One part of popular games like Call of Duty that has us scratching our heads is how the characters are able to initiate their magic powers and begin regenerating wounds in humans after being shot by a bullet just by hiding outside of combat. But there’s also a real life way to do it too. Bears have apparently mastered this, according to a study completed in the US.
It was reported that medical researchers and zoologists from the University of Minnesota, the University of Wyoming, and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources came together to publish the findings in the journal Integrative Zoology.
Their findings came as a result of a 25-year study carried out on 1,000 tracked black bears. They found that any wounds a bear sustained healed with little scarring and had absolutely no signs of infection at all. This was a process which happened in full during the hibernation process where a bear’s heart beat, metabolism, and body temperature will dramatically decrease; some bears will even have a heart rate of around 9 beats per minute.
Now, you don’t need a scientist to tell you that the point of this is to try and discover the secrets of the bear in order to gain the same skill to begin regenerating wounds in humans. But the scientists who were explaining this said the point of this study was geared towards healing infection-prone wounds in patients who are either malnourished or diabetic.
The researchers reported that bears who had gunshot wounds, arrow wounds, or wounds from other animals often became infected or inflamed by early winter. But, as if by magic, when the bears emerged from their hibernation process in the spring the wounds were healed and there were barely any signs of scarring.
What was even more surprising is the fact that after many months of hibernation the bears hadn’t lost any muscle mass or any fat either. Clearly bears have something special about them which could be useful to humans. And, no, it’s not going to be how to stay fat without eating.
Of course, this has massive implications for medical research because if humans can isolate whatever gives the bear their remarkable healing capabilities then it may be able to be translated into some form of drug to give humans their own healing capabilities.
We all know that the scientists said it was designed to aid those humans who have a significantly reduced capability to heal their own wounds, but, let’s be honest, it can be used for all humans. We could end up seeing it in the military and it might even become as common as morphine. Although don’t expect to be seeing any bear healing hormones for regenerating wounds in humans on the market for a very long time yet.