Health and Fitness – Fitness Made Easy

A burn is damage to the skin caused by wet or dry heat, chemicals or electricity.  Most burns happen at home,  and are caused by scalding water,  hot oil or grease.  The mildest burns are known as ” first degree” , they may be red and tender with some swelling. You can treat these yourself provided they are cover an area no larger than your hand.  More serious injuries may result from fire,  steam  or chemicals.  Moderate (second degree)  burns are red and painful with blistering and swelling.  Severe (third degree)  burns don’t hurt to begin with due to nerve damage,   the skin is charred or black, white or red.  There is no blistering but serious swelling.  Severe burns require urgent hospital treatment.

Prompt first aid is all that is needed for most minor burns and scalds.  The first healing step is to immerse the burnt area in cold water for at least 20 minutes.  This cools the skin,  stops burning and relieves pain.  Follow up by keeping the area clean and applying soothing compresses and boosting your body’s ability to heal itself  by taking one of the remedies recommended here.

First things first

• Act fast. You can safely treat burns that affect only the top layer of skin,  depending on size:  even first degree require medical attention if they cover a large area  (bigger than hand size).  Deeper burns and those caused by electricity need emergency medical attention.
• As soon as you can,  get the burnt skin under cold running water (running water stays cold)  for at least 20  minutes. If there’s no water available,  use any other cold,  non irritating liquid such as milk or iced tea.
• Remove  jewellery or clothes that may constrict the area if swelling occurs.
• Cover the burn loosely with a temporary dressing of  cling film or a plastic bag. A wet cloth can be put on top to provide cooling after the initial  20 minutes of cold water treatment.
• Take care not to break any blisters. They are nature’s protective coating.
• Leave the burn alone for at least 24 hours so it can begin to heal on its own.  If a blister bursts,  clean the area and apply some antiseptic cream before covering with a loose dressing.

Look to nature’s healers

• Once your burn has had  2  or  3   to heal,   you can try applying  any of the following remedies.
• Squeeze or scrape some aloe vera gel from a freshly cut leaf and apply it to the burn.  The cooling gel reduces pain,  moistens the skin and keeps bacteria and air out of the burn.  If you don’t have a plant, apply an aloe vera based cream or gel   2  to  3   times a day.
• The daisy-like flowers of camomile’s have long been used in burns remedies.  To help a burn heal more quickly,  apply camomile cream or make a compress using a cloth soaked in a strong infusion of camomile.
• Another gentle healer is calendula ointment, made from the flowers of garden marigolds.  Apply as often as needed.
• You can make a soothing compress by soaking a cloth in diluted distilled witch hazel or cooled tea made from marigold, chickweed  or elder-flowers. Apply the compress  3  or  4  times a day.
• The yellow flower of  St John’s wort contains hypericin,  a substance renowned for its ability to heal wounds and burns.  It is the active constituent in hypericum ointment, which can be applied to a burn  3  times a day.  The flowers are also dried and can be used to make a healing compress.  Put one teaspoon of the tried herb into a cup of boiling water,  steep for 5  minutes and strain.  Soak a cloth in the cooled tea and apply to the burnt area twice a day.

Heal from the inside out

• Immune system boosting echinacea can help skin to repair itself and fight off infection.  Buy  the tincture (1:5  in  45% alcohol)  and take  15  drops in water three times a day.
• Gotu kola (or indian penny-wort)  is a small tropical plant whose leaves have valuable wound healing properties.  They are used in capsules as well as external ointment.  For burns,  take 1  or  2  300mg  capsules with food,  up to 3 times a day.

Cool a scalded mouth

• Gulping a hot drink, taking a mouthful of microwaved mince pie, biting into a cheesy pizza – all these cause excruciating burns inside your mouth.  The tissue of the roof of your mouth is very thin and burns easily.  Left to its own devices,  your mouth should heal completely in a week or so.
• The best thing you can do with a scalded mouth is to cool it down.  And the easiest way to do that is with cold water. Spend 5  to 10  minutes simply rinsing, spitting and gargling with cold water until the pain in your mouth eases.
• An even faster method is to use ice.  Suck ice cubes until the stinging stops.
• Once you’ve finished the initial cooling off,  rinse and gargle with a salt water solution. The salt is antiseptic and will help to clean and disinfect the burn.

Roberto Garcia (Health and Fitness Specialist)
http://www.newhealthandfitnessdvds.co.uk

Specialist provider of Health and Fitness information and products including: DVDs and Supplements.

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Tags: blistering, Burns and Scalds, first degree burns, second degree burns, third degree burns

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 18th, 2010 at 7:23 am and is filed under Medical. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.