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Aluminum Foil Works for Burns!

The comments below reflect the personal experiences and opinions of readers and do not represent medical advice or the views of this website. The information shared has not been evaluated by the FDA and is not intended to diagnose, treat, or prevent any disease or health condition. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional for medical concerns.
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Aluminum Foil
Posted by Jane (Pawleys Island, SC) on 11/09/2023
 ★★★★★

Yes! I discovered this years ago on Earth Clinic years ago and it works!

I am so thankful for this site.

Aluminum Foil
Posted by Sara (CO) on 11/07/2023
 ★★★★★

I've been using this method for years after reading it here on Earth Clinic and I just wanted to say it does work. We have a glass top stove and the other day I managed to set my hand down on a burner I had recently used. Immediately I ran it under cool water for about 30 seconds and then covered it with foil right away, shiny side out. It took the pain away pretty quickly and healed completely in the time it took to sit down and watch a TV show or two. I've used this method for every burn I've had and it always works and there's never a mark or scar afterwards. Thank you EC and other users!

Aluminum Foil
Posted by Melissa (Albuquerque ) on 02/20/2022
 ★★★★★

Aluminum foil works very well for stopping a burn from further damaging skin. I spilled boiling water on my left arm and wrist. Immediately ran cold water on it then wrapped with foil dull side facing the wound. It Stung like crazy for nearly an hour. I then added the baking soda and covered with foil and wrapped in plastic bag. About 5 hours later the skin is a little red with no blisters.

Aluminum Foil
Posted by Lindylou (Manchester Uk) on 09/28/2020
 ★★★★★

I really burnt my palm and fingertips on my electric stove. I came across this method and give it a try. Putting the shiny side to my palm didn't work for me, so I used the dull side. I've got to say, it reduced my pain by 80%.

Aluminum Foil
Posted by AS (London) on 04/14/2020
 ★★★★★

I burned the back of my left hand and fingers this morning, very painfully, under the boiling water tap of our sink. I put it under gently running cold water for a few minutes. I didn't allow any self-condemnation..like thinking "what a stupid mistake etc" but just replaced that sort of thought with knowing that all would be well. Fear is the mental component of physical inflammation..so I quieted fear. Easy to do when I knew that I would find help on Earthclinic! I didn't have aloe in the house but did find a jar of 100MGO Manuka honey. I slathered it on and wrapped my hand with two layers of foil, pinching it very gently (!) to fit and then duct taping it. The pain was intense for about 40 minutes...I was ready to give up and try something else when I noticed the pain level go from 9-10 to 5-6 ...and then down to about 1. Only the base of my thumb now in pain. The relief was so lovely! Now the foil is off except for the thumb and there is still a fine slick of Manuka over the hand, like a second skin. No redness. Pain negligible.

Thank you brilliant Earthclinic! I'm so grateful.

Aluminum Foil
Posted by Marilyn (Canada) on 04/22/2019
 ★★★★★

Burned my hand by picking up a lid that had been in the oven. Ran my hand under lukewarm water for about 10 minutes and then went to the computer for 'help'! Read the honey/foil tip and after applying honey and foil for about an hour - pain gone and it kept the damage to a minimum. Will certainly do this again in the future (should I be so silly as to touch a 'hot pot' again!

Thanks so much for the tip.

Aluminum Foil
Posted by Tealover (Henderson, Nv) on 08/28/2018
 ★★★★★

I touched the grate on my stove and burned a hole in my finger. The skin melted and the burn was very deep. I immediately soaked my finger in iced vinegar for 30 mins. Then saw this on Earth Clinic regarding the aluminum foil. I cut a strip and wrapped it around my finger, like a bandaid, shiny side up. It hurt worse for 10 min., then suddenly NO pain. I left the foil on overnight and by the next morning, the burn looks amazing! No blister, the hole is almost healed! Wish I had known about this yrs ago!

Aluminum Foil
Posted by Marta (Salt Lake City) on 06/08/2018
 ★★★★★

I touched the oven grill removing pizza last night and gave myself a bad slash burn on the top of my arm. First I ran it under cold water, then I wrapped the burn in aluminum foil. After a few minutes the pain subsided. Overnight I left the foil on but saftey pinned a kitchen towel around the foil so the crunching sound wouldn't wake me up. Next morning, no pain and looked much better. Now I'm just adding fresh aloe to the burn.

Aluminum Foil
Posted by Juliet (California) on 06/04/2017
 ★★★★★

Crazy idea but worked awesomely. Burned hand on BBQ, applied ice, hunted Earth Clinic for remedies and saw "FOIL".. What!!! Yes, foil is absolute perfection. Made a robot-looking hand cover and the pain was completely gone before an hour was up. Left it on for a few hours and then switched to an handmade aluminum bandage (foil and nothing else OVER THE BURN and then tape on the edges of the foil to attach to my hand) Be sure you have nothing but foil over the burn and place the tape only on the edges of the foil so you can adhere the foil bandage to your skin. Left it this way for the rest of the day and all night. Absolutely no pain the whole time, and then removed the foil bandage in the morning.

PS - When I replaced the Robot Hand Foil contraption for the foil bandage, the burn let me know it was still active. However, it only took minutes for the pain to be completely gone again after I applied the foil bandage and left it on. Just leave the foil on!

Aluminum Foil
Posted by Dustin (New York) on 09/30/2015
 ★★★★★

Editor's Choice

My suggestion is to put the burn on cool running water for 30+ minutes and then wrap it in Aluminum Foil and place it on an ice pack until the ice pack gets warm. Then continue to leave the Aluminum Foil on it for a 5-6 hours.

Here is my story:

-------------------

I touched a scorching hot pan with my thumb. I ran it under cool water for about an hour and a half, while under the water it felt fine, there was a little discomfort but no pain. But when I removed my thumb from the water within 10 seconds it was back to the most unbearable excruciating pain, even hours later. I grabbed a cloth with cool water and using that I could be away from the water for 2-3 minutes at a time and during that time I did a little googling.

The first couple of sites all had the same suggestions of expensive creams that I didn't have laying around, Alo which I also had none of. They also suggested rubbing alcohol or hand sanitizer with high alcohol content, I tried this and it only relieved the pain until it all evaporated (~1 minute). I also tried to tooth paste which had the same effect as alcohol, about 1 minute of relief then the pain resumed. Those sites also mentioned the Aluminum Foil suggestion which I though was a joke and no one seemed to speak too highly of it just a few mentions so it must be a joke right?

Then I came to this site, and of course all the same suggestions were made but people seemed to speak fairly highly of the Aluminum Foil. I thought what they heck it can't make it any worse.

I cooled my hand the best I could with cool water, quickly dried it off and wrapped it in Aluminum Foil. For the first minute nothing appeared to happen, and it was starting to hurt again. I was just about to take the foil off and stick my hand into the running water again when the pain slowly started to get better, so I decided to leave it on for a minute longer.

Slowly over the next few minutes it got better and better until it felt about the same pain level as leaving it under the water. I then decided to touch my thumb with the Aluminum foil around it against an ice pack. That was 100% instant pain relief. Sometimes the pack got too cold and it would begin to get uncomfortable so id remove the pack for a 30 seconds or so and then put my thumb back on it. I continued this pattern for an hour or so until I fell asleep. During the night I woke up from the fire sirens (I live next to a fire station) and I noticed that the ice pack was completely warm but I had no pain. I tossed the ice pack aside and just left the foil on and went back to sleep.

This morning I woke up and felt almost no pain. I unwrapped the foil and found that it was there was a small patch of leathery white (dead) skin but it was painless. I am assuming over the next few days that skin will just naturally peal off and everything will be fine. I currently feel no pain except when I forget and grab something with that thumb. I currently am leaving the foil on not as a pain reliever but just as a reminder not to grab anything.

----------

While my Bachelors is in Computer Science I also have an Associates in Physics so I will now do my best to "GUESS" why this works. I have done 0 experiments or studies or measuring of any kind so this is purely a hypothesis, that may be 100% wrong but here is what I think causes the pain relief...

In physics there is no such thing as "cold" only different amounts of heat, cold is just low heat. Heat likes to travel from an area of high heat to areas of low heat. This is restricted by the thermal conductivity of the mediums (material between the high heat and the low heat). Thermal conductivity refers to a materials ability to transfer heat quickly. Something like water has a high thermal conductivity. So when it is hot it feels very hot because the heat is very quickly and easily transferred to your skin and when it is cold it feels very cold because the heat is very quickly and easily transferred from your skin to the water.

The first half an hour of running water will remove all the heat from the burn caused by the burn. Then after that even your own body's heat is enough to cause pain on the burn. The Aluminum foil acts as a radiator wrapped around your finger removing your own bodies heat from that finger and releasing it into the air. Also if you use an ice pack that also sucks the heat from the foil quickly allowing the foil to then remove the heat from your finger quickly.

When I feel Aluminum Foil not attached to my body it feels cool to the touch. This is because it is removing the heat from my fingers. Then as I wrap it around my finger it becomes warm when I touch it with other fingers, it actually feels almost the same temperature as my skin, this is because most of the heat my finger (wrapped inside the foil) is being transferred to the foil and the foil now does not have the ability to absorb any more heat from the finger I am "touching" it with.

In hindsight, next time I may make a more elaborate Aluminum Foil "glove" with many thin strips of foil forming "fins" like a radiator (or heatsink, google it to see what a heatsink looks like). This will expel the heat from the foil into the air more easily. Air needs to be able to pass through the fins so don't wrap it in cloth or anything, better yet put it in front of a fan.

Good luck and I hope you feel better.

Aluminum Foil
Posted by Savannahj (Detroit, Mi ) on 08/13/2015
 ★★★★★

Aluminum Foil is magic for burns! Thanks for posting this!

Aluminum Foil
Posted by Sona (Florida ) on 07/05/2015
 ★★★★★

The date today is 7/5, so you can tell how I burned myself...

But anyways, to impress my younger brother and mother, I went brought out some of those snake like fireworks, where you light one and it starts to grow? But anyways... It was windy, so the only way to actually light the silly things, I had to use a sparkler... Not a good idea by the way...

But I lit it up too close to my hands and it was able to turn the thumb, and index finger pure white on my right hand, flipping out from pain and the fact I could've lost my hand I quickly went back inside and washed the white powder off, only to see that I burned my whole index finger.. Now standing in the kitchen with nothing but ice and water, I ran my hands under the water, it felt fine. but as soon as I pulled it out it started to burn again, so gritting my teeth I went back to my room, and started to google Burn/Fire Cures... and I found this website.

At first I tried the usual water, ice, and the egg white.. they would work if it was touching the burn and stuff, but once I took it away from my hand, the horrible pain came back, so when I found the Aluminum Foil, I thought it was the silliest thing I've ever seen in my whole life. I didn't want to have to walk around, looking like a cyborg. But I remembered I had agreed to a date on Monday night and I didn't want to look stupid trying to hold his hand with my less dominant hand...

So I tried it and my goodness, you are a life saver! I walked around with my index finger, and thumb wrapped in Aluminum Foil, and at first I felt stupid because my mother, brother, and my mother's boyfriend, kept calling me a dork and whatever, and within 15 minutes it worked, And I was so happy! I left it on for the rest of the holiday, and I watched fireworks and whatnot.

And today on the 5th of July, my little burn doesn't hurt any longer, and tomorrow night my date will go fine! Yay!

Thank you so much for sharing this little secret, I was so scared that I would be in pain all night last night, and I wasn't, thanks again!

Aluminum Foil
Posted by Miranda (Philadelphia ) on 06/29/2015
 ★★★★★

Foil works! It sounds crazy but try it! I grabbed the handled of a pan that came straight out of a 400 degree oven. Had my hand in ice water for 2 hour and every time I took my hand out it would hurt so bad tears would stream down my face. I was googling anything that would help with pain and saw this. I was desperate and thought well this couldn't get much worse it's worth a try. I wrapped my whole hand in foil and rubbed ice over top of the foil for the first 10 minutes. After that the pain lessened and after and hour was completely gone!!! I slept with it on because I was scared it would start hurting again if I did. I woke up this morning and took the foil off and the skin is still a little sensitive but have no pain, no blister, no redness!!!

Aluminum Foil
Posted by Courtney (Talbott, Tn) on 06/04/2015
 ★★★★★

I burnt my hand with a cigarette tried cold water, freeze spray, mustard, holding cold drinks, potatoes, then googled what helped saw aluminum foil, thought it was crazy but worth a shot. It helped within an hour. Shocked but loved the relief. (:

Aluminum Foil
Posted by Rache (Fl, US) on 03/30/2015
 ★★★★★

Editor's Choice

I grabbed a pan handle with my bare hand after taking it out of the 300 degree oven. I put it down quickly, but my fingertips and palm were already red and starting to swell. After running cool water over my hand for 10 minutes, my fingertips had begun to blister with ugly little bubbles over my fingerprints. I slathered raw organic honey on the burns, let it sit for 10 minutes, rinsed it off, then did the same with organic virgin coconut oil. The burn looked less red but the blisters were still there. I saw all the positive reviews of aluminum foil. It sounded stupid, but I decided to try it. I've had a foil "glove" on for about two hours. The pain has been very mild and lessening. I peeked under the foil a few minutes ago and the blisters are gone! This is awesome! I've experienced kitchen burns before and they ALWAYS looked and felt worse as the hours passed. I can't believe this has worked so quickly to help the burns look and feel better. I showed my husband and he could barely tell where the burns were. The burns are still tender and sting if I grip something, but no biggie. I'm keeping the glove on!


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