[TheForge] Cure for a bad burn?

[peter fels]

After cold water/ice to stop the damage...most successful treatments seem to have a means to keeping air and dirt off the burn as well as some antibacterial precaution.
Honey has some antibacterial virtue beyond the strong osmotic pressure it exerts, drawing water to itself.
Flour seems like supplying and feeding any bacteria there..

On Mar 28, 2011, at 6:36 AM, Bruce Freeman wrote:

> I think Phlip's got it right.  Flour could would be tough to debride
> from a burn, and in addition may carry all sorts of undesirable stuff
> along with it.  What's fit for consumption is not necessarily fit for
> direct introduction into a wound.
> 
> That said, it wouldn't surprise me if flour milled fresh in a clean
> mill would help a burn or wound, the same way that a bandage can help,
> and possibly more so.
> 
> If you  need an emergency remedy for a burn or wound, consider using
> honey.  The sugar seems to be the active ingredient, here, but some
> people consider honey to be something special.  (I don't.)  Sugar is
> fairly resistant to microbes, as is evident by the minimal care it
> takes to put up jellies.  And sugar requires washes off.  (Insofar as
> the starch in flour is a polymer of sugar, it is conceivable that it
> would have the same effect.  The objections to flour remain, however.)
> 
> I recommend the book, "Honey, Mud, and Maggots" as an entertaining and
> useful read.  It debunks the modern myth that bleeding was nonsense.
> Apparently, it remedied what it was used for about 7 times out of 10,
> which is probably on par with modern medicine.  It is no longer
> appropriate because people don't suffer the same ailments they did in
> the 18th century and earlier, and because medicine has progressed so
> far.  This is not to say bleeding couldn't kill the patient, but the
> same may be said for many treatments.
> 
> On Mon, Mar 28, 2011 at 9:05 AM, Saint Phlip <phlip at 99main.com> wrote:
>> What that will do is dry it up and put more crap in it, so that if you
>> DO go to the Dr, they'll hafta debride it deeper than they'd prefer-
>> at a great expense in pain to you.
>> 
>> First Aid for any closed burn is to immerse it in cold water. \Even
>> open burns are to be covered with a sterile (if possible) cloth and
>> cold water applied, (the cloth is there to prevent tissue being washed
>> away).
>> 
>> If you want something that REALLY works on burns, get your Dr to give
>> you a prescription for Silvadene.
>> 
>> http://www.drugs.com/mmx/silvadene.html
>> 
>> That stuff is wonderful. I tested it a couple years ago, when I had
>> managed to get more or less matching nasty burns on both hands (I was
>> teaching, ands I grabbed to prevent the kid for getting a bad burn, so
>> I figured I'd test the stuff. I put the Silvadene on one burn (the
>> worst of the two) and just used cold water and cussing on the other
>> one. The one with the silvadene healed in half the time. I now keep it
>> handy at all times, despite the need to get a Dr to prescribe it for
>> me.
>> 
>> On Mon, Mar 28, 2011 at 8:21 AM, Ron Childers <ron at munlaw.net> wrote:
>>> I received an e-mail stating a cure for burns is to immerse the burned
>>> area in a box of flour. (Don't wet the burn first). Keeping the flour in
>>> the refrigerator is supposed to be even better. Has anyone ever heard of
>>> this, or tried it? I have kept aloe plants for years but they keep
>>> dying.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> --
>> Saint Phlip
>> 
>> So, you think your data is safe?
>> http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/01/23/schneier.google.hacking/index.html?hpt=T2
>> 
>> Heat it up
>> Hit it hard
>> Repent as necessary.
>> 
>> Priorities:
>> 
>> It's the smith who makes the tools, not the tools which make the smith.
>> 
>> .I never wanted to see anybody die, but there are a few obituary
>> notices I have read with pleasure. -Clarence Darrow
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> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Bruce
> NJ
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