Both types of bandages trap healing moisture in the wound but allow only a little air to pass through. Cells regenerate more rapidly when moist. You can speed up the healing process with a little table sugar, says Richard A. Knutson, M.D., an orthopedic surgeon at Delta Medical Center in Greenville, Mississippi. He's treated more than 5,000 serious wounds over the past ten years with a mixture of tamed iodine and sugar, healing a variety of mishaps from cuts, scrapes, and burns to amputated fingertips. Sugar, he says, leaves bacteria without the nutrients necessary to grow or multiply.
Wounds usually heal quickly, without a scab and often with little scarring.
Pack a cleaned wound with the homemade ointment and cover carefully with gauze. Four times a day, rinse the area gently with tap water and hydrogen peroxide and pack on fresh ointment. Taper off as healing progresses. Sugar will make a bleeding wound bleed more. Don't use powdered sugar or brown sugar, Dr. Knutson advises.