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I'd like to show you two things in this video. Firstly, why rubbing DOESN'T cause blisters
And secondly, the distinction between blisters and abrasions
Let's have a look inside the shoe. The heel is moving up and down while the sock and shoe
are stuck together. So the shoe is rubbing against the sock ... which are stuck together.
Most people think this is the scenario leading to blisters. Actually, this WILL cause a skin
injury, but it WON'T be a blister. This is an abrasion scenario! And abrasions
are common at the back of the heel and the top of the toes ... you often end up with
a red raw sore. An abrasion is where the top 3 epidermal layers are literally been rubbed
off. It doesn't take many of these episodes for the skin to be abraded.
Here's our Abrasion scenario on the left. Let's compare that now to a blister scenario
... the one on the right. Are you thinking nothing's happening?? Actually, there's plenty
happening and it's all going on under the skin. The heel bone is moving up and down
while the skin is staying in stationary contact with the sock and shoe. This causes stretching
and distortion of the skin and soft tissues ... which is called shear ... and when shear
reaches a certain threshold, blisters occur. Blisters are an injury of the next epidermal
layer down - the stratum spinosum. So abrasions and blisters have different mechanisms
of injury and occur in different areas of the skin.
And as you can see, rubbing causes abrasions ... Not blisters.