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.
Cool Water
Posted by Lorrie (Cameron Park, California) on 04/25/2010
★★★★★
Burn remedy
I was working in a sand candle making business. After forming the candle they had to be dipped in 250 degree wax to coat them. A large candle I was hand dipping slipped out of my hand and made the hot wax splash up on my hand past my wrist. My boss was there and grabbed me and filled a coffee can with regular cold (but not too) tap water. She had me keep my burn completely immersed for at least 30 minutes. When I removed my hand from the water, not only was the pain gone, but I also didn't blister and there was no permanent skin damage. A couple of years later I was working in a pizza parlor. The oven is usually around 500 degrees. I was scraping the stone that the pizzas sit on when it got stuck behind the stone. When I tried to pull it out my right hand came up and hit the top stone. The whole thumb side half of the back of my hand was burned. I grabbed a wet towel and put it around my hand till I could get to a water source and fill a bucket. I immersed my hand for a full 30 minutes (much to the displeasure of my boss). Once again not only did the pain go away, but also there was no blistering or any lasting scar. The skin was slightly discolored for a day or so. It seems that the most important thing for a burn is to seal it off from air. Also part of the shock of a burn is a rapid evaporation of fluid to the affected area. Simple water - not too cold - seemed to do the trick in both cases. It's been over 30 years since both incidents and I have never had any scarring or weakness of the affected areas.
Ice
Posted by Bigbob1 (Brooksville, Fl) on 03/01/2010
★☆☆☆☆WARNING!
ice is the worst thing you could use for a burn. it can cause nerve damage and will cause more pain.
Mustard
Posted by Lexibot (West Plains, Missouri) on 01/29/2010
★★★★★
Mustard worked for me when I burnt my finger this morning while I was stocking the fire. After about 45 minutes of slight annoying pain, I searched and found this remedy, it works nicely. All I did was numb the finger for about 3-5 minuets with an ice cube, then squirted some plain yellow mustard on my finger and spread it around, the heat went away in seconds. All I felt was a minor sore feeling from the throbbing. Now 2 hours later, I don't feel barely a thing!
Apple Cider Vinegar
Posted by Cured (Niceville, Fl) on 11/24/2009
★☆☆☆☆WARNING!
Warning - I have recently began using ACV for just about everything from cleaning the house to hygene/health. A few weeks ago I got a blister from trying to pull start a leaf blower. The skin was already gone from the blister/burn. I think I waited a day or two and it started healing somewhat on its own. I then applied ACV full strength (grocery store brand) to the burn a few times. I quit cause it seemed to make it worse. Maybe my result would have been better had I don't it immediatly or there was a no no with the exposed skin. Who knows so I probably won't try it for that again but just about anything else it has worked amazingly.
Soya Sauce
Posted by Diana M. (Maungaturoto, New Zealand) on 11/05/2009
★★★★★
I found somewhere on the net about how they used to use Soya Sauce on chemical burns in the war. After burning myself on the stove (not a serious burn but enough for it to of blistered) I poured soya sauce on to it. Almost immediately the pain subsided and I never got a blister. One of my students accidently poured boiling water over his hand and he remembered me talking about soya sauce, so he poured it over his hand. He also said it took the pain away and it never turned into anything.
Vitamin E
Posted by Kathy (Dubois, Pa) on 09/11/2009
I just wanted to say how glad I am that your hubby is recovering, and how glad I am for his sake and yours that he left the hospital before the doctors could do more damage.
Vitamin E
Posted by Shining Star (Gainesville, Fl) on 09/11/2009
While in the hospital I put natural vit e on him over and over again. Synthetic vitamin e will not do for a burn. Once home I soaked his hand in a foot bath with powered vit c. We used vits c orally. All I could get down him. Pantothenic Acid.
The burn unit said he was burned worse then any of the patients. When I asked the most painful part of the burn I was told the scabbing made grown men cry even with drugs. My husband never had a scab. The worst part is that they take you down to bath and spend hrs taking tweezers and pulling off the new skin ??? every day. The patient goes into shock after that. Speech was limited but he could say "take me home" and I did.
Drs would not even give him antibiotics to take home. He went off of their pain medication after 24 hrs and they could not believe it. He looked like a cross between Mickey Mouse and Frankinstein due to ER pulling all of the skin off of him???
We never did see another dr and lips, ears, nose grew back without redness or a scar. Hand had a hole in it and looked like a huge glove. No scarring and full dexterity with no PT.
Had a horse burned after that and vet said to put her down as her hoof would never grow back. Did same thing and hoof grew back, no limp and one could not tell the difference in one hoof from another.
EC: Thank you so very much for the update!
Vitamin E
Posted by Gean (Salina, Ks) on 09/08/2009
This is very, very interesting. Thanks for sharing. I wonder, when you say you continued the vitamin E, C, and lots of others, what exactly that means. Oral vitamin C? Did you just do topical vitamin E, or also oral? What other things did you do? Thank you.
Vitamin E
Posted by Shiningstar (Gainesville, Fl) on 09/07/2009
★★★★★
My husband had 3rd degree burns and went to the hospital burn unit. His face had nose, ears, facial skin and neck burned. Also hand and back. ER spent 5 hrs pulling sand out of his face which caused him to swell up so bad he almost died from that.
As soon as we got on the burn unit, my health food store lady came up and brought me Vit E. I bit the end off of 100 capsules and put them on him.
Drs said he would not be able to shave (if he lived) for a yr and hand would not work unless 5 yrs of Physical Therapy. After 4 days of them torturing him I took him home wrapped in a sheet. Continued Vit E, Vit C and lots of others and he was back to work soon. But he did look so bad (to others) that people stopped to ask if we needed an ambulance. He went back to the hospital and they refused to believe that he had even been there.
The hospital administrator kept up with him for years as he had no pain and no scars and healed perfectly. I discovered that other countries use Vit E and other things that WORK but our hospital system is about money. We settled with the insurance company for 1,200.00 for vits and the hospital bill.They said they had never settled a claim like his for less than 5 M.
Tiger Balm
Posted by Hank (Moorestown, NJ) on 07/26/2009
★★★★★
I haven't tried baking soda for burns yet, but the last time I got a burn I put Chinese Tiger Balm (available in most Asian grocery stores) on and it had the same effect. It brought the stinging down significantly and after 2 applications the hurting went away.
Toothpaste
Posted by Nancy (Concord, CA) on 06/12/2009
★★★★★
My sister applied toothpaste when I dropped a curling iron on my arm a couple Christmas' ago and it really worked. I've been using it ever since and am GRATEFUL today for that remedy. Yesterday I got on my boyfriends new motorcycle, just to see how it felt, and I burned my leg on the HOT tail pipe. I had one leg in the air (swinging it over the bike) as I leaned my other leg into the pipe, so it was sizzling there for a moment until I got my other leg down and could move it. I immediately knew it was a bad burn and came in looking for the toothpaste. I layered a generous amount over it like I had been shown, and covered the area with a gauze rap. It was a little "sensitive" for a few hours but NOT painful. I was told by my sister to always keep it wrapped over night so I took it off this morning and washed the toothpaste away. It's a bad burn, and its definitely blistered but it doesn't hurt. I KNOW from prior burns that this would have hurt like crazy still today if not for the toothpaste! Thanks Judy!!
Colloidal Silver
Posted by Angela (Federal way, WA) on 06/06/2009
★★★★★
burn help: Try collidial (sp) silver sprayed on for not only pain relief, but quick healing to even better than before skin, after a burn. Even on 3rd degree burns!
Tea Tree Oil
Posted by Khulthum (Chicago, IL) on 03/30/2009
★★★★★
Tea Tree Oil to Prevent Burns
My girlfriends and I, along with all our children, meet weekly in the evenings, at our community center. One evening, when tea was being served, one of the young children ran by and knocked the entire pot of tea all over one of the older girl's legs. She is 12 years old. The sight of that steaming tea all over that poor girl's legs was like a nightmare. It looked like her legs were going to be ruined.
She was rushed to the restroom, by her mother [my friend], and placed in the shower. My friend kept running cold water on her legs to relieve the pain. But she wouldn't stop wailing and her mother didn't know what to do.
I knew that tea tree oil was good for burns, and since I had some in my bag, I offered to apply some to her legs. I had to assure my friend, and especially her daughter, that it would definately be of some help. They did not even know what tea tree oil was, so they were hesitant. But clearly ANYTHING that could help would be welcome, because the girl was screaming uncontrolably at this point.
We took her out of the shower and dried her legs as best we could. Then, I put some oil in the palm of my hand, rubbed my hands together, and rubbed the oil on her legs. For a brief moment, everything was okay. But then she started screaming like you wouldn't believe, saying it was hurting her even more.
Admittedly, I was a little surprised myself, because I had not experienced a reaction like that before [neither from myself, nor from any of my children]. My friend was alarmed, and asked me if that was normal. I told her I had never seen that type of reaction, but that I thought it was because her legs were wet and her pores were open.
I asked her daughter to be patient and wait, and that it would soon get better. She tried her best to wait in out, but she was unable to bear the pain. At this point she was jumping up and down begging us to take it off of her.
I felt really bad because she was clearly in a lot of pain because of ME, but I didn't really know what to do because I thought that water would only push the oil deeper into her her skin. After briefly discussing it, my friend decided to try washing it off, because doing something was better than doing nothing.
After washing her legs off with soap, like a much welcome blessing from God, she stopped crying. 23 loooooooonng minutes, and she finally stopped crying! She said it still hurt a little, but that it felt much better.
My friend took her daughter home, and the next morning she called me to let me know that there was not a single mark on her daughter's legs. It was as if nothing had happened!
Apple Cider Vinegar
Posted by Felicia (Ellensburg, WA) on 03/09/2009
★★★★★
I once saw years ago a mention in an article that ACV was good for burns. I remember my mother putting it on me when I was young and dumb and got a sunburn. But I don't remember it ever doing much. Strangely though several years ago I got a fairly bad burn on several of my finger tips taking chicken out of the oven. At the time all I could think was that I had to get some ACV, don't ask me why but I did, especially since my experience so far wasn't good. But I got it out (not even the good natural, unfiltered kind) and I soaked my three fingers in ACV for about 45 minutes which was about how long it took for the fingers to quit throbbing. Instead of getting blisters all that happened was about a week after the incident a small patch of dry skin appeared on the finger where I received the worst of the burn. So the skin was still damaged and I still lost it, but there was no blister or lingering pain or tenderness. Same exact thing happened when my young son burned the palm of his hand on a light bulb. When he did it he immediately said through his tears, "Oh, no, not the stinky stuff, Mom!" I had him soak it for about 45 minutes and he experienced the same result I did, just a small patch of dry dead skin about a week after the incident. I now know that ACV isn't very good for sunburns because you would need a vat of the stuff to soak in, but for everything else burn related, I swear by Apple Cider Vinegar. It works miracles!
Mustard
Posted by Tehani (Los Angeles, California) on 02/24/2009
★★★★★
My mother was bottling peaches from her garden and in the process, the glass jar slipped from her hand and the hot boiling water from the stove splattered on her left arm. She burned almost half of her arm, from the wrist to the elbow. She called me immediately and asked, if I know a good remedy for burns. She didn't have any medical insurance yet, and her burn needed medical attention. I told her, to use Frenche's yellow mustard, the classic yellow one that you put on hot dogs. I learned of this remedy living in Tennessee, when I burned my finger and a friend said to use mustard. I would assume you can use any mustard however, that's the one that she had in her refrigerator and it is also the one I used for my burn. I wasn't quite sure if it would work on her, since her burn was severe. So, she applied it and covered all the burn areas generously. Immediately the burning sensation had diminished. She just kept applying and reapplying and her burn healed fully within 3 and 1/2 weeks without a scar. I guess the scaring part depends on your skin type because I tend to scar easily. Just make sure the mustard is on the burn area until it's healed. The mustard will dry and flake off but just reapply more. At night, she would reapply several coats of fresh mustard and waits for it to dry. Then she used a white roll of sterile gauze that you can buy from any pharmacy, and wrapped it all around her burned arm, to prevent her bed from getting stained. Truly the yellow Mustard performed like a champion.
Soya Sauce
Posted by Angela (Hamilton, Ontario, Canada) on 01/21/2009
★★★★★
1. Vinegar: for sun burns. Saturate a cloth with white vinegar and apply it often. Relieves the sting, heat, and itch (apply when you feel the symptoms return). Amazingly, the smell goes quickly, so no need to worry about the idea of walking around smelling of french fries!
2. Soy Sauce: for grease burns (also- iron and other household burns). I applied Soy Sauce on a grease burn, 30 minutes after (the pain wasn't letting up), and I never felt it again. I found 'Liquid Aminos' to have better results than regular Soy Sauce, possibly because is just soy sauce and water, and not fermented (tastes great too!)
**of course these remedies probably won't feel very relieving if done on broken/open skin!
Milk of Magnesia
Posted by Jodi (Bowmansville, NY, USA ) on 01/21/2009
★★★★★
My friend told me about Milk of Magnesia for burns. When her daughter was little she has rashes so bad on her bottom that she had to leave on the diaper quite often because of her acidity level in her urine. One day her mother was watching her and she told her mother to be very careful because of the rash. She left for a few hours and when she came home the rash was gone. She had applied Milk of Magnesia directly on her granddaughter and not long after the skin rash was gone.
My friend also told me about using it on burns, so I have tried it. My daughter and I have both burned our hands so I tried it and it worked. You need to soak it near an hour but it leaves no red marks and it feels better.
Toothpaste
Posted by Mike (Powell River, B.C.) on 01/19/2009
★★★★★
my wife had told me that when you have a burn use tooth paste.well i thought she was crazy. but i guess its some remedy in croatia that they use .... well long storey short i tried it one day and it worked. all you do is put as much or little as you want on your burn and let it sit and dry up .wash it off maby a few minutes later. (15-30mins)..so my wife is not crazy after all...love you hun =-)
Vinegar
Posted by Lindsy (Grand Rapids, Michigan) on 01/13/2009
★★★★★
I burn frequently because I am very fair skinned...redness, itching, blisters, peeling, the whole thing. Often. The best cure is the one my grandma made me do when I was young.
As soon as you notice the burn, get out of the sun and soak up some white vinegar with a cotton ball. Dab it on your burn. No measuring. Put it on straight out of the bottle. Don't wipe. Just dab.
Do this regularly and the burn will go away a lot sooner with little to no peeling. The sooner the better with this cure! Don't wait. Also, the smell subsides after a little while. Don't worry about smelling like a big pickle!
DMSO
Posted by Josh (New York, NY) on 12/17/2008
DMSO or Dimethylsulfoxide is used to carry things threw your skin, it penetrates nearly anything, its used for cancer treatment, brain swelling and lots of things but topical use on yourself? I dont think so. the reason it cleared up your mothers blood is because it sucked up the blood in solution and carried it trough the skin, and while it doesnt hurt to have dead blood cells floating around, you could just whip it off. Large amounts of dmso causes a garlic odor on the breath and sometimes the skin for days. Because it so readily penetrates the skin, it can carry things with it that are otherwise impossble to contract such as bacteria and toxins. So if you insist on using it THOUROGHLY wash the area befer hand and only wash with things you wouldnt mind floating around in your blood.
Toothpaste
Posted by Molly (Bradenton, FL, USA ) on 11/26/2008
★★★★★
Toothpaste really does work for burns. When I burn myself cooking, I put a thick layer on the burn and the next day when I take it off (if it hasn't already rubbed off), there is no burn mark left behind.
