Salt power and wonders

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We heard my nephew crying outside. My mother and I looked out to see him coming with bleeding finger. My mother ran to the kitchen, pinch from the salt canister and came back saying “be quiet” so I did. When my nephew came in, my mother was calming him with soothing words while hiding her right hand at her back.

Suddenly, my nephew screamed! Behind her soothing words, my mother rubbed the wound with the salt. I thought I would laugh out loud but I just stared back and forth between the two of them. I was smiling in my mind. My mother hugged my nephew tightly while he bawled. She had to do that otherwise the boy would run to the sink and wash the wound. When the boy calmed down, my mother was saying salt is the best medicine to heal wounds. Indeed, salt was my mother's first refuge for wounds specially with children.

“Yeah, I remember you mentioned that during my younger days but I do not remember you being so barbaric and thieving to rub salt on our wounds,” I thought.

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I just played innocently so not to be included as evil in my nephew’s mind if he knows that I knew of the upcoming salt all along. I wondered why this kind of treatment was not made known and generally accepted with this next generation boy. Maybe there wasn’t much wounding in their home that my elder brother did not have the chance to introduce the wonders of salt more than just food flavoring.

During one of our classes of Philo subject (I think that was Philo 2) in college, our professor asked about our take on the “salt of the earth” Bible verse. I am not the kind of person who memorizes Bible verses so I did not even know in which book of the Bible the verse came from. Anyway, the question was about our opinion on the verse so my mind raced through what my mother is doing with salt. Well, I remember that thieving moment to heal wound. She also uses salt to preserve meat and dry it under the sun. Plus of course, salt adds flavor to our food.

I was not sure which among my three options would fit the question but I felt that the formalin effect sounds more appropriate to the verse. However, I was still not confident with my choice so I was just murmuring on my desk, “Preserve the earth”. My seatmate suddenly blurted it out and our professor lauded him.

“Very good!”

Hah, what a steal! My seatmate was cleverer than my mother thieving to rub salt on a wound. I stared at him and he was just smiling at me. The class discussion about the verse went on...

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Those two moments came to mind in the evening of October 23rd when I accidentally had the back of my hand touched the handle of a pot that came straight from the stove. I stared at the burn for a moment. Darn! It is not the usual kid’s burn that I just shrugged off when I was a kid. I checked my medicines and nothing is for burns. I cannot remember the last time we had serious burns at home so I guess that is why I am not keen to keeping medicine for it. I remembered reading few articles about toothpaste being a myth in healing burns so it was not an option. Salt? The damage is not yet an open wound but I just did with the salt anyway.

The following morning, the burn started showing blistering. When I showed it to one of my housemates, she was saying it is deep and it’s going to be painful. Except for the heat during the actual burn yesterday, I do not feel any pain. I did not even put any medication except for the salt which I know would not have enough effect yet. She said the pain will be more intense when the blister opens up. Oooppsss... Oh no.

The blister grew bigger in the next few days and burst on the fourth day. There goes the open wound. I am not a cry baby but yes, the pain was not a piece of cake. I have high tolerance to pains but I wondered why I really felt the pain at that point. I removed the dead black skin and saw the whitish something. That was when I realized the burn hit one of the largest veins (or blood vessel? I don't know the correct biology term), the one which is the nurse's favorite to insert IV needle whenever I get hospitalized. You may noticed that on the last photo.

I am not sure if I would call the whitish thing as tissue. I was told that if a wound has this, it means that the wound is deep and went beyond the epidermis (that is the first layer of the skin, just in case you’re wondering). Now is the time for salt to shine!

Yes, I literally rubbed salt on my open wound. As expected, the pain doubled and I endured it for at least half an hour. As I watch the salt blew its force, fluids start to flow from the wound. This is how my mother’s preserved meat reacts when salted. Okay, so the salt is working. Very good!

This is how it looked after the salt dried up the wound.

Salt inhibits the growth of microorganisms by drawing water out of microbial cells through osmosis. Concentrations of salt up to 20% are required to kill most species of unwanted bacteria. - Source.

I felt like I was literally sick while the salt was in effect. However after about an hour or so, the pain subsided and the wound started to get dry. And that was it! I did not have to put any other medication. I did not even have to worry about washing the wound twice or thrice a day. The wound dried on that day and stayed dry while forming the scab until it finally fall off on the fourteenth day, last Tuesday. Of course, I had to be careful of not to getting that portion of my hand wet.

This is how it looks today. The scar may take some time to disappear but salt really did its job. It gave me peace of mind and great convenience in spite of the open wound. Thanks to its wonders!

In this list of Uses Of Salt For Alleviating Various Ailments article, you will find what I have been referring to on the third item: Antiseptic.

Applying salt to a wound protects against bacterial infections.

Many times people would spend much for pharmaceutical drugs for pain or injuries without knowing that the safest, most effective and cost effective medication is just in the kitchen. Do not underestimate the power of salt!

This is my entry to the NATURAL MEDICINE CHALLENGE #5: SURVIVAL MEDICINE! being ran by @naturalmedicine. The entry that I first saw was a comic fiction which I thought the contest was about story making so I did not create an entry at first. Then I saw true story entries so here is mine. No fanciful fiction. Just true stories of how salt played a significant part of our family's medication. 😊

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