Curious Clinicians - Salt in the Wound

Curious Clinicians - Salt in the Wound is organized by VCU Health Continuing Education.

Thursday, June 19, 2025, 4:00 PM - Thursday, December 31, 2026, 11:59 PM

Description:
Why does rubbing salt in a wound hurt so much?

As a metaphor, “rubbing salt in a wound” means to make an already-bad situation worse for someone, especially in an unnecessary or gratuitous way. One hears the phrase constantly, about everything from taxes to sports. Perhaps one reason it’s so common is that, even if most of us have never literally had a handful of Diamond Crystal rubbed into an open blister, we intuitively understand it to be painful, even unusually painful (after all, the phrase isn’t “rub sugar in a wound”). And we are intuitively right! In this episode, we’re exploring the physiology behind why exactly getting salt in a wound is so painful.

Objectives:

Upon completion of this activity, you will be able to:

1. Describe why pouring salt into an open wound causes pain.
2. Describe historical and cultural uses of salt, including its roles in wound healing, food preservation, mummification, and as a form of currency.