Burns - how to treat

I'd run a mile from the toothpate one.

Toothpaste causes minor pain and damage to soft healty skin.

There are a lot of things, particulary remidies of the past that relieve the pain in the short term but cause problems with following treatments, cause further damage or inhibit healing.

There has been a lot of work done on this....almost without exception it comes back to lots of cool clear water as the primary treatment.

One of the messages that all first aid trainers hammer is not to use most of the folk remidies and there are heaps of them.

particulary targeted as bad are

anything with agressive chemicals,
solvents,
aromatics such as mint or wintergreen
anything with suspended solids
anything with persistent oils or fats
anything that can leave residue in the injury or that is hard to clean off with water alone

the only alternative treatment that holds any respect at all is aloe vera.



cheers

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Just George

Step 1.
Boil some tea(black) and let it cool.

Step 2.
Mix it 50/50 with Metho.

Step 3.
Put it into a squeeze bottle like a dish washing liquid bottle, something that's easy to open a SQUEEZE.

Step 4.
Mark on the bottle what it is and what it's for.



It's good for burns and bites. It takes away the itchiness and irritation or bites and helps to stop the blistering of burns.


My father used to be in the Rural Bush Fire Brigade years ago, after a bush fire he and another man were checking out a burnt out area when all of a sudden the other man stepped into a burnt out log that was in the ground which would've led to third degree burns and time in hospital and possibly skins grafts etc. My father very liberally splashed the Tea and Metho mix to the affected areas which prevented the horrific burns.


My mother is a retired teacher, when a child came running from the play ground screaming after being bitten by an ant, she'd apply the Tea and
Metho which soothed the area.


This has been a family remedy for many years, I have some in my workshop for when I weld or use anything hot. In the case of sunburn, it's too late as the damage is done.

You need to apply this quickly.



50% cold Tea - 50% METHO.

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Considereing metho (metho is a biocide) does more damage to live tissue (even more to already damaged tissue) than good I think I'll pass on the remedy, interesting though.

http://www.worldwidewounds.com/2001/...cal-agent.html Honey as a topical antibacterial agent for treatment of infected wounds Honey works better than any antibiotic I've ever tried and it's cheaper. When was the last time you ever saw any sort of mould or fungus growing in a honey jar, or ever had honey go off due to bacterial infection? Never.The medi-honey sold by chemists is expensive and unnecessary...a dab of ordinary honey from the pantry and a sterile dressing are fine. A workmate had a large ulcer on his leg from a scratch and contamination from raw sewage in sea-water. The ulcer had been there for 5 years and wouldn't respond to any antibiotics. He was in danger of losing the leg until his doctor s started to apply honey to it, It cleared up in a couple of months. Amazing stuff. Ask your doctor if you don't believe me.

stevebaby,
The way I understand it is the medi-honey is better as the processed stuff has more of the good stuff killed off?

I have used the medical (18+) stuff a number of times now with great results. I was a bit skeptical with my first application so I only used it on 1/2 the red area and from memory within ?12? hours there was noticable results :). My Dad swears by the normal honey (he has not tried the medical stuff).

With burns go the cold running/ice water to start with then maybe the honey if its going to have healing problems.

Honey won't provide any immediate cooling effect, an important part of first aid for burns.

Again...For immediate first aid clean COOl running water is the universaly proven and recomended treatment.
Ice is specificaly NOT recomended as it can cause further damage... thermal shock and frostbite to tissue that is highly vunerable and has greatly impared sense of heat and cold.

Honey is probaly a viable secobdary treatment for burns.

Aparantly most honey isn't processed to any great extent, the difference in the medi honey is the types of plants the honey comes from.
It is very much more potent in the "good things" that are in all honey.
And of course there will be some specific quality controll measures associated with being a medical product.

cheers

If the burn is serious off to the doctor for SSD cream - magic results in healing.
Of course cool running water first and if it blisters do NOT deliberately break the blister as that is nature's protection against infection