Naked Science Forum
Life Sciences => Physiology & Medicine => Topic started by: Carolyn on 13/07/2008 03:22:00
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I'm at my parents this week and we've been overrun by wasps and bees! Last week, I was stung by two bees. Yesterday, my Mom and daughter got it much worse as they accidentally disturbed a wasp nest and were bitten several times.
I did nothing but ice and antibiotic ointment for my bee stings, neither of which relieved my pain.
My mother instisted on putting tobacco on her and my daughters stings. We found a hidden pack of Dads ciggys and took out some tobacco and mixed it with a little water and put the mixture on each sting and secured it with bandaids. We ran out of tobacco before covering all of Moms stings. The spots covered with tobacco look normal, like nothing happened, but the two spots that we didn't cover have huge blisters on them.
She says the tobacco draws the poison out. This piece of wisdom was passed down to her by her grandmother.
How did the tobacco clear up the wasp stings and is there any other ways tobacco can be beneficial?
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It is not necessary to smoke tobacco for it to cause cancer...
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=health&res=9802E6D91339F935A15750C0A967948260
Tobacco applied in this way could be an astringent, (it is a vasoconstricter), but there are alternatives...
Mild astringent solutions are used in the relief of such minor skin irritations as those resulting from superficial cuts, allergies, insect bites, or fungal infections such as athlete's foot.
Some common astringent agents include alum, oatmeal, yarrow, witch hazel, bayberry, very cold water, and rubbing alcohol. Astringent preparations include silver nitrate, zinc oxide, zinc sulfate, Burow's solution, tincture of benzoin, and vegetable substances such as tannic and gallic acids. Balaustines are the red rose-like flowers of the pomegranate, which are very bitter to the taste. In medicine, its dried form has been used as an astringent. Some metal salts and acids have also been used as astringents.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astringent
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Carolyn, my sisters life was saved by a little old southern lady and her tobacco chew spit can..
when we were kids she accidently upset a hive and was stung hundreds of times this little old women heard us screaming and looked out her window and camew to the rescue when she heard me telling her it was bees. there was more to the story but to make along story short. she stripped my sister and started smearing and packing bites with the nasty chewed tobacco she said it would act as a drawing sauve and draw the poson from the stings. she said if we had no tobacco that mud would work also. The doctor sai i saved her life....
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Thanks RD & Karen. Mom got stung again this morning, in two spots. She didn't have any tobacco so this time she sliced a potato and put on the stings. Also advice given by her grandmother. LOL...she'll try anything.
This is the same grandmother that used kerosene as an antiseptic!
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Hey my grandma used all those things also... so did the old neighbor women!I think the starch works like the mud and chewing tobacco.. it dries on the sting and then applies a suction when it dries and draws out some of the poison.. when you rub potato starch on your skin and allow it to stand it dries and kind of pulls on the skin causing that dried scum build up on your skin which draws out moisture as it dries! That would be my guess...
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If you ever notice when mud and such things dry it cracks and pulls away from the surface of whats its on well it takes the other moisture with it and kind of pulls out at the same time!