Sugar Speeds Wound Healing

As a nursing student in 1961, I worked at a small hospital that routinely used a mixture of milk of magnesia and sugar to cure bed sores. It seemed to be successful in many cases.

I graduated in the late 60's from nursing school and remember the milk of magnesia and sugar treatment as being very successful, as well as lamp therapy (exposing the area to a large watt lamp at approx 3-4 ft. distance from the skin).

Apparently, it seems to work. I was administrator for an Extended Care Facility in Puerto Rico... the head nurse applied a home-made sugar simple syrup with the consistency of honey and applied it to bed sores. To keep the syrup in place she used a plastic diaphragm with a perimeter self-adhesive. (This diaphragm came from pediatrics... used to cover the navel of newborns.) No records kept, but patients loved it, as in a couple of weeks the treated sore stared to heal.

I have used Manuka Honey with great success, in fact hospital doctors have even asked me how on earth I had gotten infected post-op wounds to heal so well! It is also wonderful for healing cuts (I almost cut my thumb tip off: now there is no sign...). It does need to be the special UMF honey though, with a high factor number. Research has been done here in NZ, proving this.

I am an RN with an extensive background in gerontology. I have not had the opportunity to use sugar or honey in the care of pressure ulcers, which many incapacitated elderly do acquire. However, I would be hesitant with the honey due to possible allergic reactions. The sugar, if purified, and used as a syrup, as one of your correspondents suggested, seems to be a feasible treatment. The FDA should look further into this, as well as ways to use the honey for clients who are closely monitored and without allergic reactions. I like old remedies; they have their place due to "tried and true" experience. How else did we get where we are?

I want to thank you for the "sugar cure" column. I had a toe amputated in March of 2006 and here it is November 2007 and it still is not healed. I read this column, took it to my wound treatment appointment, and asked the doctor about it. She said, "Nothing is helping so go for it. It couldn't hurt."

The upshot of this is that after applying the first treatment on a Friday afternoon, by Monday afternoon, the improvement was very noticeable. At my next doctor's appointment, she was very impressed.

In my case, the sugar was mixed in Polysporin and applied. The improvement was so great that she even gave me permission to shower without a bag on my foot, which I had not done in well over two years. Healing has slowed, but still goes on. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I have a residual wound from cancer surgery in 2003. The incision crossed an incision for a benign abdominal tumor in 1962 and heavy scarring has built up. Nothing has been able to heal this wound and doctors say I have to have surgery to remove the scar tissue to get it to heal. 2 months ago, my acupuncturist suggested sugar. I am amazed at how effective it has been--it is not yet entirely closed but smaller, cleaner than it's ever been. I have hope it can complete the job, 5 years out!

I stumbled across this site while doing a little research. I am a full time Farrier (Horse Shoer). The use of a paste called sugardine is used very commonly in the treatment of wounds and infections in horses. The paste is made using a Betadine scrub solution or a Providine-Iodine soulution mixed with white sugar. It promotes fast healing and helps lesson any scar tissue. It is used very often to treat abscesses in horse feet. You can do a little digging and you will find that this dates back to the Egyptians. There are reports that they used a honey and tar mixture to treat wounds in people and their livestock. This "sugardine" method does work, though I am not entirely sure why.

I've been told by my mother (who is a doctor) that the reason it works is that sugar creates a hypotonic solution outside the wound, which draws out whatever gunk is in the wound. Also, sugar is an effective anti-bacterial and preservative. (see fruit pies, cakes, other deserts that can be left un-refrigerated). Not sure if it's right, but it's what I've been told.

I think that it might work for this purpose if there are no major problems with blood supply to the bedsore, such as happens in cardiovascular disease or diabetes.

I've used sucrose for years in treating surgical skin wounds in laboratory animals, and in my experience, it's much more effective than most any topical antibiotic or plain bandaging. But it's important to care for the wound at least once per day. There is no substitute for diligent nursing care.

Good Luck

Heard about it from a man who was visiting his mother in the hospital 15 years ago. He was ecstatic about how it was working. Now I am cancer post op 11 months and one of my 4 wounds will not heal. They turned up the radiation in that area because I was too sick on chemo and had to stop half way through the course that was in combination with radiation. They should not turn up the power on radiation because my wound is healing very slowly because of it. 3 deep 6.5 centimeter holes continued for 8 months and now the surface won't close. Also there was an infection in the area a week after surgery. My only comment is that I heard of it years ago, remember it today, came online to check with others, and I will begin trying it today and let you know on another post from myself, Mavro. It is Saturday 29 November 2008. Surgery was 10 January 2008. So we will see.

my son developed bedsores in the hospital which require him to go the wound center after i was directed to do wet to dry on all wounds which didn't seem to be working until a guy at work told me his mother said use betadine and sugar and that what i been using on my son wounds and yes i have seen great improvement.

A friend of mine had just told me about applying sugar on my incision. I had a major surgery about 6 weeks ago. The doctor took the staples out in 2 days when I was at the hospital. I thought the staples should have been left a little longer like about a week until the incision is almost closed but I couldn't question the doctor. About 10 after the surgery I noticed bad order and discharge coming out of my incision. I was scared, I called the doctor and she told me to wash the wound with hydrogen peroxide and water and then I should put gauze sponges on the wound. I was wondering why she did not tell me this from the day I was discharged from the hospital? Now it is almost 4 weeks I still seeing discharge with bad order coming out of my incision.

Any way After I read the comments of different people who used sugar or honey in their wounds on this website; I have decided that I will apply honey on the wound tonight and and see the results. Thank you for all the comments.

PEOPLE'S PHARMACY RESPONSE: IF YOU CONTINUE TO HAVE CONCERNS ABOUT YOUR HEALING, PLEASE BE MORE ASSERTIVE ABOUT HAVING THE SURGEON SEE YOU.

Have a German Shepherd that has a non healing wound. I may have to get her surgery, over $2000. I will try one more time to heal this wound with the betadine sugar solution I hear people raving about its powers! wish me luck!12-26-08

I've had personal experience with this healing aid and I would recommend it at least on a small scale. While using an old sewing machine with a less than sterile needle (not quite rusty, but not far from it!) in dirty conditions in Buenos Aires, I accidentally sewed straight through my finger.

Some of my Argentine colleagues immediately helped me to clean and dress the puncture, and after cold clean salt water and a good swabbing with alcohol they surprised me by ripping open a couple packets of sugar and insisting that I coat my finger with it for several minutes.

Finally they brushed off the excess sugar granules BUT DID NOT WASH THE SUGAR AWAY, and bandaged me up. Each day they checked the progress and re-bandaged me. I have to say that the wound closed up VERY quickly (amazingly quickly since I was in my late 40's when this happened and am not prone to rapid healing at this point in my life).

And even better, there is NO visible scarring nor any feeling of interior scar tissue as I would have expected. If I didn't know I'd done this, I would never know it by looking at my fingertip.

I'm absolutely on board with the use of sugar. And in my personal experience it didn't need any special sterilization of its own - food grade seemed to work just fine.

I read about sugar dressings in an alternative physician's newsletter (Dr. Whittaker) and although he praises sugar as the best wound dressing he never says how to do it (and I have trouble getting onto his website.) Can any of you out there tell me what to do? Nothing vague, please, I am the type who needs instructions. I have a 1" round cancerous lesion growing through my abdomen, I would like to close this wound up. My husband cleans it with hydrogen peroxide and dresses it with silverdene(?) cream. How long to heal or any opinions on will a cancerous would heal at all? Thank you so much.

A fall downstairs resulted in a wedge shaped chunk being torn out of my big toe, from an exposed nail. I rinsed it off and poured regular table sugar into the hole. I then bandaged it up and stayed off my feet. I didn't disturb it for 24 hrs. I was shocked when I took off the bandage and there was nothing but a faint pink line. It had closed up completly, today I can't even see where it was. No scar!

I have been in veterinary medicine for 15 years. About 6 years ago we had a case of a dog, who'd been attacked by another dog. After initial surgery to repair wounds, the tissue over the largest area became necrotic and sloughed off. Leaving nothing to sew back together. In a recent journal edition, this remedy had been mentioned.

It took daily bandage changes initially and nearly six months of wound care. However, our tough little patient healed so well, once his hair grew back in, you wouldn't know he'd been touched. The osmolality of the sugar would not allow the wound to become infected (as mentioned in another comment with high sugar desserts, cured fruits, etc). This high osmolality also draws out extra moisture, which helps it to heal.

One thing we discovered, during the bandage changes, using a hand held shower head to rinse off the sugar and debride the dead tissue. Revealing healthy granulation tissue. After the rinse, pat dry w/ clean towels, pour sugar onto the wound and sprinkle to the edges of the margins. Apply non-stick pads and wrap appropriately.

Hope this helps!