second conjecture.

    Anecdotally I’ve found success treating mosquito bites by

    1. Heating water while putting something cool on the bite
    2. Once the water is near boiling: taking the water off the heat and letting it cool to ~60° C / 140° F
    3. Soaking a bit of metal in the hot water until the metal heats up
    4. Touching that hot metal to the bite for a few seconds.

    A fork or knife works fine. Anything that will radiate the heat away from itself and into the skin quickly. Ice or cold water works for the cooling bit. I’ve also used an ice cold metal can a few times.

    If the metal is too hot it can cause a burn. antiscald.com has a nice chart for this: https://antiscald.com/index.php?route=information%2Finformation&information_id=15

    If we reference that table alongside the Denaturation wiki article’s chart we can identify the line we’re towing. We want something hot enough to kill the itchiness but not so hot it’ll damage our skin. 55° C applied to the mosquito bite for five seconds or so seems to do the trick. Your mileage may vary.

  • derek@infosec.pubto196@lemmy.blahaj.zone•Elementary sch(rule)English
    4·
    3 months ago

    The suggested alternatives don’t work though because they’re superfluously suggestive. We have a few ways to fine-tune the story. I’m not sure there’s an inarguable improvement but, to my taste, I see two.

    “Well… You are what you eat!” She replied.

    Pinocchio’s gaze moved slowly toward the school.

    1. It doesn’t matter who the speaker is. If the reader is familiar with the original story and they assume correctly that’s fine. We don’t need the information for our delivery though. Dropping the reference makes for a cleaner read.
    2. Ixnay the garnish. I considered “eager gaze” but that still felt clunky. Communicating the action in a way which mirrors the unspoken internal processing of the monstrous consideration itself leads to a more powerful realization for the reader. It now paints a scene instead of hinting how the reader should feel about it.

    Part of my execution comes down to styling, and I’m particular, but packaging compact work for ease of digestion and letting the words rest as they fall leads the reader succinctly to our intended moment (which, as I understand it, is the purpose of the exercise).