Benefits Of Honey As A Primary First Aid Resource

How honey is a great first aid resource for cuts, grazes, gashes, burns and other wounds.

Unwanted cuts, grazes, gashes, burns, or more severe wounds. Things that can happen to us or people we are with in many types of accident, at home, work, or out at play. What would you use as a first aid treatment for a wound or burn apart from trying to stop any bleeding?

You will be pleased to know that nature has provided the ideal first aid resource.

Honey. Yes honey. Probably not what you would normally think to include in your first aid kit. However there are certain characteristics that make it very useful.

Antiseptic properties: To some extent all honey can provide a level of hydrogen peroxide, due to one of the enzymes within it.

Barrier to stop infection: By applying a layer of honey over a wound, you are creating a natural barrier that helps prevent any new infection from entering. This is very useful in many circumstances, particularly if you are in an environment where risk of further infection is high, for example when travelling, or being outdoors, living in a warm / humid place, or just likely to come into contact with 'dirt'.

Will you have a nice sterile bandage to place over the wound? The nature of requiring first aid means one is often not available. Having placed a good layer of honey over the wound, making a barrier, there is less risk of infection from using a non sterile alternative, a strip of cloth or whatever else you happen to choose.

Keeping the wound moist: Using honey on a wound, cut, or graze helps to keep it moist, which actually helps in the healing process. Plus the natural sugars and enzymes in honey provide useful nutrients to the wound to further aid the healing and growth of new tissue.

Reducing damage to new tissue: One of the problems with traditional dressings, is that they make direct contact with the wound area and the new tissues that are trying to grow, and they stick somewhat to that new tissue. Then when you change dressings, that new tissue that is trying to grow suffers damage again. A layer of honey, or a specialist honey dressing , helps to prevent damage to that important new tissue during dressing changes. Just don't allow the wound and honey to dry out too much.