From the article: 14 Greatest First Aid Myths
Whether it's peeing on a jellyfish sting or cooling your burn with a little butter out of the fridge, there are quite a few first aid techniques out there that aren't exactly regulation. Some myths are actually taught by instructors - incorrectly. Scraping off a bee sting is one of them. No need to scrape, just yank that sucker out as quickly as she put it in. Tell Us Yours
Stuff that actually works.
- 1. Vinegar helps prevent bruises and it helps heal burns/cuts. 2. Holding one's nose back during a nose bleed is also bad because the blood will clot in the throat once mixed with saliva causing one to choke. 3. The only thing that has ever cured my hiccups in less than a minute is to have someone to plug my ears while I drink water.
- —Guest Serrenity
Jellyfish sting
- My daughter was stung on her ankle by a jellyfish while snorkeling in Manuel Antonio park, Costa Rica. One of park guides said urine would help. I quickly urinated on her ankle and I could see the swelling go down. We then buried her foot in warm/hot sand and gave her an Advil. Within 20 min. she was fine!
- —Guest Valerie
Jelly fish stings
- Urine does fix jelly fish stings, It's worked for me 5 times in the past 3 years, and they did it on Mythbusters.
- —Guest michael
Finally somebody got it right
- I teach a course/training system for non-professionals called Disaster First Aid, and I came looking for an illustration of a tourniquet. I usually downplay this method because so many F.A. courses play it up, which causes many needless amputations because a TK was used needlessly or wrongly. I was shocked as "experts" told people to "remove the TK every 10 minutes to see if the bleeding had stopped" etc. Rod got it right. Even WebMD which I expected to have something reasonable, didn't really address it at all except to say "Only use it if you need to" Thanks Rod. Strong work. Speak loud. V.
- —Guest Victoria Chames
Jellyfish Stings
- Good article about telling people not to pee on jellyfish stings. One problrem though. If you are stranded on a desert island dont drink your own urine. It will not help you as urine contains salt that will quicken dehyration not to mention the other toxins contained within
- —Guest Redactor
Throataches
- Drink some tea with honey in it, it should work! (Note that it could be serious, like strep! This does not cure strep.)
- —Guest Hope
Blood Thinners and Quikclot
- One area that does not get any attention when a patient must be put on blood thinners is that of the difficulty in controlling bleeding. I use Coumadin and have had a number of situations over the last several years that have been really frightening due to uncontrolled bleeding from cuts, scratches or "blood bubbles" that occur on my legs. My doctor kind of shrugs off those issues, but they are a factor in my life that I believe needs to be addressed. I was told about a product called Quikclot that is a type of gauze pad that has a substance in it that causes the blood to clot. I ordered some at their website and have used it several times to deal with bleeding. It works magnificently and very quickly. By just pressing the gauze into the bleeding area and putting pressure on it, the bleeding stops in just a couple of minutes. Previous to getting Quikclot, I sometimes had to call 911 for help. Now,I keep it in my medicine cabinet and I can deal with the situation myself.
- —Guest Stuck52
Jelly Fish Stings
- When vacationing in Bermuda we came upon a crowd of people trying to keep a girl, who had been stung by jelly fish, warm while waiting for the ambulance-over 20 min. A native came along, had her boyfriend pee then wiped it all over the welts, etc.-----It was miraculous! She was able to stop shaking and was able to stand and then walk. The ambulance still hadn't arrived!
- —Guest Toni
Spoonful of Sugar-cures Hiccups
- A half spoonful of white, granulated table sugar that is then washed down with half a glass (about 4 oz of plain water. Sounds silly, but it has worked for over 40 years for me and my family. Go figure!
- —Guest ALeta D
SureCure for Hiccups
- Calmly and firmly breathe out and breathe out and breathe out until your can feel your diaphragm pushing up hard to get out the last breaths. There is a lot of air in there, so be patient. And do NOT breath in during that whole time. Works like a charm.
- —Guest KathyC
Peanut butter for Hiccups
- My mom's friend told her this one: if you get the hiccups, suck on a teaspoon full of peanut butter (i.e. a teaspoon from the silverware drawer, not a measuring spoon). I get the hiccups all the time and, while it doesn't have a 100% track record, the PB trick reduces the severity of my hiccups if it doesn't eliminate them entirely. Knowing how hiccups work - spasms of the diaphragm - I think the PB trick works by forcing your body to focus intently on something. Whatever it is, I'm just glad to be rid of the hiccups!!
- —mboyd987
Jelly Fish Stings
- When my boy was 2, he was stung by a jellyfish and in panic I got my partner to pee on him. Don't think it helped at all, our boy has no doubt been left emotionally scarred more by his dad peeing on him than the jellyfish sting!
- —lisamills65
Treatment for pimples!
- When I started getting pimples (and I still do), my grandma would boil a cup of tea called 'Mazania Tea' that not only worked great for stomach aches, helped reduce zits! She'd get a piece of gauze, dip it in the tea and start wiping my face with it and leaving small pieces of gauze on the more affected areas. Surprisingly, it worked! To this day, I still use this treatment.
- —Guest Stephanie
treat jellyfish stings
- many years ago I was in mexico and dove into a bay (pacific ). I was surrounded by jellyfish and stung all over. the mexican whose boat I was in immediately sliced what they call "limon", a green lemon, and squeezed the juice over all the welts. I had no reaction to the stings and they disappeared in minutes... for what it's worth.
- —Guest bill cosgrave
Epistaxis (Nose Bleeds)
- A trick / Old Wives' Tale for nose bleeds, is to place a large key on the patients back between the scapulae. This trick, I believe, was developed for child care - children, inherently, have no concept about sitting still, placing the key on their back's would force them to stay seated and, it also, by default, get's the patient to lean forward!
- —DJGnome
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