Bush /First Aid

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Carcajou Garou

On a new journey
Jun 7, 2004
551
5
Canada
Field expedient salve to treat cuts, abrasions, open wounds (minor); use liquid honey to cover the affected part natural (anti-septic) of sorts. Do not give honey internaly to infant less than 1-1/2yrs old. liquid honey packs store well in a baggie, last forever, oh yes in a pinch you can even eat it (not the honey on your arm) but the other packs. Warning can attract bears so be careful in bear country :lol:
just a thought
 
J

Jamie

Guest
Hi Carcajou Garou

Thanks for that...and have made a mental note to never use it in bear country!!!!! :lol:
 

Adi007

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Sep 3, 2003
4,080
0
Mikey P said:
At risk of being dull: what's 'propylis'?

I had heard of honey being used - does anyone know why it is effective?

Propolis is bee glue and is created from resins and tree saps. Honeybees use propolis to seal cracks in the hive. You can buy propolis in health food shops.

Honey works if it is local because is desensitizes you to the local pollen. Works well.
 
This kind of thing has been done for centuries with sugar or honey. Something about osmotic fluid shift preventing infection.
I read about in in Hugh Coffee's Ditch Medicine book
It's also a common treatment for open decubitus ulcers.

You can mix up white sugar and iodine, Sugardyne.
According to a US SF medic pal, it works very well.

I have a friend who recently got a really bad cut and put just plain white sugar in the wound. The puncture remained fully open for about 12 hours and closed completely in about a day. Day two he wore only a bandaid, day three nothing. The wound filled with new pink flesh, and barely formed a scab.

His hypothesis is that:
- The sugar may act to suppress microbial growth in the wound (ever notice how sugar doesn't go bad).
- The sugar may work to directly provide energy for cellular repair within the wound.

For those that are interested, here are some articles you can look up.
(There are more than 400 journal articles in the National Library of Medicine.)

1: Topham J.
Why do some cavity wounds treated with honey or sugar paste heal without scarring?
J Wound Care. 2002 Feb;11(2):53-5.

2: Lusby PE, Coombes A, Wilkinson JM.
Honey: a potent agent for wound healing?
J Wound Ostomy Continence Nurs. 2002 Nov;29(6):295-300. Review.

3: Efem SE.
Clinical observations on the wound healing properties of honey.
Br J Surg. 1988 Jul;75(7):679-81.

4: Ndayisaba G, Bazira L, Habonimana E.
[Treatment of wounds with honey. 40 cases]
Presse Med. 1992 Oct 3;21(32):1516-8. French.

5: Pieper B.
Commentary--" Honey: a potent agent for wound healing? ".
J Wound Ostomy Continence Nurs. 2002 Nov;29(6):273-4.

6: Salcido R.
Complementary and alternative medicine in wound healing.
Adv Wound Care. 1999 Nov-Dec;12(9):438.

7: Oryan A, Zaker SR.
Effects of topical application of honey on cutaneous wound healing in rabbits.
Zentralbl Veterinarmed A. 1998 Apr;45(3):181-8.

8: Ndayisaba G, Bazira L, Habonimana E, Muteganya D.
[Clinical and bacteriological outcome of wounds treated with honey. An analysis of a series of 40 cases]
Rev Chir Orthop Reparatrice Appar Mot. 1993;79(2):111-3. French.

9: Bose B.
Honey or sugar in treatment of infected wounds?
Lancet. 1982 Apr 24;1(8278):963.

10: Fox C.
Honey as a dressing for chronic wounds in adults.
Br J Community Nurs. 2002 Oct;7(10):530-4. Review.

11: Gillitzer R.
[Modern wound management]
Hautarzt. 2002 Feb;53(2):130-45; quiz 146-7. German.

12: Bergman A, Yanai J, Weiss J, Bell D, David MP.
Acceleration of wound healing by topical application of honey. An animal model.
Am J Surg. 1983 Mar;145(3):374-6.

13: Tovey F.
Honey and sugar as a dressing for wounds and ulcers.
Trop Doct. 2000 Jan;30(1):1. Review.

14: Subrahmanyam M.
A prospective randomised clinical and histological study of superficial burn wound healing with honey and silver sulfadiazine.
Burns. 1998 Mar;24(2):157-61.

15: Kingsley A.
The use of honey in the treatment of infected wounds: case studies.
Br J Nurs. 2001 Dec;10(22 Suppl):S13-6, S18, S20.

16: Molan PC.
Potential of honey in the treatment of wounds and burns.
Am J Clin Dermatol. 2001;2(1):13-9. Review.
 

Stuart

Full Member
Sep 12, 2003
4,141
50
**********************
Suger does work very well but you must remember that as soon as the dry suger granuales soak the bodys fluids and become a syrup it must be removed and replaced with more dry suger!!!!! other wise it will premote infection!!!!

once the suger becomes saturated it no longer causes osmosis and just becomes a source of food for bacteria
 

tedw

Settler
Sep 3, 2003
513
3
67
Cambridgeshire, UK
An old east european treatment was to cover the wound with a salve made of mud and cobwebs, mud and urine or all three. Never tried it myself, but it's supposed to work!

Ted W
 

EdS

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Cobwebs stem the bleeding and FRESH urine to clean a wound as it is mostly sterile.


i tend to carry a small tube of superglue, as I can be a bit clumsy. After recent incidents it should come free with every one of Jack's billhook - god do the take a sharp edge and cut well (especially flesh).
 

Andy

Native
Dec 31, 2003
1,867
11
38
sheffield
www.freewebs.com
I just rememberd I saw a programme where a bloke got a stung by a scorpion, a local man put sugar on it then a freshly cut potato. He lived which he wouldn't have done otherwise
 

Mikey P

Full Member
Nov 22, 2003
2,257
12
52
Glasgow, Scotland
EdS said:
i tend to carry a small tube of superglue, as I can be a bit clumsy.

I've heard the superglue trick before - in fact, I heard superglue was actually developed during the Vietnam War as a result of research into ways of closing wounds that didn't use stitching.

I think there is a medical-type of superglue that comes in small plastic tubes - an army medic used some on my head when I split it open in the Gulf last year. Worked a treat and healed quickly and cleanly.

Any docs out there used this stuff?
 

Adi007

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Sep 3, 2003
4,080
0
Dermabond and superglue are similar but not the same. Superglue is ethyl-cyanoacrylate while Dermabond is 2-octyl-cyanoacrylate. the reason for the differnce is int he way that these glues work. They stick to things by taking small molecules and making them into bigger chains through a process called polymerization. This process is exothermic, which is chemist talk for giving out heat.

Dermabond isn't as fast and vigorous as Superglue (taking 45 - 60 secs to cure, compared to a few seconds) so less heat is given off. So, the upshot is that you can use Superglue, but it can get hot so get ready for the ouch!

Another thing to bear in mind is that neither should be put too deep because they cannot be absorbed by the skin ... so don't put too much in there!
 

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