8 October

Some of my medical friends will probably chip in with an opinion on this one. Have you ever wondered what’s the best way to treat the ordinary cuts and scrapes we get? It’s something we’ve all been given a range of advice on over the years. I’ve been looking at the research on wound care, and there seems to be a consensus that the best approach is: 1) wash the wound, just with water (jury is out on whether soap is necessary, some say it gets in the way) 2) put a good amount of Vaseline over the wound, and then cover the wound with a good occlusive (keeps out air and water) dressing. A band aid is fine, and they come in a range of sizes. 3) change the dressing and give the wound another quick clean, with more added Vaseline, daily. 4) antibiotic and/or antiseptic creams aren’t really necessary, although if the wound is tough to clean for example a dab or two of iodine before adding the Vaseline can’t hurt. The research seems to agree that keeping a wound ‘wet’ and then dressed in this way (to keep the wound wet and keep air and germs off it - the Vaseline helps with both of those things) is far and away the best way to heal it. Dry wounds open to the air tend to kill the cells that are trying to fix the wound. Scabs are also an initial protection, but after that slow wound healing and also increase the chance of scarring, so if they get knocked off it’s actually not a bad thing, just clean, add the Vaseline and dress. Tried this on a cut on the top of my foot which was taking a long time to get better. Spectacular results in only a couple of days. If your wound isn’t getting better or is sore and red after a few days, best to see a doctor for the infection.