Chinese Medicine First Aid - Part One: Nosebleeds, Conjunctivitis & Burns

By Angie
We all know how important it is to treat minor injuries and conditions effectively to encourage healing and prevent infection, and most of us are familiar with some basic first aid. In addition to what you already know, here are some tried and true remedies from the wisdom of Chinese Medicine. You may be pleased to find the ingredients for most of these remedies in your own kitchen. Please note that you must always follow standard first aid protocols and treat these as adjunctive strategies.

Nosebleeds

For a profuse nosebleed, wrap a piece of string or twine (a shoelace is perfect) firmly around the palm underneath the knuckles. Tell the patient to make a fist. This tightens the string and works like a kind of acupressure on acupuncture points LI-3 and SI-3. This works very well for a large majority of cases.

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Conjunctivitis

There are several remedies that you can try to soothe red and sore eyes:

1. Take a green tea bag, steep it in boiling water, then when it is cool wring it out and use as a compress for 15-20 minutes over closed eyelids.
2. Use the leftover cool green tea as an eyewash.
3. You can use a chrysanthemum tea bag in much the same way. If you can only find the loose chrysanthemum flowers, wrap them in a piece of light cotton or muslin after they have been steeped in order to make the compress.
4. Make a cucumber poultice. Grate a cucumber and then mix it with a little white flour to bind it. Make a little pad-like 'pancake' and place over the affected eye.

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Burns

Again there are several options for treating burns of differing levels of severity:

1. Ching Wan Hung Ointment
This is an inexpensive ointment that you can find in any Chinese grocery or herb shop and should be in every home's first aid cabinet. Ching Wan Hung is one of the major herbal remedies for burns in China, so much so that it is used in hospitals for serious third degree burns. For home use, topical application is recommended for first and second degree burns as well as sunburn. "Ching Wan Hung" loosely translated means "Controls 10,000 types of burns". This ointment helps to reduce pain and blistering; prevents scarring, and promotes tissue regeneration. It is a messy product so should be covered with a non-stick dressing to both protect it from being wiped off, and also prevent stains of clothes and skin.

2. Roasted sesame oil can soothe burns, and is used as a base for many Chinese dermatological products.

3. Use the juice of either a carrot, potato, or cucumber and apply it as a wash.

4. Green tea can be used much as like for conjunctivitis - you can use the cooled tea bag as a compress, and also the cooled tea as a wash.

5. Honey is another traditional remedy for burns. Make sure it is qood quality raw honey - manuka or medihoney for best results. Honey is soothing, antiseptic and healing.

Thats all for Part One.
Click here for Part Two - Sprains, Strains and Bruises
Click here for Part Three - Cuts and Stings
Click here for Part Four - Herbal Ice

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