★★★★★
OK, best is to prevent bedsores in the first place. The thing I discovered first was zinc picolinate. Eight 25 mg tablets a day (crushed because of swallowing issues). That made her skin stronger and stopped the bedsores. This worked for about a year, but meanwhile her overall condition worsened
and she could no longer chew and eat regular food (or drink water) without choking. Her diet became very restricted and good nutrition became a problem (she has had only applesauce to "drink" for almost a year now). This is when we had to really move her body every two hours or pre-bedsore areas would form, even though I increased the zinc picolinate to 12 or more pills per day. But recently I read that 2500 IU of d-alpha tocopherol vitamin E is good for people with alzheimers, and then I discovered after giving her that for a couple of weeks that her skin no longer is forming those pre-bedsore blisters, and her skin seems stronger and not as thin.
So I thought I would try to pass on this important information in case it might help others.
★★★★★
I tend to think that raw honey would have been better, but was thrilled to hear of success with honey whatever the type.
I love that this is a remedy that is inexpensive, safe, and available to people all over the world.
~Mama to Many~
Honey, Zinc, Vitamin E
If I might add, concerning long-term care, only a few months after I began a brief career in nursing, an old school guy was the director of respiratory dept. at our little hometown hospital, and a good fella. Somehow some enthusiasm was generated to help some of the most severe bed-sore patience; and he began O2 (oxygen) topical administration w/ some improvement but not enough. He soon began applying heat lamp (light) therapy on the sores with much improvement. It may have been the combination of both treatments that resulted in some drastic improvement of people who had been yrs in bed and now getting up in chairs and becoming active; it was something almost miraculous and unfortunately not altogether welcomed by administrators.
Malnutrition Link to Bedsores
~Mama to Many~
Activated Charcoal
If you can get a hold of John Keim's book, "Comfort for the Burned and Wounded," it would be so helpful to you. He developed a way to heal serious burn wounds with simple herbs. We have used his methods to heal wounds (burn wounds and other wounds). Not only do the wounds heal wonderfully, his method is so helpful for pain. My son recently cut his finger to the bone with a sledgehammer. We apply an herbal powder to stop the bleeding and used the method in John's book to dress the wound. (We scalded a dry plantain leaf and then cooled it in water. We used that as a bandage. It stopped the pain. ) The beauty of it is that the leaf will not stick to the healing wound and it aids healing. Comfrey leaves and burdock leaves are also very effective. John's method is so much easier on the patient to heal wounds and also wounds heal much faster.
A quart of comfrey leaf tea taken internally each day would help speed healing. It causes cell proliferation. (It is not recommended for cancer patients. ) A cup of fresh carrot juice would also be very helpful to speed healing. This could be done in conjunction with any other thing you try.
Let us know what you find that helps! I have seen patients in nursing homes with sores that won't heal and it is so sad. I think there are a lot of things that might help people but it is not part of normal medical protocol. However, at this season in my life, I am mostly treating children and don't have experience with helping the elderly with wounds. But I know that there must be some ways to help them heal faster and better.
~Mama to Many~
Hydrogen Peroxide
★★★★★
I developed bedsores on the back of my heels some time after I broke my left hip. I had been sedentary and somewhat bed ridden for a while because I suffer from the effects of late stage kidney disease. After the hip surgery I came out of the anesthesia with excruciating pain in the back of my heels that made it unbearable to have them touch the bed, so I asked the nurses to elevate my feet. I suspect that something happened while I was under, however it never occurred to me to have them check my feet. Weeks went by with no improvement in the level of pain until one day I asked my daughter to help me with a foot soak. Afterwards when my feet were dry I noticed big flakes of skin coming off the back of my heels. I couldn't see at that angle so I took a picture with my phone and was HORRIFIED to discover a big black sore on each heel at the back close to the ankle. I soon found out they were pretty badly infected bedsores. I can't say for sure when they started but they were full of pus when the podiatrist cut them open to drain. Upon my second visit I had such a terrible experience with that doctor that I resolved never to go back to him. Being someone who often uses this platform and am distrustful of modern medicine, I decided to try several different things. I tried lavender essential oil, Peru balsam salve, salt water soaks, tea bags, rose water, jojoba oil, but ultimately, I decided to stick with using nothing but hydrogen peroxide. In spite of the fact that there's so much on the Internet to discourage us from using hydrogen peroxide, I persisted with it. I put some 3.5% straight from the bottle into a little spray bottle and sprayed both sores at least twice daily. If I felt a lot of pain I would just spray every few hours until the pain subsided. All the while I would keep them bandaged to keep out the dirt. After about a month my daughter became my personal "podiatrist" and she debrided the sores very masterfully (I told her she missed her calling--lol). We continued daily peroxide until the left foot was healed over enough to keep it uncovered. Eventually, I allowed the right foot to remain uncovered while I was home and only covered when I had to leave the house. Right now the left heel has a small hard scab that I will allow to fall off when it's ready. I seldom spray it. The right heel still has the tiniest opening that I cover with a gauze pad or a sock whenever I go out. I still spray at least twice a day. I think the main thing to remember is that bed sores take a long time to heal. I started treating them at the beginning of March and I don't expect to be fully recovered until the end of the year.
Activated Charcoal
That website also tells just how to make a charcoal poultice: http://www.charcoalremedies.com/poultice
I am wondering if Extra Virgin Coconut Oil, added to the diet internally, would help prevent them as it is nourishing to the skin. 1 T. twice a day.
Bless you for caring for the elderly in care centers! I will check my books for some herbal solutions that could be tried as well.
~Mama to Many~
Alcohol
★★★★★
Activated Charcoal
