Herbal First Aid

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By Michael Castleman

An estimated 80 percent of minor injuries occur at home. While some cuts, burns and blisters require immediate medical attention, others can be effectively treated with simple first aid.

When stocking a first-aid kit to deal with these inevitable accidents, don’t overlook the many natural products that can speed healing and reduce the risk of infection. These include items you may already have on hand, such as vitamin C, aloe and honey.

When the Skin is Broken

To treat minor wounds, it’s helpful to understand how the body responds to injuries. The skin, which is the body’s largest organ, has two layers — the epidermis and the dermis. The epidermis is the thin layer (about five cells deep) that’s in direct contact with the environment; it is also host to millions of bacteria and other microorganisms. Ordinarily, these residents cause no problems, but that can change quickly when you suffer a minor wound that breaks the skin.

Beneath the epidermis is the dermis. When a wound tears the dermis, microorganisms from the epidermis invade and threaten infection, and the immune system works to close the breach and kill the germs. Blood vessels around the wound dilate, and extra blood rushes into the area, rinsing the wound and cleaning it. The extra blood also carries a small army of white blood cells that attack infection-causing microorganisms. This process causes inflammation — swelling, redness and pain around the wound. Cells injured by the wound die, but before they expire, they release a protein that triggers blood clotting, which eventually forms a scab that closes the wound.

After about 24 hours, other white blood cells release proteins that stimulate the repair of injured blood vessels and the creation of new skin cells and collagen. Sometimes the process is less than perfect, and collagen forms where you should have skin, resulting in a scar.

Wounds also can get infected — in this case pain and inflammation can persist or increase, and pus, made up of dead bacteria and white blood cells, may ooze from your scab. However, if all goes well, minor wounds should heal completely, and the simple remedies below can help speed that process.

Heal with Vitamin C

No matter what kind of wound you have, taking vitamin C can help, whether you get it from fruit juice or from supplements. Low blood levels of vitamin C slow healing, while high levels speed formation of new skin cells and collagen, according to Dr. Melvyn Werbach, author of Nutritional Influences on Illness.

Studies conducted on vitamin C date back to the 1930s, and recent research has confirmed these effects. In a 1996 study, British researchers gave bedsore sufferers standard care plus either a placebo or vitamin C (500 milligrams twice daily). After one month, the average sore areas shrank by 43 percent in the placebo group and 84 percent in the vitamin group.

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