Treating A Cut? Forget Gauze, Try Food Wrap

April 30, 1987|By Bill Stokes.

So you think you know how to take care of the little wounds of life--the cuts, nicks and abrasions that occur with regularity, particularly if you share your life with children.

Well, maybe you do and maybe you don`t.

Would you believe, for example, that covering a wound with something like clear plastic food wrap is better for it than a covering of gauze?

Also, keeping a wound dry and open to the fresh air is outdated advice.

Patricia Mertz, a researcher at the University of Miami School of Medicine who studies how wounds heal, says the fastest healing occurs when a wound is covered with an airtight (occlusive) adhesive bandage.

``Gauze delays healing,`` Mertz says, ``because it adheres to the wound and when you remove it you also remove a portion of the new epidermis.``

The effectiveness of airtight dressings has been known in the medical world for years, but this information did not filter down to the public, Mertz said. The first such commercial airtight bandages did not hit the market until 1978, after a researcher published a report on the wound-treating effectiveness of plastic wrap.

Mertz also said that although Mercurochrome antiseptic may kill microbes, it can bring on allergies, and she ``frowns on it.``

Iodine must be moist to be effective, she adds. ``We found that a one-time application would reduce pathogens (germs),`` Mertz said, ``but some of the germs remained viable, and 24 hours later we had as many staph (bacteria) as before treatment.``

Iodine is still used in hospitals as a one-time disinfectant, Mertz said, and added, ``Continuous application of iodine by moist dressing works better

(than one ``painted`` application), but it is not used that way.``

Mertz and her colleagues began their research on wound-healing in the 1960s after treating passengers injured in the TriStar jet crash in the Florida Everglades.

They point out that vases filled with flowers are ``pathogen reservoirs`` and should be eliminated from high-risk area such as burn units and intensive- care units.

Also, although foreign material must be removed from wounds, the soap that is used to do it retards healing.

The best way to treat a wound, Mertz says, is to wash it with water, apply an occlusive dressing, and remember that it will heal normally in 7 to 10 days.


-- And now it may be best to be a ``hard`` drinker. The American Heart Association (AHA) reports that there are ``tantalizing clues`` that some illnesses such as goiter, gallbladder disease and high blood pressure may be tied to consumption of soft water.

Citing several studies, one of which showed that a group of Wisconsin farmers who drank softer water had a higher rate of cardiovascular disease than did a control group, AHA said that evidence is still incomplete and fragmentary regarding water hardness and heart disease.

Meanwhile, it advises that using water softeners on tap water is not a good idea because the softeners replace calcium and magnesium ions with sodium ions, taking out two essential elements and replacing them with one that we already get too much of.

-- Why do some people assault their taste buds with hot peppers? It may be a mild form of thrill-seeking, says Paul Rozin, a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania. ``It is perhaps like a gustatory equivalent of taking a ride on a roller coaster,`` he said.

It is the capsaicin in peppers that gives them their bite, reports the University of California, Berkeley, Wellness Letter, and recent studies have shown that it does no harm to the stomach lining, and does not aggravate or cause hemorrhoids, since the capsaicin is absorbed before it reaches the rectum.