I was in a soft play centre last week, for my sins, sitting in the corner as I usually do playing on my phone, ear wigging and tutting at the other mum’s sharing stories about the colour of their children’s faeces, when a little girl came rushing up to her mum screaming with a split lip. The mother calmly picked her up, opened a sachet of sugar and started to sprinkle it on her lip. I really thought she was nuts!
But, me being me, an inquisitive soul, I came home and did a bit of googling. Please don’t quote me as my research wasn’t very scientific but apparently there’s something behind it. It seems that it can help wounds heal faster and reduce pain.
The treatment originally came from Africa, where they didn’t have access to conventional medicine so they used whatever was available. On my Google travels, I came across an interesting study by
‘Senior Lecturer Moses Murandu grew up in Zimbabwe and his father used granulated sugar to heal wounds and reduce pain when he was a child. But when he moved to the UK, he realised that sugar was not used for this purpose here…….
Sugar can be used on wounds such as bed sores, leg ulcers and even amputations. It works because bacteria needs water to grow, so applying sugar to a wound draws the water away and starves the bacteria of water. This prevents the bacteria from multiplying and they die. Moses found that a 25% sugar concentration ensures the microorganisms cannot survive.’
Apparently, if it’s adopted by the NHS it could save billions of pounds! But you and I know the pharmaceutical companies aren’t going to let this happen. I do think it’s unfortunate that some of the traditional medicines are overlooked in favour of their much more expensive counterparts.
So, I’m off to Starbuck’s for a large latte and to nick a bunch of sugar sachet’s for the next time Madame does a face plant.
Have you heard of this?
Does it work?
Is it a wives’ tale?
This is my first post.