Natural First Aid for Wounds

DEEP laceration healed in 7 days (with images)

So this really blew me away. I had about a half inch deep & inch long laceration on my hand. My amazing wife looked on Earth clinic and saw this crazy remedy of pouring alcohol in it (it stung pretty bad for only about four seconds) and Cayenne pepper (felt next to nothing when I poured this in the wound, which is crazy).

Since I didn't want to spend 4 hours in the hospital plus about $1500, I thought what the heck. The middle picture is minutes after the cut, the top picture is one week later, & the last picture is two weeks later (which is just a few days ago).

I changed the Band-Aid and the Cayenne pepper four times during the first seven days. And then I just left it completely open after that.

Absolutely amazing. Thanks to all of you who brought this to our attention.

Honey for Healing of Wound With Grit

I recently went on holiday to Thailand with the family and thought my health kit was well stocked. I had tea tree oil and Vicks for bug bites and repellant, also tto is antiseptic, magnesium malate for magnesium and as an apple cider vinegar replacement, Olive leaf for antibiotics should anyone develop sickness, a wholefood multi vitamin to replace the many tablets I use at home, borax for laundry and head to toe body wash inc teeth brushing (add water) rosehips for wholefood vitamin c, beet root for my husband's blood sugar, kids organic multivitamin and melatonin for sleep assist with the added benefit of gut health. I thought I had every situation covered! Until I fell in the street (narrow foot path) directing all sorts of filth into the soft part of my inner ankle and foot. I had twisted my ankle in the fall as well but did not realise for a few days.

Not in much pain but embarrassed and bloody, I returned the short walk to the hotel and passing the bar collected some salt. In the room I soaked my foot in the salt and water, cleaning it was difficult it now hurt sooo much and to my dismay I saw grit embedded in the wound. I hobbled to the couch whereas before treatment I was walking normally, albeit slowly, the attention I had paid to my injury had been rewarded with large pain increase. I applied the tto oil and researched poultice that I could access in Thailand. If I was at home there would be at least twelve plants in my garden I could use for this purpose, my husband calls some of them weeds. I could have really used one of Mama's charcoal poultices!

I found that honey could be used as poultice which I was not confident of but thought at least it has healing properties, so when hubby and kids returned from foot massage (! ) I asked him to get the purest honey they had at the chemist. I applied the honey, covering with tea bag wrapper (limited supplies) so it wouldn't stick to the wound, and a sock to hold it in place. I rested it by having a few days just watching the kids in the pool. Twice a day I applied the honey, I didn't have to touch the tender skin which was a plus, just plopped the honey on it till it was covered. The grit was still there though, but I couldn't touch it still and would not allow my husband to either.

When the wound scabbed over I was a little concerned because I knew the grit had not come out, but I had put my faith in the healing properties of the honey. I stopped applying the honey once the scabs formed. Couple weeks later when the scabs came off, the skin was pink and healthy. I guess that as much as I thought I was prepared you cannot prepare for everything, but EC got me through.

My family was at a wedding reception last evening at our friend's home. When things were winding down I was helping in the kitchen with some clean up. While putting away a knife on one of those magnetic knife holders, something jerked and my finger grazed another very sharp knife which effectively carved off much of my fingernail, leaving the nailbed open and bleeding.

In spite of ice, elevation and pressure, the wound bled for 2 hours. Bandages were useless. Once I was home my husband mixed up a teaspoon each of plantain leaf powder and slippery elm powder. We sprinkled the dry powder on the still oozing nail bed. I covered that with a bandaid with a salve on it. It did not bleed or leak another drop of blood.

Even with ibuprofen, I had to sleep with the finger iced and elevated.

I am sure my friend had cayenne pepper and I considered trying it for bleeding, but I knew it would initially sting and I was already in a lot of pain. I was afraid I would pass out at my friend's house. I don't usually get faint but was feeling ill over the cut. Fingers are so sensitive.

Today I am keeping a bandage and healing salve (made with plantain, comfrey, mullein, and burdock). I will keep this up for a while. I assume the rest of the nail will fall off. Ick.

Possibly just plantain would have stopped the bleeding. And the powder did honestly hurt quite a bit.

Moral of the story? Keep some plantain powder on hand and don't keep your knives too sharp. :)

~Mama to Many~

Hello Everyone.

I want to motivate you to pray or at least talk positive. Hope will help you to press on. When you have done all you know to do, and the doctor's office is closed it's time to pray.

We have a powerful privilege through prayer, what you ask believing can happen. In the movie, "Angels on the Outfield" the little boy liked to say, "It can happen." When we desire some good we have to stick to our confession that, it can happen and hold on to faith, hope and love.

For over a year I had been dealing with a scab on the inner side of lower thigh, wanting it to disappear I would pull the scab off, but it would only come back until it began to grow thicker and longer. It had begun to rub up against the other lower thigh as I walked. I did not want to go to the doctor, but twice it came to my mind to go to the doctor to get it removed. Now it was June 3,2020 and I had a ticket to visit some loved ones out of town. When I returned to New York I heard things we were getting better concerning COVID 19. I tried to make a doctor's appointment at the Clinic that I go to, but they were only taking Virtual, that is video doctor's appointments. I could not see how that was going to help me so I decided that I would call when they reopened. I said Lord I tried to make a clinic appointment but they are not opened. I asked God to please take the sore off my leg and heal the wound. Remember I did try to make a doctor's appointment but they were not yet working properly. There is more than one way to get our healing, only believe. After the prayer, I began to talk to the sore every time it annoyed me. I said, "Scab you will fall off and the skin under will heal properly."

One day in July there came up a sudden big windy pouring rainstorm and my window was opened. I reached over my chair to quickly close the window. The leg with the sore scraped up against the chair and Ooh the pain. Crying I said, "Lord that hurt! " I talk to the Lord a lot. I thought my leg had merely hit the chair and thus the pain. O' to my surprise when I looked and realized the scab was completely gone. To comfort the area I did like someone on EC. I mixed some coconut oil and baking soda and applied it daily for several days. This is October 2020 the area is completely healed there is only a little discoloration as the skin color is returning. No more soreness or pain there, praise God!

HisJewel

An adult son of mine cut his finger at work with a utility knife. The blade was a new one and the cut was to the bone. He had a hard time getting the bleeding to stop but eventually taped it up and kept working.

I dressed the wound each night with iodine an honey. A friend of mine had cautioned me that a bone infection could result if the bone had been nicked.

Each night, when he got home from work and after showering, I put one drop of 5% iodine in the wound and then a few drops of honey. I covered this with a fabric adhesive bandage and secured it with cohesive tape. He wore a splint on the thumb for the first 5 days because movement was likely to re-open the wound. I think I did the iodine and honey treatment for 6 or 7 days total.

For the first two nights I also applied a cooled, blanched plantain leaf before the adhesive bandage since that would not stick to the wound at all. Plantain also helps with pain relief and wound healing.

He does have a scar but the wound has healed nicely and never had a single sign of infection. And he is currently working outside in the heat, so the bandage would be wet all day from sweating.

He was making sure he had full motion of his finger. With deep wounds there are many risks, including nerve and tendon damage, infection, etc. I did ask if he wanted to go get stitches but he did not.

Iodine is a great antimicrobial and so is honey. Honey is also excellent for wound healing.

~Mama to Many~

I am a cancer patient with a mass on my neck. I have to keep it bandaged because it weeps. I have had 3 occasions where it would start bleeding uncontrollably. The first two times I was able to treat myself. Today it happened and I was fortunate that my hospice nurse was already on her way for a routine appointment. The bleeding resembled an arterial bleeding with a steady stream shooting out of the side of my neck in two places. (I had a biopsy five days ago and two heavy bleeding events since the biopsy. ) She could not stop the bleeding either and called 911.

Having been a lurker at Earth Clinic for a couple years, I was aware that cayenne pepper stopped heavy blood flow. So I had my nurse sprinkle it liberally all over the site and then we re-applied pressure to wound. (I had been applying pressure for 45 minutes to no avail. )

About 6 minutes later she withdrew the compress to check it and lo and behold the bleeding had totally stopped. She was amazed! (Me too! )

I was transported to the emergency room as a precaution. Blood flow stayed stopped and ER Doctor ended up doing nothing. That was 8 hours ago and bleeding has stayed stopped. Note that I didn't have to make a paste or anything special, just heavy sprinkling of regular cayenne pepper on wound and compression for about 10 minutes after application. You can check your wound and if still bleeding repeat the process. I can guarantee this works!

Long story short, everyone was amazed about the cayenne pepper and none of them had heard of it before. They all asked, "doesn't it sting?" No, it doesn't sting at all. You don't even know it's there.

Earth Clinic has been very helpful to me and I hope this info can be helpful to others. I encourage you to keep cayenne papper in your first aid kit.

Thank you Earth Clinic for providing such a great website. You were a life-saver for me today.

HI U OLD PATOOTS DOIN,,,,,,,,,, my pastor told me that he cans Sweet Jalapeño Peppers....... Never tried that so picked a bunch at the garden and proceeded to slice them with my Tractor Driver's vegetable slicer. Since the holder was too big, I just held the peppers with my thumb and fore finger....... wrong thing to do. Finally got the blood stopped and cleaned with H2O2 and thought of the pictures in a recent EC post and I had a choice. Coat the cut with Habanero @ 400,000 Scoville units or Jalapeño @ 50,000 units. I chickened out and used the Jalapeño powder. No pictures, but it is healing nicely. Finished the job the old fashioned way... with a knife.

Gonna be smart in 3 years at age 85.

====ORH====

I am always tweaking my wound treatment protocol. And my children keep giving me opportunities to do so!

My son was on a construction project at work and fell backwards and gouged his hand on a cinder block. He ripped off layers of skin in a line and his hand was sore and swelling.

The cinder block had been dirty. He did immediately clean the wound with peroxide.

I had him shower when he got home and we began treating the wound. I gave him turmeric internally to help with pain, swelling and infection prevention.

I mixed together equal parts of powdered goldenseal (for infection), Plantain (for skin regeneration) and slippery elm (nutrients for skin and a "natural" bandage) This powder I sprinkled generously onto the wound.

I took two strips of old clean t-shirt. I applied a thick layer of a mixture of castor oil and lanolin down the center of the t-shirt strip. Then I applied a layer of honey onto that. Then I applied this "bandage" to the wound.

So the wound had the following on it, in order from the wound site - herbal powder, honey, castor oil/lanolin, t-shirt bandage. I held all of this on with a cohesive tape that I buy by the case!

I changed the bandage every 24 hours. Within 24 hours we could see new skin growing in the wound.

He missed 2 days of work because he thought he was at risk for re-opening the wound with the type of work he does. He was able to return to work after that. I think another day or two of the bandages and he won't need them any more.

A difficulty with wounds is that moist wound healing is ideal. But the skin can get kind of waterlogged with no air. I did not use any plastic to hold in moisture this time, just oil, lanolin and honey to keep in moisture. I think this was better than anything plastic but the wound did not dry out.

~Mama to Many~

My daughter was running barefoot and cut the bottom of her foot. She didn't clean it and kept doing what she was doing. It didn't really bother her until the next day when she showed it to me. The site around the cut was red and inflamed and she was in pain.

Over the next few days I alternated different types of poultices, Epsom salt soaks and essential oils.

I used poultices overnight - charcoal one night, clay one night. I had her use tea tree essential oil and frankincense essential oil on it during the day. She also took turmeric twice a day.

The inflammation, redness and pain had improved, but when the results aren't coming as fast as I want, I change tactics. I decided to try a potato poultice. I have read about them with fascination but never tried them.

I grated some potato. I mixed in a little raw honey. I placed that on her foot and covered it with some plastic wrap and a bandage. I do think I saw the most improvement in one night with the potato poultice. She continued with the essential oils during the day a couple of more days.

She now has a healthy scab and normal color.

I love having another remedy up my sleeve (or in my pantry! )

You never know where you will be or what you will have on hand. Lots of possible remedies is always a plus.

~Mama to Many~

My husband cut his scalp a couple of weeks ago. I used the principles of moist wound healing to treat it. We took pictures to monitor the progress. I have posted at the bottom; sorry the first one is pretty icky! He took the picture with his phone and texted it to me to ask what he should do for it. We didn't begin treating it until he got home from work and showered. In the shower, he removed the piece of skin that was still sticking to the wound. (He scraped off a layer of skin climbing into a work trailer.)

After the initial cleaning and removal of dead skin, all we did was use a dressing of a healing salve I make (we keep it on hand for daily use) and a large fabric bandage. We usually changed the bandage every evening. He would leave it open for an hour or two after his shower each night and then we would re dress it. Once or twice we left the bandage on for 2 days. We did this for a total of 10 days. Perhaps the dressing was not needed the last few days but we wanted to give that tender skin a little longer to heal. He is hard on his head at work (He keeps it shaved) as you will see by the additional cut in latter pictures.

I messed with the wound as little as possible. He was rinsing it in the shower. I would apply a very thick layer of healing salve to the bandage – not the wound, so I wouldn't have to mess with the wound. The layer of salve was probably 3-4 mm thick. The salve and bandage never once stuck to the wound. New skin cells and evidence of healing were noticed within 24 hours!

Some advantages to moist wound healing include less pain, faster cell regeneration, reduced tissue death and dehydration, and reduced scarring. Pretty nice advantages!

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8109679

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3842869/

Additionally, herbal healing salves contain nutrients that the body can use to heal. The salve I used has plantain, which helps with pain and comfrey which promotes skin cell regeneration. The olive oil and coconut oil base contain nutrients also.

We have seen other things used for moist wound healing with great results as well.

Honey is amazing for wound healing. When my mother was elderly and near death, she had bedsores that were not healing. The nurses used honey on the sores and there was actually an improvement in the wounds, even in my mother's severely compromised state of health.

Lanolin is used for breastfeeding moms to heal cracked nipples with a great reduction in pain and faster healing.

I have not tried it but I suspect that lanolin and honey mixed together would make a nice wound dressing.

Herbal salves and honey are also used for burn treatment with great success.

A dozen years or so ago my daughter had a bike accident. She basically tore many layers of skin off of the bottom of her foot as it rubbed along a bike tire. (She was about 4.) It was very, very painful. The doctor I took her to introduced me to Advantix bandages. Daily I changed the dressing. I was only using those bandages that did not stick to the wound (and pull of new skin cells as dry dressings do.) (I think I had a layer of Advantix then gauze then cohesive tape, but not positive.) This dressing worked well and she was not experiencing pain with it and her healing was pretty easy.

Deeper wounds are more complicated because of fluids the wound produces – they need a place to go. But there are protocols to benefit from moist wound healing from them, but I am not suggesting that my methods here would be appropriate.

There are manuka honey bandages and colloidal silver bandages available too. It is good to know about these options before the need arrives. I try to keep a decent supply of first aid supplies at home.

Picture 1 - right after the injury

Picture 2 - 48 hours later

Picture 3 - 4 days after injury

Picture 4 - 10 days after injury

~Mama to Many~

My husband's mom, 93 and a diabetic with neuropathy cut her finger while grating veggies. It bled profusely and my man had trouble stopping it. I sent a screen pic of EC's Cayenne pepper cure and this was his answer:

Sprinkling regular kitchen cayenne on a cut that kept opening and bleeding, stopped the bleeding with a minimal sting. Quite amazing!

One of my cats took a swipe at my face yesterday morning and left a scratch about 3/4 inch long beside my nose. He was mad I had not fed him yet....anyhow, I cleaned up the scar with some soap and water, dried my face, then mixed one drop of frankincense essential oil and about 1/8th teaspoon of virgin, organic unrefined coconut oil in the palm of my hand. I applied this blend to my face and scar. I just rubbed it in to my whole face.

This morning I woke up - No visible sign of the scratch! I knew frankincense was powerful - but I sort of can't believe my eyes.

I purchased some frankincense and myrrh essential oils to make some organic face and body creams and tested my sensitivity to these oils on my skin with sweet almond oil a couple days ago but had no idea of the power of healing these oils had until I watched "The Truth About Cancer". I thought to myself, if frankincense could help people heal from cancer, it should work on a cat scratch! Wow!

From here on out, my skin care routine will always include organic lotion I make with frankincense and myrrh. Dr. Josh Axe has a recipe on his site that I will be using.

I'm sitting here....I still can't believe it.

MyWay :D

Hello, My name is Omar, and I am from Saudi Arabia. First of all I'd like to express my appreciation for such valuable rich site. What I want to share with you is about using honey on the skin of a diabetic. As you know, an injury could be very fatal for a diabetic. My father developed a very late stage of diabetes. Once he had an injury in his hand, and the wound developed very badly. The doctor put him under a very strict diet with daily dressing for the wound, by water and salt. We know from our relegion that Honey is a cure, in general, and for specific health problems like dierea. So we tried to apply honey, after washing the wound and surrounding area with water and salt, on the wound(externally on the skin) that had 1.5 cm height full of buzz. We did this every day, continously for 10 or 15 days. We were amazed to see the wound noticably decreased in height and buzz material started to disappear from the first day of application. The wound was completely healed with no scars or a trace that there was a wound in that area.Thank you for readig and hope this was useful.

A year ago my husband had one too many drinks, and tripped and fell hard backwards onto a sharp edge of a railing, which split open the back of his head. The wound was three inches long, and so deep....I was afraid to look at first, for fear that he had cracked his skull and would slip into an unconscious state. We were living on a remote island in the Bahamas at this time with no emergency people on hand, certainly no doctors or health care providers. A helicopter typically took 45mins to get you to a hospital.( If the last emergency was anything to go by) So I pulled myself together and instructed my eight year old son to keep Daddy awake by talking to him, no matter what! I tore my kitchen cupboards apart looking for the magical pepper I had read so much about year or two earlier.
I finally found the small bottle of cayenne pepper. I figured the whole bottle should slow the bleeding in time to find help.
Well.... not only did it STOP the bleeding, but after holding the wound together and having my son tip the entire contents of the bottle onto my husbands head the wound looked as though it was starting to stick together like glue! We sat holding the wound together for a further few hours for good measure, Then used thin strips of tape across it to act like stitches.
My son and I took turns waking my husband through the night, about every half hour to check he was ok, and to make sure the wound hadn't started bleeding again. To our amazement not only was there no pain after the first hour, but the burning sensation was very mild considering the depth of the cut..
The following day no one on the island would believe how bad the wound had been, and certainly felt there was no need to rush to the hospital.
Two days later we took the tape off. The wound had sealed with no infection, only a big orange crust from the cayenne pepper!
A further five days later, my husband had a shower and washed off the crust to reveal a lond thin line that looked like an old cat scratch!
To this day no one understands my decision to trust the magic of cayenne pepper. All I can say is........ we had no choice!
What a blessing to discover something so powerful.
I know it will travel with me every where I go for the rest of my life! And people often ask why I take strange capsules filled with red stuff.. I just smile......if only they knew!