Scientists at the American Chemical Society recently found that peppermint and cinnamon make an awesome bacteria-busting team. Applying tea tree oil or tea tree cream like Derma E Tea Tree and E Antiseptic Creme directly to your cut twice a day will cut down inflammation. When researchers at the Good Shepherd Hospital in Texas tested tea tree oil on patients who had infected cuts, they found the time it took the tea tree group to heal, compared with the control group treated with conventional antibiotics, was strikingly shorter. ( Here are 13 other genius uses for tea tree oil.) Several studies have shown that tea tree oil has the antibacterial qualities needed in wound care. Yes, tea tree oil makes excellent shampoo, but it's also a great way to heal a cut quickly and efficiently. RELATED: 5 Natural Remedies For Headaches Instead, grab medical-grade honey like Medihoney, which is filtered and sterilized. Honey sold for food purposes often contains pollen and bacteria that could infect your cut. Its viscous texture also allows a cut to heal in a moist environment, which leaves you with a softer-looking scar or no scar at all.īut doctors ask that you don't just slather on a spoonful of the stuff that comes in a cute little bear at your supermarket. Scientists believe the antioxidants, amino acids, vitamins, and minerals in honey make it able to kill both the bacteria and the fungi that infect wounds. And people have been using honey to heal cuts since at least 2000 BC, when Egyptian doctors recorded its ability to heal wounds for the first time. The idea to use honey as medicine isn't exactly new-there are references to the sweet substance's healing properties in the Bible, the Torah, and the Quran. Here, 5 natural remedies for cuts and scrapes: If you want to try the all-natural route, you've got options-a few of which are probably already in your kitchen. Road rash, a gouge on your shin from a missed pedal, even a cut finger from changing out a flat tire-they're all just the price of participating in two-wheeled motion.īut the idea of loading up those cuts and road rash with chemicals-even if they are FDA approved-can seem a little sketchy.
Let's face it: No one makes it through life on a bike without at least a few cuts and scrapes.