The hidden healing power of sugar

canada goose coats on sale As a child growing up in poverty in the rural Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe, Moses Murandu was used to having canada goose factory outlet salt literally rubbed in his wounds when he fell and cut himself. On lucky days, though, his father canada goose outlet had enough money to buy something which stung the boy much less than salt: sugar. canada goose coats on sale

cheap Canada Goose Murandu always noticed that sugar seemed to help heal wounds more quickly than no treatment at all. So he was surprised when, having been recruited to come to work as a nurse for the UK National Health System (NHS) in 1997, he found that sugar wasn being used in any official capacity. He decided to try to change that. cheap Canada Goose

Now, Murandu idea canada goose kensington parka uk finally is being taken seriously. A senior lecturer in adult nursing at the University of Wolverhampton, Murandu completed an initial pilot study focussed on sugar applications in wound healing and won an award from the Journal of Wound Care in March 2018 for his work.

How can we avoid antibiotic apocalypse?

In some parts of the world, this procedure could be key because people cannot afford antibiotics. But there is interest in the UK, too, since once a wound is infected, it sometimes won respond to antibiotics.

canada goose coats To treat a wound with sugar, all you do, Murandu says, is pour the sugar on the wound and apply a bandage on top. The granules soak up any moisture that allows bacteria to thrive. Without the bacteria, the wound heals more quickly. canada goose coats

View image of Concern over antibiotic resistance has increased interest in other treatments

Evidence for all of this was found in Murandu trials in the lab. And a growing collection of case studies from around the world has supported Murandu findings, including examples of successful sugar treatments on wounds containing bacteria resistant to antibiotics. Even so, Murandu faces an uphill battle. Funding for further research would help him reach his ultimate goal to convince the NHS to use sugar as an alternative to antibiotics. But a great deal of medical research is canada goose outlet germany funded by pharmaceutical companies. canada goose clothing uk And these companies, he points out, have little to gain from paying for research into something they can patent.

The sugar is the plain, granulated type you might use to sweeten your tea

canadian goose jacket The sugar Murandu uses is the plain, granulated type you might use to sweeten your tea. In the same in vitro trials, he found that there was no difference between using cane or beet sugar. Demerara, however, wasn as effective. canadian goose jacket

buy canada goose jacket cheap The pilot showed that strains of bacteria grew in low concentrations of sugar but were completely inhibited in higher concentrations. Murandu started recording case studies in Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Lesotho (where he first trained in nursing). Included among them is a woman living in Harare. buy canada goose jacket cheap

canada goose woman foot had been measured, ready to be amputated, when my nephew called me, Murandu says. had had a terrible wound for five years, and the doctor wanted to amputate. I told her https://www.winterdownparkas.com to wash the wound, apply sugar, leave it and repeat. canada goose

canada goose store woman still has her leg. he says, is one example of why there is so much interest in his methods, particularly from parts of the world where people can afford antibiotics. canada goose store

View image of Sugar could be considered an effective method of wound treatment (Credit: Getty Images)

canada goose clearance sale In total, Murandu has now canada goose outlet belgium carried out clinical studies on 41 patients in the UK. He hasn yet published the trial results but has presented them at national and international conferences. One question he had to answer during his research was whether sugar could be used on diabetic patients, who commonly have leg and foot ulcers. Diabetics need to control the level of glucose in their blood so this isn an obvious healing method to use on them. canada goose clearance sale

Canada Goose online But he found that it worked for diabetics without sending their glucose levels soaring. is sucrose you need the enzyme sucrase to convert that into glucose, he says. As sucrase is found canada goose sale uk within the body, it is only when the sugar is absorbed that it is converted. Applying it to the outside of the wound isn going to affect it in the same way. Canada Goose online

canada goose black friday sale While Murandu continues his research canada goose outlet nyc on human patients, across the canada goose outlet phone number Atlantic US veterinarian Maureen McMichael has been using this healing method on animals for years. canada goose black friday sale

McMichael, who works at the University of Illinois Veterinary Teaching Hospital, first started using both sugar and honey on pets back in 2002. She said it was a combination of the simplicity of the method and the low cost that attracted her especially for pet owners who couldn afford the usual methods of bringing the animal to the hospital and using sedation.

canada goose clearance McMichael says that they keep goose outlet canada both sugar and honey in their surgery and often used it on dogs and cats (and occasionally on farm animals). Honey has similar healing properties to sugar (one study found it to be even more effective at inhibiting bacterial growth), though it is more expensive. canada goose clearance

View image of The sugar treatment may work on wounds afflicting not only people, but pets

have had some really great successes with this, McMichael says. She gave an example of a stray dog canada goose outlet england that had come to them after being used as bait hung from a harness and attacked by pitbulls being trained for fighting. The dog came in with up to 40 bite wounds on each limb and was healed within eight weeks.

was a stray so there was no money for her. We treated her with both honey and sugar and she did fabulously, McMichael says. all healed now. well as being cheaper, sugar has another upside: as more and more antibiotics are used, we are becoming resistant to them.

As well as being cheaper, sugar has another upside: as more canada goose outlet ottawa and more antibiotics are used, we are becoming resistant to them

Canada Goose Parka Back in the UK, tissue engineering specialist Sheila MacNeil of the University of Sheffeld has researched how naturally occurring sugars can be used to stimulate the re growth of blood vessels. Her research stemmed from from her work on tumours, when she noticed that one particular small sugar derived from the breakdown of DNA (2 deoxy D ribose) kept cropping up. MacNeil team experimented by applying this sugar to the membrane surrounding chick embryos. According canada goose outlet los angeles to MacNeil, the sugar stimulated double the number of blood vessels than would grow canada goose outlet uk sale without it. Canada Goose Parka

Canada Goose Outlet But of course these types of naturally occurring sugars found in our bodies are a long way from the type of everyday sugar used by Murandu in his experiments. canada goose premium outlet The ticket MacNeil says, would be to find a sugar canada goose outlet in chicago that could be used in both canada goose outlet in toronto ways. She believes this is the next step research should take. Canada Goose Outlet

Canada Goose Jackets Meanwhile in Wolverhampton, Murandu plan is to set up a private clinic using his sugar method. He hopes that canada goose outlet paypal one day sugar will be commonly used, not only by the NHS but also at public hospitals in some of the other countries where he has been working. He continues to get regular emails from around the world, asking for his advice and guides patients remotely over email and texting. His far away clients send him photos of their canada goose outlet orlando results along with their gratitude when they are healed. Canada Goose Jackets

It is an ancient method and one used unofficially by many poor people in developing countries, but for Murandu it was only by coming to the UK that canada goose outlet real he realised the significance sugar could have in the medical world. He sees it as a blending of his local knowledge with the modern research facilities in Britain.

Canada Goose sale sugar, the knowledge came raw from Zimbabwe, was refined here and is now going back to help canada goose victoria parka outlet people in Africa, he says. Canada Goose sale

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