★☆☆☆☆
I tried cayenne on a knife cut I got on my pointer finger. The pain of the initial cut wasn't too bad, and washing it out with soap was bearable. There was no pain remaining and the bleeding had stopped a couple hours afterward when I read the post on Cayenne Pepper hoping to heal the cut faster. I sprinkled a little Cayenne in the cut, and on came the burn. It was an extreme pain, even though the cut was at the tip of my pointer finger, the pain burned through to my thumb and middle finger. I left it for about a minute thinking the "mosquito bite" type pain was under-exaggerated. It just got worse. I eventually washed it out with water, but the pain lingered. I applied neosporin, and the pain slowly went down and away in about 10 minutes. Wouldn't recommend this experience.
I tried to think of explanations because I'm the one Nay as of now. At first I thought the Cayenne I used had salt blended in. But that wasn't the case. Then I thought it was from the grains spreading the would open. That wasn't it either because with Neosporin, I can flap it all the way open without pain.
Cayenne
★☆☆☆☆
WARNING!
This happened over a year ago, but I forgot to put my feedback on Earth Clinic until I read Amydearmas's post. This is my cautionary tale about using cayenne for deep wounds.
I opened the fridge one summer day in 2008 and a mayonnaise bottle came crashing down onto the kitchen floor, smashing into large pieces. I was barefoot and one of the thick glass shards sliced into the side of my foot. Blood gushed out of the 1 inch wound. My husband suggested I immediately go to the Emergency Room and get it stitched, but after reading all the YEAS on Earth Clinic about cayenne for deep wounds, I decided that cayenne was the way to go, not stitches. So, after sterilizing the wound and making sure there was no glass left in my foot, I slathered cayenne on the cut. It burned like no tomorrow, but I dealt with it. I did this day after day, one day cayenne, the next day neosporin.
Long story short, the cayenne worked okay, but the wound, which was quite deep, took a couple weeks to heal. I was then left with a nasty scar and lingering pain for months. My lesson, get deep cuts stitched up ASAP! We have an ER only 1 minute from our house, so it was pretty idiotic that I didn't go. The wound would have healed far more quickly with stitches and left a much smaller scar.
