Wound is not healing? Need to find out why

Have a wound in the lip, finger or other parts of your body that does not heal or is very slow to heal? This might be something to look at. If wounds are not getting healed, that means there is something wrong with the body’s defence mechanism. 

What generally happens after sustaining a wound? The body starts the healing process almost immediately. The first step is to stop bleeding, followed by the formation of a clot to close it up. 

Next, different cells work together to regenerate the lost tissue. Eventually, the wounded area is repaired. The whole process involves multiple steps, complex chemical reactions and coordination among different cellular mechanisms. 

There could be a plethora of factors negatively affecting the healing, either slowing it down or stopping it altogether. To heal the wound, the two most important components are oxygen and nutrients. 

If, for some reason, the blood supply to the wounded is less, the healing may take longer than usual time or may not heal at all. Vascular insufficiency from different diseases, e.g., coronary artery disease, peripheral vascular disease, some cancers, etc., could be a reason for that. Diabetes is also one of the major causes. These patients suffer from interruptions in blood and oxygen supply, problems with clotting and tissue repair, neuropathy, and oxidative damage to the cells. The net result is compromised healing.

Infections, if they happen, could also slow down the healing. Age is an important factor, too. The older we get, the more time it takes for the wound to close up. This may be related to problems with nutrition, hormonal alteration or immune deficiency.  

Body weight plays a role in wound healing. If the patient is obese, the blood supply to different tissues may be less than ideal. Furthermore, some of the obese people are afflicted with protein malnutrition. The consequence-poor wound healing. Emaciation due to malnutrition similarly produces a negative effect on recovery.

There are medications which can directly affect how quickly bleeding can be stopped from the wound or how rapidly a clot will be formed. The net result is an interruption in the normal healing process. The same can happen with radiation therapy or cancer drugs. These can lower the immune efficiency, preventing proper healing.

If the wound is not healing as it should be, it is imperative to seek medical advice. The Physician will find out the underlying cause and start treatment to address that. Once the underlying factor is treated, healing should happen normally.

We can also make certain lifestyle changes to keep our healing process healthy. It requires eating a balanced diet regularly, exercising at least half an hour every day, and getting adequate sleep at night. 

In case there is a wound, we must make sure it is properly cleaned to avoid the risk of infection. If we see anything that suggests the risk of infection, medical help should be sought.

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