[Nfbf-l] Today I found out Egg Whites Do Not Make a Good Burn Treatment

[Alan Dicey]

Dear Fellow Florida NFB Friends, Once again, I risk admonishment from the 
List Moderators, when Posting this article, but I felt it such a good and 
important one I will take the chance.
I personally have sent this message out to most all my friends and 
associates, those on my email Address list anyway.
With Best Regards,
God Bless,
Alan
Plantation, Florida

Today I found out Egg Whites Do Not Make a Good Burn Treatment
Craig asks: Do chicken egg whites really help heal burns?
Craig, I've actually had a couple of people try and convince me of this in 
the past. A quick Google search will yield several, not so reputable, 
websites claiming this is true; but the short answer to your question is, 
"No".
Egg whites do not help with burns, and they can actually make the situation 
worse." As many know by now, and some lament, I'm not one to say something 
here without giving the long, medically detailed answer- occupational hazard 
to being a nerdy paramedic. So you can either take my word for it, or to 
truly understand why egg whites are not a great choice for burn treatments, 
read on and let's look at what we're trying to treat when burned, and what's 
in egg whites to see if that helps.
On the surface, this theory does seem plausible. The egg whites are made 
mostly of water (90%) and numerous proteins (10%) like albumin and 
globulins. Cooling with water is a well known and time tested treatment for 
pain relief associated with minor burns. Most egg whites tend to be cooler 
than the area being burned, so that only leaves us with the proteins to 
consider. So now let's look at burns and what we're trying to treat and see 
if the added proteins to the water are more helpful than plain water.
There are several types of burns, including chemical, electrical, friction, 
radiation and thermal (both hot and cold). No matter the cause of the burn, 
the result can leave the skin and underlying tissues, extremely damaged.
When it comes to the severity of the burn, they are separated into 3 main 
classes, denoting the depth of the burn. First degree burns involve only the 
outer layer of the skin (epidermis). Second degree burns involve both the 
epidermis and the layer underneath (dermis). Third degree burns involve the 
epidermis, dermis, and the muscle tissues underneath. Some medical 
professionals have advocated for a 4th degree that denotes when the person's 
bones are also burned. This hasn't seemed to gain much traction in most 
medical circles though.
The focus on treating burns revolves around 4 main things. Stopping the 
burning (obviously), pain relief, infection control, and warding off 
dehydration and hypothermia.
The skin is a fantastic organ that's responsible for protecting our bodies 
from outside pathogens like bacteria and viruses. It also helps keep our 
precious body fluids in place and gives us a nice bone blanket to keep warm.
When the skin gets damaged, it can no longer provide us with those benefits.
It's no surprise then; infection dehydration and hypothermia are the most 
common lethal complications of burns. For instance, infection is the leading 
cause of death in burn victims accounting for approximately 10,000 deaths 
per year in the United States.
Now that we know what we're trying to treat, let's see if egg whites help.
Stopping the burning- When it comes to chemical burns, egg whites definitely 
won't help. To stop the burning, you need to brush the chemical off and then 
flush the area with copious amounts of water to get any microscopic material 
left. Obviously egg whites will do nothing to stop electrical, thermal, nor 
friction burns either. Unless, of course, you have something like a bathtub 
filled with egg whites for the burning person to jump into, but that seems a 
bit far-fetched. In the end, egg whites won't stop the burning processes.
Now that one's somewhat obvious; what about pain relief?
Pain relief- Third degree burns have damaged the nerve cells so badly that 
the areas affected by these types of burns don't hurt, so we'll focus on 1st 
and 2nd degree. The only study I was able to find that looked at treating 
burns with both water and other substances, including egg whites, was done 
in Milas, Turkey. The results of that study showed subjects treated with egg 
whites had no greater decrease in pain compared to those who used only 
water. While many substances that are cool and cover a burn area will 
provide some pain relief, numerous studies have shown the use of most 
home-burn-remedies to treat burns greatly increases your chance of 
complications, compared to those using only water. In the end, even though 
you might get some initial pain relief from applying cold egg whites on 
minor burns, water does the same thing, without all the complications, which 
I'll talk about shortly.
Infection control- Infections are the leading complication associated with 
burns. Because of this, they're arguably the most important thing to 
consider when treating someone who's been burned. The proteins in egg whites 
do nothing to help with infection. In fact, they will most likely increase 
the chance of infection as egg shells, yolks, and whites all can contain 
numerous types of bacteria including salmonella. So if you thought egg 
whites might help with infection, they actually do the opposite.
Dehydration and hypothermia- Dehydration is a big concern for those treating 
burns. A person whose skin has been damaged will begin leaking fluid from 
their bodies. Not from their vascular system, but from all the areas around 
your cells, organs and blood vessels, known as your interstitial space. Once 
that fluid begins to be lost, you will start to draw fluid from within your 
cells, organs and blood vessels, further complicating the dehydration.
This is such a concern, due to the amount of fluid burn patients' loose; 
there is a standard formula for how much you need to give them. Known as the 
Parkland formula, you take the patient's weight in kilograms, multiply it by 
4 and then by the % of body surface area burned. Half of that volume will 
need to be given in the first 8 hours and the other half in the next 16 
hours. For example, a 180 lb person (82 kg) who has about 50% of their body 
area burned will need ((82 * 4) *50)/2 = 8200 mL = 8.2 liters in the first 8 
hours and the same in the next 16. For reference, that same person has only 
about 5.4 liters of blood volume. Egg whites will certainly not help with 
rehydrating someone, and since we've already discussed that it's a cooling 
substance, it's not going to help them with hypothermia either.
The last vestige of this myth is one where some people say it helps with 
skin regeneration. The problem with this thought process is how skin repairs 
itself. In order to not make this article too much longer, if you're 
interested, for a full explanation on how the skin repairs itself, you can 
read an article How Scars Form. The short version is that the proteins that 
are involved with skin regeneration don't begin weaving their magic (they 
form in a basket weave appearance) until after a scab is formed. The scab 
will certainly prevent any egg proteins from assisting in regeneration.
If it didn't, bacteria would be able to enter and we would be back to the 
infection problem again.
There you have it Craig, egg whites will not play a positive role in helping 
treat burns, particularly not over something like water, though, of course, 
they'd be better than something like, say, treating a burn with battery 
acid. But, over simple water, the egg whites might even just make it worse.
Now, if you are interested in a home remedy that actually works and has 
several positive benefits on burns, try some raw honey. Really.  Honestly, I 
was extremely skeptical on this one myself, but after doing the medical 
research, I was wrong and the honey touters were right. If you would like to 
know why,: search for "Honey Can be Used for a Variety of Medicinal Purposes
Author: Scott