Aluminum Foil Works for Burns!

Aluminum Foil

Posted by Pj (York, Pa Usa) on 02/17/2013
★★★★★

I wasn't thinking when I grabbed the handle of a pan that had recently come out of a 400F oven and I burned a good bit of my palm and parts of my fingers. The only thing I could think of was to get my hand in some egg whites (okay, I ended up smashing the egg open and put my hand in the white and yolk). That helped initially, but my family and I were heading out to a play in a few hours and I didn't see the theater looking kindly at my bowl of eggs.

I came to Earth Clinic, saw the aluminum foil remedy, and after reading the testimonials and fighting my doubts, I wrapped my hand in an aluminum foil mitt. At first it didn't do a whole lot, but I had read enough to know to wait.

It began to feel better. I took it off to adjust it, and the pain came back immediately. I hadn't realized how much the foil had been keeping the pain at bay! (I didn't do anything else for the pain. )

I re-wrapped it with foil, put some gauze over it to keep it in place, and more importantly, to prevent me from looking completely insane for wrapping my hand in aluminum foil, then left for the play.

When I returned home, not only was my hand not hurting, but the areas on my palm that had been red were no longer red. There is still the main burn part which hurts a little when I poke at it, but that's it. The parts of my fingers that were burned and NOT covered in aluminum are red and tender. A big YEA for aluminum foil!

Aluminum Foil

Posted by Nikki (Oakland, Ca, USA) on 01/13/2013
★★★★★

Burned my hand taking a mug of boiling water out of the microwave - first on the ceramic handle of the mug which was unexpectedly a lot hotter than normal, and then with the boiling water splashing out onto my hand as I dropped the mug down onto the counter. Spent over 2 hours with water and ice packs on it and took 3 ibuprofen and the pain was increasing instead of improving. Had put Solarcaine and aloe on it, as well as Arnica, all to no avail. I was in so much pain I was considering pulling out some narcotics left over from a surgery a few months earlier. I sat the pill bottle down by the computer and went online and saw the foil tip posted here. Read through about half the 127 postings on it before deciding to try it. As others posted, initially, the pain increased. I removed the foil, put on somebaking soda paste and put the foil back on. After about 5 minutes, I got up and went to go get tape to tape the foil on and when I was done I realized the pain was improving. Had a few more waves of intense pain but noticed that I was starting to have pain-free periods of a minute or two. It's been 45 minutes now and the pain is almost entirely gone. I have put away the painkiller bottle - unopened! I was skeptical of this remedy, as so many home remedies have not worked for me (or made things worse) but I was in so much pain I had to try it and this one worked!!

UPDATE: It's now been 3 hours. I took the foil off my hand about an hour ago. There is almost no pain at all. The swelling that had been there has gone down. The blistering that had begun has stopped. There is a bit of the feeling of "tight skin" where the burn is, but otherwise, it feels fine - I'm able to type this with both hands! I can't thank everyone enough for listing this suggestion. It works, it works, IT WORKS!!!!!!

Aluminum Foil

Posted by Lauren V. (Croswell, Michigan) on 12/16/2012
★★★★★

Ughh, I just vacuumed up my MacBook charger cord. It was plugged in and when I pulled it out, the wires were exposed and a black tar was formed on the outside, burning my fingers and palms pretty badly! I thought I was going to die. Literally! Nothing worse than a burn! Found this website after 15 minutes of cold tap water, and so far, my hand has stopped throbbing! I'm so glad, that was awful!

Aluminum Foil

Posted by Natalie (Paradise Island, Bahamas) on 09/23/2012
★★★★★

I seared a pork loin in a stainles steel pan and then placed it n the oven to cook. I grabbed it out with apotholder and not 5 sec later picked it up with my bare hand!! I severely burned half of my hand. After 3. 5 hrs of holding an ice bag, which helped the pain alot, I had to find another alternative. Once I took the ice off, the pain became very SEVERE and SEARING. I started looking onine to find other remedies. I did not have aloe vera. I read about Aluminum foil. I put baking soda on my hand and wrapped it in the foil, the pain became unbearable the first 15 min!! I would pace and cry out loud! Then it was in waves and after 1 hr the pain was completely gone!!!!! I had only taken 2 tylenol as well. I kept my hand wrapped all night and woke up to a swollen hand but the redness and pain are gone! Unbelievable! I am a veterinarian, so no stranger to medicine and was very doubtful this was going to work. I thought I was going to be in severe pain and not be able to work. I am completely pain free and keep looking at my hand in disbelief. Do it.... The pain will go away after 20 min or so! Thank you Earth Clinic!!!

Aluminum Foil

Posted by Kyle (Tofield, Edmonton, Canada) on 09/09/2012
★★★★★

Okay I admit it, when I read about the foil thing, even after several posts I thought it was the dumbest thing I had ever heard in my life. I mean, how can that help? but just to prove to myself I was in fact stupid I tried it so I could say I did and post that it was ridiculous... And then the pain went down.... Okay how in the world does this work? Why does it work?... This shouldn't work! But it does! Weird.

Also I highly recommend Aloe, and don't just squeeze it onto a burn, just split it open and lay it on the burn it amazing stuff. Unfortunatly my plant got destroyed while moving and I haven't picked up another one.

Aluminum Foil

Posted by Jphriendly (Homewood, Il) on 09/17/2012
★★★★★

Burned the whole tip of my index finger on hot oil. Gotta say, after 2 hours of cold water/ice packs and intense pain, the foil actually helped quite a bit. Got a tea bag soaking just in case. Not sure I will even need it. Still a dull pain but after 15 mins, it's feeling hot but a lot better. Cheers and thanks for the help!

Aluminum Foil

Posted by Kathy (US) on 10/07/2014

The reason aluminum foil works is because it is a heat conductor (the opposite of a heat insulator which keeps heat in). So it works for the same reason cold water works - it continually conducts heat away from the burn.

Aluminum Foil

Posted by Burning Up (Mesa, Az) on 07/24/2012
★★★★☆

I was making rice on my stove, wrestling with the pot cover that sometimes will not fit on the pot. I wrestled a little too hard and tipped the pot of boiling water over, spilling it all over my right hand. Living in AZ in July, I have no cold water running from my faucet. I had to pour a bowl of referigerated filtered water and soak my hand in that. With my left hand I started Googling home remedies on my iPhone. I tried everything I could find, from onion juice to potato slices. In the end I had to settle for a cold compress to keep the pain away.

After about 5 hours, I finally found this site with people recommending foil. Decided to give it a try, but the foil made my hand burn so much I had to smother my foiled hand in the cold compress. After about an hour of holding my hand this way, I decided to change out the foil. Weird thing: as soon as I took the foil off, the burning went away. The pain has come back but nowhere as intensely as it had been before. Not sure if I'll try the foil again, but the cold compress is going to snuggle in bed with me tonight.

Aluminum Foil

Posted by Karen (Ephrata, Washington, Usa) on 07/05/2012
★★★★★

As you can probably tell by the date that this was written- July 5th- what this one is related to.

So I was at my daughters house for the 4th last night and we were doing the obligatory sparklers and such. As we are doing this I was trying to recall the ICD-9 codes for accidental burns and blown off fingers due to fireworks. I used to work at a hospital and I would type up the emergencies from the previous night. So of course I always dreaded the 5th of July.

My son-in-law was lighting some Small Bee Spinners in his hand and throwing them in the air, I liked the effect and in all my experience and wisdom I thought.... "hey I should try that"..........

Anyway...after I washed the black scorch marks off my thumb left by the fuse I could see that my skin had turned white and I was getting a blister. The pain was searing and unrelenting. I drove home and immediately went to Earth Clinic and tried the aluminum foil. Within 15 minutes the pain had subsided enough that I was able to sleep. I removed the foil this morning and the blister has gone down and it feels fine. I am impressed!

Thank you to all of you who share your remedies and experiences! And I guess I can add an obvious remedy... Prevention... Do not light fireworks while holding them, duh.

Aluminum Foil

Posted by Eve (Milwauke, Wiscomsin) on 07/10/2012
★★★★★

Long story short, burned myself (again! ) on the grill cover. VERY hot. Went searching for some relief after holding a cold pak on two fingers for 30 min. They are now wrapped in foil and it is working.... Who knew??!! Tough to type but the pain is subsiding!!!

Aluminum Foil

Posted by Dan (London, Uk) on 07/21/2012
★★★★★

First day of the school holidays, time to mow the lawn so the kids can play. Out comes the old lethal petrol mower. 'Stay back kids, it's got a big blade and it's very dangerous.' Twenty minutes later and it's not working properly. So I reach down and pointlessly touch the exhaust plate. Three burnt fingers literally sticking to the plate as the flesh cooks away. Screaming, shouting, point safely made about the dangers of the lawnmower. Two hours of ice packs later, it was still like i'd just burnt them. Found this site. Utterly brilliant. Top tips: tin foil should be shiny side down on the burn. Also, crumpling foil helps. And wrap around the bottom with sellotape/scotch tape to seal. I look like a rubbish version of the Terminator, my kids have called me 'silly' for the past few hours, but 30 minutes later and the pain is all but gone. KEEP THE FOIL ON, THIS TOTALLY WORKS!!!

Aluminum Foil

Posted by Iowama (Pella, Ia/usa) on 08/20/2012
★★★★★

I am writing with another story about using foil to cover a burn. Redundant, yet had I had not run across this cure in the "latest posts" so often, I might not have thought of it when I burned both hands badly in a cooking accident. As it happened, once I collected myself I asked my daughter to break a couple of eggs into a plate while I ran water over my hands. Then I worked the eggs through my fingers until the egg had heated up to about room temp. I had read about this somewhere: It felt heavenly! After I rinsing, we created foil mitts around my hands, pressing the foil down between the fingers. When my hands would start to feel too hot, I cooled them down by waving them in the air and a couple of times, I had to pull the mitts off and run water over them again. I went to sleep in those mitts, but they came off in the night. Next morning, there was very little discoloration, very light stinging, and there were no blisters at all. Amazing! I went through the day performing my usual chores and 2 days later, the nerves in my hands were completely calmed and the color was back to normal. I want to express my gratitude to everyone who wrote in to tell of this cure, which turned out to be so helpful to me in my time of need.

Aluminum Foil

Posted by Keleeemo (Dover, Nh) on 08/20/2012

Hi, It kind of makes sense using aluminum because when my son got burned I had to put Silvadene cream on the burns and it is made with silver and keeps the burns from becoming infected. Good tip!

Aluminum Foil

Posted by John (San Rafael, Ca) on 05/31/2012
★★★★★

Grabbed a cast iron skillet right off the grill last night - potholder was on the other hand! D'oh! Had my hand under cold running water less than five seconds later, then in a bowl of water with cold packs for about an hour, but even after all of this, there was still immediate, unbearable pain when my hand was removed from water. Did a search for other remedies, found this site. Crumpled up some foil around my damaged finger and thumb; initially, after wrapping fingers in foil it still felt awful so I soaked my foil fingers - this felt better in the short term, but when I removed my hand the pain returned. Only when I left the foil alone and elevated my hand above my head for about fifteen minutes did the foil begin to do its thing correctly.

The crumpling seems to add surface area to allow the foil to conduct the heat away from the burn site more efficiently than it would from exposed skin alone. As a test of this hypothesis, I blew on the foil, and I could feel the coolness much more than I would have expected from blowing on the skin directly.

Left the foil on overnight uncovered, removed in the morning, today I have massive blisters and other tissue damage but no pain whatsoever and full use of hand. Thanks to previous posters for the inspiration!! Yay Earth Clinic!

Aluminum Foil

Posted by Richard From Uk (Southampton, Hampshire) on 06/01/2012
★★★★★

Just a note to say thank you.

I managed to safely remove paint from a door frame using a heat gun until the last ten seconds of the job - perhaps thinking of the next task - when I burned 3 fingers with the heat gun (as you said ... doh! ).

While immersing my fingers in cold water I looked online and found this website. Keen to stop the pain I took your advice and selected a double solution - aluminium foil aloe vera. The foil-fingers looked a bit silly in the health food shop to buy aloe vera gel, but worth it. I applied aloe vera, re-wrapped the fingers in aluminium foil, wrapped it all up with cloth plaster/tape [to strap the foil in place and allow me to continue working on the door frame, sanding etc], and here I am a few hours later without pain despite 3 sizeable burn blisters.

The traditional UK "old wives tale" remedy involves applying butter, which in my experience doesn't help and from research tonight might cause infection.

Thank you so much, your advice has been most helpful. I'm not sure which bit helped - a) aluminium foil or b) aloe vera. Perhaps both?

Richard

Aluminum Foil

Posted by Amanda (Logan, Utah, Usa) on 06/19/2012
★★★★★

While I was pulling a pan out of my 450 degree oven my hot pad slipped and I touched the oven rack with my thumb. Major burn and pain!! It blistered immediately and I ran cool water on it and started to google burn relief when I came upon this site. After about 30 min of running my thumb under cold water, I decided to try the foil method... Although it sounded crazy. There were so many positive reviews, and figured what have I got to lose. I wrapped my thumb with foil, and the pain was intense. I remember reading that you have to be patient, so I stuck with it. After 30 min of feeling like my thumb was on fire, it started to slowly feel better. Kept the foil on and after 3 hours there was almost no pain! Amazing! I left the foil on overnight and in the morning there was literally no pain and the blisters were gone. This site (and the foil) saved me, and my thumb!

Aluminum Foil

Posted by Emp (Atlanta, Ga) on 06/23/2012
★★★★★

Holey moley!!! This really works! I burned two fingers with hot oil while trying to season a wok. Cold water felt great but I couldn't leave my hand in cold water forever. I tried toothpaste. It worked for about 2 minutes and then the PAIN was back. I tried baking soda. That worked until the paste dried up. The PAIN was back. So I found this site. Foil?? Yeah right. But the PAIN throbbing in my hand said "Don't knock it until you've tried it. " So I tried it. I'm so glad I did. It still hurts but now it's pain instead of PAIN. And it's getting better. I will have foiled fingers for the rest of the day. Thanks for the advice.

Aluminum Foil

Posted by Tarnia (Weymouth, Uk) on 04/29/2012
★★★★★

I've steam burnt my thumb tonight after 10mins under cold water, the stinging was still there. I tried some cream but it still hurt, I read about this tin foil and omg it works, I sat here for over an hr with 2 ice pops and everytime they melted it hurt again this foil is amazing usefull tip. Thankyou internet and whoever came up with this mad idea. You're my hero tonight

Aluminum Foil

Posted by Photoshooter (Superior, Wi, Usa) on 04/30/2012

I have another great remedy for localized burns. I was working in a bagel bakery and one day I thought the kettle fire had gone out (real bagels are boiled). When I tried to move the cover for the fire I was wrong. The fire had not gone out and my thumb and index finger were seering on the cover. I was in so much pain that I could not let go. It was sure to blister and scar. I worked with a naturalist and she said to hold a dill pickle. I did for about an hour. Not only did it work for cooling the burn, it did not scar or even blister. Most people think I am crazy when I tell the story, but I swear she was right.

Aluminum Foil

Posted by Peggy (Mentone, Ca Usa) on 06/20/2012
★★★★★

I steam burned my finger badly tonight removing covering form veggies cooking in micro. Not knowing you aren't supposed to apply ice that is what I did immediatly and then continued to apply for about two hours. I also tried fresh aloe vera from garden and a cream with a numbing ingrediant and neither worked. I came to the computer to do some research and found this site. I first wrapped in foil with ice compress but not much relief and finally removed compress. I still have some pain but it is so much less I can'r believe it and I may even be able to sleep which I feared I wouldn't with the amount of pain I was having. I am amazed and will share this remedy with friends and family! Thank YOU!!!!!!

Aluminum Foil

Posted by Gracie (Brisbane, Australia) on 08/29/2012
★★★★★

It was instant relief! Now I can sleep thank you!

Aluminum Foil

Posted by Woolvett (Shelburne, Nova Scotia) on 04/15/2012
★★★★★

Yea, this so worked! I burned myself moving a hot log and it really hurt I ran it under cool water ( never apply ice it makes it feel better but burns the skin more) when I wrapped the foil once around my thumb the pain intensified for a minute and then eased up a lot. By fifteen minutes it had faded to almost nothing. Interestingly the foil around the burn was really hot. It seemed to transfer the heat away from the bUrn. Cool!

Aluminum Foil

Posted by Angela (Mount Vernon, Missouri) on 04/01/2012
★★★★★

After reading that aluminum foil worked for a lot of people I thought I'd try it. I burnt my pinky and ring finger when the spaghetti pot slipped as I was draining the boiling water off. One thing that a lot of people said was that the pain increased after putting the aluminum foil on. It didn't increase for me, just was the same as when I took my hand out of the cold water, but that was really bad pain. After I put the foil on I put a zip lock bag full of cool water on top of the foiled fingers. This decreased the burning. I was able to increase the amount of time I had my foiled fingers out from under the bag until they were no longer burning. I went ahead and left the foil on over night even though they weren't burning anymore. If you can stand the burning, just dealing with it for awhile is probably good, but for kids I'd suggest my approach.

Aluminum Foil

Posted by Susan (Silver Spring, Md ) on 06/14/2012
★★★★★

Yes aluminum foil works I was just trying to pour some tea next thing u know my whole left hand is in so much pain after a couple of hours of trying water that only helped for like 5 min I put aluminum foil helped so much.

Aluminum Foil

Posted by Natali (Phoenix, Az ) on 03/02/2012

A lot of people here are suggesting the foil method. However, I don't have any tin foil on hand to try it out. I had been contently soaking my fingers in ice water after being burned by super hot liquid, but came across a post warning of this. The person stated that soaking your burn can increase the pain and likelihood of blistering from the skin swelling with water. Since this made sense to me, I read more posts. It seems the foil works by blocking air from the burn, so I figured plastic, also less daunting than foil, would have the same effect. It did! The waves of pain are further apart and the intensity is diminishing. I recommend this method for those wary of having foil rubbing against such a sensitive injury.

Aluminum Foil

Posted by Rj (Lewisville, Texas) on 03/01/2012
★★★★★

Tin foil works excellent for burns. I burnt my finger with hot wax and I had no one around to help me. I got onto the internet and read about tin foil. It worked wonders for me since I couldn't take my hand out of cold water for almost 20 mins and was dying with pain. Wrapping the foil around the finger calmed the pain to a great extent that I can now type my experience out.

Aluminum Foil

Posted by Ellen (Fall River, Massachusetts, Usa ) on 03/08/2012
★★★★★

Burned my thumb opening the crock pot. Over an hour of cold water and ice... I put baking soda on and covered it with the foil. Much better. How WEIRD!!!

Aluminum Foil

Posted by Yb, Pa-c (Brooklyn, NY) on 03/11/2012
★★★★★

I suggested the aluminum foil to a patient after aloe and lavender oil did not make a difference. The foil did wonders in about 2 minutes! It is hard to believe but it works.

Aluminum Foil

Posted by Tena (Champaign, Illinois) on 03/24/2012
★★★★★

Yeah! The foil sounded crazy, but when you are in pain you will try anything. While lifting the foil from a pan of ribs that just came out of the oven the steam rolled across the top of my thumb. Spent the last 2 hours holding ice cubes on it but as soon as I pulled the ice away the pain and burning came back. Thought I would check EC and see if anyone had a quick cure. The Tin Foil WORKS!!! Thank you all! That's why I keep coming back to this site. Love EC!

Aluminum Foil

Posted by Nex (Athens, Greece) on 04/02/2012
★★★★★

What more can I say, aluminium foil wrapped well around my badly burnt index finger, rapid fast relief after 10 min... Grateful indeed!

Aluminum Foil

Posted by Lindsay (Urbana, Il) on 06/05/2012
★★★★★

Just burned my thumb taking hot oatmeal out of the microwave. Ice wasn't doing it, so I googled burn remedies and found this page. The tin foil is really helping! The burning sensation is slowly diminishing. Thanks, everyone!

Aluminum Foil

Posted by Lori (Oakville, Ontario, Canada) on 02/23/2012
★★★★★

I burned my hand tonight while serving home made soup. A minute before it had been simmering on the stove. I kept my hand in cold water for 3 hours, but the pain was so severe each time I took it out, I knew I had to do something. Like many others I was skeptical about the tinfoil, but it is amazing. I look like an alien with the wrapped fingers, but the pain is gone. Thank you all!

Aluminum Foil

Posted by Kimbolicious (Red, Ca) on 02/11/2012
★★★★★

Works! Was in pain for 4 hrs then found this site within 15 min. of applying foil to the burns from being scalded to the point of 2nd degree burns across my hand, the pain was almost completely gone. Burn blisters went down and it scaled and peeled 3 days later without any pain. Definitely try it if you're in pain- no joke it works.

Aluminum Foil

Posted by Fal (Abr, Raj) on 02/22/2012
★★★★★

My finger burnt when I was playing with lighter and plastic some white skin appeared. I removed it and put my finger in ice. The time I remove my hand it starts again. I apply burn heal it provide rest but after a worry like a 2 step walk it pains. Then I see this site. I remove cream and wrap aluminium for some time. It heats and hurt but after some time it make me able to sleep quietly at night.

Aluminum Foil

Posted by Tricia (Eugene, Or) on 02/27/2012
★★★★★

I burned my thumb pulling something out of the oven and tried the foil remedy. It worked and I just want to thank everyone for taking the time to share your results!

Aluminum Foil

Posted by Kelly (Sydney, Australia) on 03/14/2012
★★★★★

I was making crepes late last night and not thinking properly, grabbed a plate that had been sitting in a 180 degree oven for a good 10 minutes with a thin teatowel. A blister immediately formed on the tip of my thumb and like most people here, ran it under cool water and then placed it in a bowl of cold water. Every time I lifted my thumb out of water, severe pain and aches would happen again.

I hopped on the net hoping a solution would help me and voila! Found this site, and was at first incredibly skeptical about the effectiveness of tin foil. An hour into reading the comments I decided to give it a go due to my tiredness and at first it didn't seem to work until I read someone's comment about too many layers of foil. Unwrapping half the layers I had on, I could feel the effects of tin foil immediately!

Super glad to have found this solution and have recommended it to those close to me!