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The Healing Powers Of Sugar


hazelm

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My father and my grandfather would have said "So  what else is news?" This story from BBC News: 

 

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20180328-how-sugar-could-help-heal-wounds?ocid=global_future_rss&ocid=global_bbccom_email_30032018_future

 

Moses Mirandu of Zimbabwe learned as a child the healing power of sugar on wounds.  Now in UK he is proving this folk remedy's value.  Apply a good layer of sugar to a wound - hopefully before it gets infected - and cover it with a bandage.  There it will do its job.  For many this is salvation when they cannot afford antibiotics.

 

In America a similar folk remedy is being proven with honey which has been used by veterinarian Maureen McMichael at the University of Illinois veterinary teaching hospital where she has been applying it on animals for years.  As with sugar, she comments on its worth where money is in short supply for antibiotics.

 

The question was raised asking is it safe for diabetics.  The answer was yes because sugar is sucrose and sucrose needs to blend with sucrase to convert to glucose.  Sucrase is available within the body and the sugar is being used outside the body.

 

I add that last paragraph because it raises another question in my mind.  What we put on our skin is, to a certain extent, absorbed into the body.  How far and how well I know not but is it something to consider?

 

Anyway, as I said at the start, my father would have laughed.  His head was full of these old folk remedies which he trusted and used in preference to the fancier and more costly medicines.

 

 

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My father and my grandfather would have said "So  what else is news?" This story from BBC News: 

 

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20180328-how-sugar-could-help-heal-wounds?ocid=global_future_rss&ocid=global_bbccom_email_30032018_future

 

Moses Mirandu of Zimbabwe learned as a child the healing power of sugar on wounds.  Now in UK he is proving this folk remedy's value.  Apply a good layer of sugar to a wound - hopefully before it gets infected - and cover it with a bandage.  There it will do its job.  For many this is salvation when they cannot afford antibiotics.

 

In America a similar folk remedy is being proven with honey which has been used by veterinarian Maureen McMichael at the University of Illinois veterinary teaching hospital where she has been applying it on animals for years.  As with sugar, she comments on its worth where money is in short supply for antibiotics.

 

The question was raised asking is it safe for diabetics.  The answer was yes because sugar is sucrose and sucrose needs to blend with sucrase to convert to glucose.  Sucrase is available within the body and the sugar is being used outside the body.

 

I add that last paragraph because it raises another question in my mind.  What we put on our skin is, to a certain extent, absorbed into the body.  How far and how well I know not but is it something to consider?

 

Anyway, as I said at the start, my father would have laughed.  His head was full of these old folk remedies which he trusted and used in preference to the fancier and more costly medicines.

I found this very interesting, Hazel. Especially the bit about sugar drying the wound by absorbing moisture, thus making it hard for bacteria to grow.

 

Sugar has long been known as a preservative of course, for fruit (jam, crystallised fruit etc). Having researched this a bit, it seems that indeed it works by osmosis: a high sugar concentration draws water out of micro-organisms, killing them. So there we have it: sugar ought to work to help reduce bacterial growth in wounds...and apparently it does! 

 

Something new I have learnt today. Thanks for posting. 

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I found this very interesting, Hazel. Especially the bit about sugar drying the wound by absorbing moisture, thus making it hard for bacteria to grow.

 

Sugar has long been known as a preservative of course, for fruit (jam, crystallised fruit etc). Having researched this a bit, it seems that indeed it works by osmosis: a high sugar concentration draws water out of micro-organisms, killing them. So there we have it: sugar ought to work to help reduce bacterial growth in wounds...and apparently it does! 

 

Something new I have learnt today. Thanks for posting. 

You are welcome.  And, to answer my question, if it is working by osmosis - drawing out - then the likelihood of it being absorbed into the body is remote.  Yes?

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You are welcome.  And, to answer my question, if it is working by osmosis - drawing out - then the likelihood of it being absorbed into the body is remote.  Yes?

Yes I think so. Your digestive system needs some pretty specialised tissues and organs to absorb nutrients efficiently. A wound might absorb a tiny bit but not enough to have a significant effect, I would have thought. 

 

By the way, salt preservation and simple drying of food to preserve it both rely on the same principle, that pathogenic and food-spoiling organisms generally need moisture to multiply. I keep saucisson sec in my kitchen, and I've found it keeps better if I do NOT put it in the fridge. It stays drier if I just leave it on the table.  

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Yes I think so. Your digestive system needs some pretty specialised tissues and organs to absorb nutrients efficiently. A wound might absorb a tiny bit but not enough to have a significant effect, I would have thought. 

 

By the way, salt preservation and simple drying of food to preserve it both rely on the same principle, that pathogenic and food-spoiling organisms generally need moisture to multiply. I keep saucisson sec in my kitchen, and I've found it keeps better if I do NOT put it in the fridge. It stays drier if I just leave it on the table.  

'Saucisson sec"?  I never heard of it.  I did know that they salted meat to - they said - preserve it.  However, I have read that it mostly just covered the taste of spoiled meat.  No idea which is true.

 

Saucisson - aha!  a sausage.  My learning for today.  Thank you.

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'Saucisson sec"?  I never heard of it.  I did know that they salted meat to - they said - preserve it.  However, I have read that it mostly just covered the taste of spoiled meat.  No idea which is true.

 

Saucisson - aha!  a sausage.  My learning for today.  Thank you.

Yes and "sec" (or "seche" in the feminine) means dry.

 

It's like a very dry and hard salami. The one I have at present comes from Savoie, in France, where I went skiing in the middle of last month. It has hazelnuts in it actually - maybe I should have got some for you!

 

Don't believe the nonsense about covering up the taste. Drying and salting, sometimes involving smoking too, are the preservation techniques for meat and fish used everywhere before the invention of the fridge.  Imagine. You killed a pig and then, unless there was a very large number of you, you had about 24-48hrs to eat the meat or do something to it to make it last, so that you could eat it over the next 4-8 weeks. Ham, bacon, preserved sausage etc were all ways of doing that. In the end it became an art form: Parma ham, Jamon Serrano etc have become protected (and much imitated) classics.  

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Yes and "sec" (or "seche" in the feminine) means dry.

 

It's like a very dry and hard salami. The one I have at present comes from Savoie, in France, where I went skiing in the middle of last month. It has hazelnuts in it actually - maybe I should have got some for you!

 

Don't believe the nonsense about covering up the taste. Drying and salting, sometimes involving smoking too, are the preservation techniques for meat and fish used everywhere before the invention of the fridge.  Imagine. You killed a pig and then, unless there was a very large number of you, you had about 24-48hrs to eat the meat or do something to it to make it last, so that you could eat it over the next 4-8 weeks. Ham, bacon, preserved sausage etc were all ways of doing that. In the end it became an art form: Parma ham, Jamon Serrano etc have become protected (and much imitated) classics.  

Thanks.  If I were a meat-eater, I would try the sausage.  But meat doesn't treat me right.  So I avoid it.

 

Right about the curing.   Maybe an occasional mishap but people seemed to have thrived on the cured meats.  So, couldn't have been all bad.  Thank goodness for the fridge; and - more - the freezer.

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Thanks.  If I were a meat-eater, I would try the sausage.  But meat doesn't treat me right.  So I avoid it.

 

Right about the curing.   Maybe an occasional mishap but people seemed to have thrived on the cured meats.  So, couldn't have been all bad.  Thank goodness for the fridge; and - more - the freezer.

And we still do thrive on them........

 

My grandparents lived without a fridge until the 1960s. They managed fine, though in hot weather they had to be more careful about how much they bought at once and how quickly they used it. They had a larder on the north side of the house, with stone shelves, and a mesh window instead of one with a glass pane. They used to keep the milk in an enamel bucket of cold water. But then they grew up in the Edwardian era, and that's what people did in those days.  

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And we still do thrive on them........

 

My grandparents lived without a fridge until the 1960s. They managed fine, though in hot weather they had to be more careful about how much they bought at once and how quickly they used it. They had a larder on the north side of the house, with stone shelves, and a mesh window instead of one with a glass pane. They used to keep the milk in an enamel bucket of cold water. But then they grew up in the Edwardian era, and that's what people did in those days. 

 

I don't know where your grandparents lived but, in the city, there was the ice man who came along with a truck-load of 25# and 50# cakes of ice that one could buy for the "ice box". 

 

Even today, there are a few farms that still sell unpasteurized milk.  They buy milk from other farmers.  Those farmers keep the pail of milk in a cold stream or some such arrangement where the owner of the dairy picks them up.  

 

For anyone whose reaction here is negative, these farms - simply because they are selling raw milk - are heavily government-supervised.  There is such a dairy here and one of the workers said they are inspected more often than regular dairies.  This dairy delivers to homes yet.  Not many of those left.

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I don't know where your grandparents lived but, in the city, there was the ice man who came along with a truck-load of 25# and 50# cakes of ice that one could buy for the "ice box". 

 

Even today, there are a few farms that still sell unpasteurized milk.  They buy milk from other farmers.  Those farmers keep the pail of milk in a cold stream or some such arrangement where the owner of the dairy picks them up.  

 

For anyone whose reaction here is negative, these farms - simply because they are selling raw milk - are heavily government-supervised.  There is such a dairy here and one of the workers said they are inspected more often than regular dairies.  This dairy delivers to homes yet.  Not many of those left.

My grandparents lived in the outskirts of NW London- a place called Pinner, famous only as where Elton John grew up. Here's a picture, showing what it is like, (including the parish church, in which my parents were married):  http://cdn.houle.co.uk/images/AreaImages/coverimage/Pinner-united-kingdom-id-5123.jpg

 

They had no ice box, but then in the UK the climate is not so extreme as in N America.

 

Regarding raw milk, that is essential for the making of decent cheese, so I should think it is fairly widespread, at least in France and other cheesemaking countries in Europe.

 

(When I was a child we used to buy what was called "TT" milk from the neighbouring farm, when we were on holiday in the west of Scotland, here: https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/05/95/e9/50/lyle-hill.jpg  TT stood for "tuberculin tested", i.e. it was unpasteurised but the herd of cows had been checked for tuberculosis.  I went back there last summer, but did not enquire at the hotel about their milk! )  

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My grandparents lived in the outskirts of NW London- a place called Pinner, famous only as where Elton John grew up. Here's a picture, showing what it is like, (including the parish church, in which my parents were married):  http://cdn.houle.co.uk/images/AreaImages/coverimage/Pinner-united-kingdom-id-5123.jpg

 

They had no ice box, but then in the UK the climate is not so extreme as in N America.

 

Regarding raw milk, that is essential for the making of decent cheese, so I should think it is fairly widespread, at least in France and other cheesemaking countries in Europe.

 

(When I was a child we used to buy what was called "TT" milk from the neighbouring farm, when we were on holiday in the west of Scotland, here: https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/05/95/e9/50/lyle-hill.jpg  TT stood for "tuberculin tested", i.e. it was unpasteurised but the herd of cows had been checked for tuberculosis.  I went back there last summer, but did not enquire at the hotel about their milk! )  

Back to sugar,  I am wondering why it doesn't have some healing powers inside the body.  I know the brain needs it to function well.  But, according to what I have read, sugar is mostly a challenge to the body.    It is too easy to get overdoses of it.  My optometrist explained how it interferes with our vision.  I have tested what she said and she is right. Just one good Milky Way and my eyes are bleary.   Then we know about over-dosed-with-sugar foods and hyperactivity.

 

Ah well.  Good that it has benefits somewhere.   By the way, raw milk - improperly tested and treated - can also cause brucellosis.  Is brucellosis related to tuberculosis?  I just wondered this upon reading what you wrote above.

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  By the way, raw milk - improperly tested and treated - can also cause brucellosis.  Is brucellosis related to tuberculosis?  I just wondered this upon reading what you wrote above.

In the United States, there was a vaccination program where the government would pay to vaccinate against brucellosis, which is not related to tuberculosis, but is a very nasty disease.  Most states are now certifies brucellosis free, and that program is now long discontinued, but many farms still keep up with the vaccinations.  The vaccine must be administered before a calf is one year of age, and the calves get a tattoo and an ear tag in the right ear for proof of vaccinations.

 

I drink raw milk and will continue to do so, but we will not sell directly to consumers because of the liability risk.  I heard of one farm that sold raw milk to someone who go sick from something else, but blame was placed on the milk, and by the time it was proven that the milk was not to blame, the farm was out of business from the bad publicity.

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In the United States, there was a vaccination program where the government would pay to vaccinate against brucellosis, which is not related to tuberculosis, but is a very nasty disease.  Most states are now certifies brucellosis free, and that program is now long discontinued, but many farms still keep up with the vaccinations.  The vaccine must be administered before a calf is one year of age, and the calves get a tattoo and an ear tag in the right ear for proof of vaccinations.

 

I drink raw milk and will continue to do so, but we will not sell directly to consumers because of the liability risk.  I heard of one farm that sold raw milk to someone who go sick from something else, but blame was placed on the milk, and by the time it was proven that the milk was not to blame, the farm was out of business from the bad publicity.

Brucellosis sounds like a medical condition in which you turn into an Australian: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyVX3uJpqxc

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In the United States, there was a vaccination program where the government would pay to vaccinate against brucellosis, which is not related to tuberculosis, but is a very nasty disease.  Most states are now certifies brucellosis free, and that program is now long discontinued, but many farms still keep up with the vaccinations.  The vaccine must be administered before a calf is one year of age, and the calves get a tattoo and an ear tag in the right ear for proof of vaccinations.

 

I drink raw milk and will continue to do so, but we will not sell directly to consumers because of the liability risk.  I heard of one farm that sold raw milk to someone who go sick from something else, but blame was placed on the milk, and by the time it was proven that the milk was not to blame, the farm was out of business from the bad publicity.

I didn't know that about the vaccination.  Somebody messed up with our cows then as I got brucellosis on our raw milk.   So, it isn't related to TB.  OK.  A nurse told me the scar tissue in the lungs looks the same.  Have to prove which is which with a blood test.  That was long ago, of course. 

 

I agree with your family about not selling it.  I wouldn't want to take the chance. 

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