The Healing Power of Sugar (NAPSA)—It turns out that Mary Poppins wasright when she said that a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down—sugar even has some medicinal qualities of its own. Sugar is well-known for making good foodstaste better, breads rise, cookies crunchy or chewy, and it protects the safety of jams and jellies. But did you know the same preserving power in jams and jellies can also help heal wounds? Many of the same properties that make sugar an excellent food preservative also bestow it with its healing powers. Sugar has been used to treat wounds according to records dating back to 1700 B.C. Today, scientists here and abroad arerediscovering sugar’s wonderful healing powers and reporting surprising success in the use of sugar to treat serious wounds and especially burns that fail to respond to conventional therapy. When sugar is applied to an open wound, it absorbs the wound’s moisture necessary for the growth of infectious bacteria. Physicians also believe sugar supplies the very nourishment damaged tissues require for healing and regrowth. According to a study featured in the Microbiology Infectious Diseases Journal, sugar is thought to exert an antibacterial effect by helping to slough off dead tissue and keep a woundclean. Another article, which appeared in the Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, stated that granulated sugar has Scientists are discovering that sugaris an effective antibacterial agent whenusedto clean wounds. been used with success in treatment of eliminating bacterial contamination after cardiac surgery. This study also suggested that sugar treatment leads to faster healing of infected wounds than conventional packing methods. A third article, in the Southern Medical Journal, stated that dur- ing a 56-month period, 605 patients were treated for wounds, burns and ulcers with granulated sugar and iodine. Rapid healing ensued. The requirementsfor skin grafting and antibiotics were greatly reduced, as were hospital costs for wound, burn and ulcer care. Science is showing that sugar helps wounds heal as well as preserve the safety in foods. Many would consider that sweet news indeed.
