Treating burns with aloe Vera

jowitt.europe

How I treated my burn with Aloe vera. Do you have your stories?

I was baking a cake. I was already taking it out of the oven when my hand slipped. The cake started to fall, I caught it and... pressed my hand quite hard to the hot metal.

My first reaction after any hot touch is to hold it under cold water and while still wet, press it against salt so that it sticks to the burn. I wait until the salt dries and falls off by itself. If the burn is minor, this is usually enough.

This time it was not enough. The second step was the treatment with aloe vera. In winter my plant is on the windowsill, in summer I keep it in the garden. I took a leaf, cut it lengthwise and put with the slimy inner part on the burn. The burn was painful. I thought to myself that this time I would not manage to avoid blisters, but, I didn't give in so quickly. I changed maybe 10 leaves one after the other. As soon as one was day and warm, I would put another one. After an hour or so, the pain started to subside. I left one the leaf on the burn for the night. In the morning only a red line remained, but it was no longer painful.

This is my story. But, I keep repeating: what helps one does not necessarily help another. In any case it is useful to have aloe on the windowsill in the kitchen. 

How do you treat a deeper burn?

Torey

I'm sorry you got burned @jowitt.europe but good for you, knowing just what to do.

Aloe would be my first choice, too.

I have a recipe for a burn spray that would be good on sunburn as well as other burns. Aloe is the primary ingredient.

https://www.seraphinacapranos.com/simple-aloe-vera-skin-spray/

Aloe is such a wonderful healer. I was travelling a few years ago and caught a bit of the conversation that was going on in the seats in front of me. I know, eves dropping. Both women were nurses, one much older, about my age, and the other much younger. The older woman was talking about treating a case of gangrene. She had been off work for her days off and when she came back to work one of her patients had started to develop gangrene. The doctor on duty was talking about some serious debridement and if it didn't work, then amputation. The nurse said, Hang on, wait a minute, give me a few days with him and went to the aloe plant in the nurses station. I'm not sure if it was internal, external or both (likely both) but she said she had the gangrene cleared up in less than a week. I looked into in afterwards and sure enough, there is a fair bit of research into aloe healing gangrene.

jowitt.europe

@torey what an interesting experience with gangrene. And thank you for the skin spray. It is worth having. The sun is so active during summers. Another project for me 😊

shllnzl

I recently pulled a Corelle covered dish with cooked vegetables out of the microwave; I tilted the dish too far and boiling water poured out of a curved edge of the lid onto my hand. I knew I was in trouble, so I ran cold water over my hand for a bit, then went for my aloe vera plant. I broke off a large stem, sliced the side open and completely coated my hand with the gel several times.

I had pain for hours, but no blisters. I consider that a success story.

Cornelius

I have not heard of using salt on a burn. What does it do for it? I recently got a slight sunburn and aloe definitely made it feel better. I'll look into making that spray though.

jowitt.europe

@Cornelius putting salt on minor burns comes from the family. My grandmother and mother did that, so I continue. They believed, it sucks out the burning feeling and the heat from the burnt skin. Only on minor burns. The so called 1st degree. But no sunburn. If the burn is minor, the red and pain immediately disappear. Placebo? Can be, as long as it helps. So far, it’s my first reaction to any hot touch: cold water, then salt.

They (my grandma and ma) used to put sour milk on sunburns. I hated that. I thought it stinks. But it soothed the pain.