Sugar (sucrose, table sugar)
Properties of sugar as a wound treatment
How to use sugar as a wound or ulcer remedy
Research and evidence on sugar's effectiveness
References
Sugar, table sugar, the kind of granulated sugar you stir into a cup of tea, is an outstanding wound healer and skin antibiotic. Sugar is a traditional home remedy in many poor countries, where it is the first and only treatment for cuts, wounds, ulcers and some other skin infections.
As well as the sugar cure detailed on this web page, sugar may also be used as a natural antibiotic and effective treatment for wounds and intractable ulcers.
Details here.
Table sugar (sucrose) is not the only type of sugar that is an effective wound healer and antibiotic. Honey is also a traditional remedy for wounds, skin infections, and several other kinds of skin problems. Other types of sugars are also effective antibiotics and wound healers, but there is very little research published. The lack of research is inhibiting the deserved widespread use of sugar as a first treatment for leg ulcers and many other skin ailments.
Leg ulcers are particularly difficult to cure, and once established they can last for years or even the rest of life. Bacteria infect the ulcers and live in a thin, slimy film on the surface of the wound. This means they are not susceptible to antibiotics taken inside the body. The infection causes a breakdown of all the different levels of the skin. These ulcers give off an unpleasant smell, are painful, and keep growing. Patients become incapacitated and lose the ability to drive and walk, and the end point of serious ulcer infections is amputation of the limb.
Properties of sugar as a wound treatment
- Antibiotic resistance. Bacteria cannot build up resistance to sugar, in the way that they are developing resistance to many pharmaceutical antibiotics.
- Sugar is cheap, convenient, easily and widely available. It can be applied at home and needs no particular expertise. Where people cannot afford medical care or are unable to access a doctor or nurse, it is the obvious treatment. However, it should also be a first treatment in modern hospitals and by doctors in Western countries.
- Sugar speeds up the healing of wounds. (2, 3, 4)
- Infections. Sugar is particularly useful for infections on the skin where bacteria on the surface of the skin cannot be reached by systemic antibiotics in the body. When an ulcer or skin infection is not responding to conventional pharmaceutical antibiotics, sugar is an effective treatment that should have been used first, not last.
- Honey has similar healing properties to sugar. Honey is mostly made up of the sugar fructose, and when raw and untreated it contains other sugars, enzymes and compounds. It is more expensive than sucrose (table sugar), particularly if raw and untreated. One study found it to be even more effective than sucrose at inhibiting bacterial growth. (1)
- Growth of blood vessels. Tissue engineering researcher Sheila MacNeil of the University of Sheffield has investigated how other naturally-occurring sugars can be used to stimulate the re-growth of blood vessels. When working on cancer tumours she noticed that one particular type of sugar derived from the breakdown of DNA (2-deoxy-D-ribose) kept appearing. MacNeil's team applied this sugar to the membrane surrounding chick embryos, and found that the number of blood vessels doubled. (2)
MacNeil is optimistic that other sugars may be proved to encourage the growth of blood vessels (angiogenesis). Much of this information came from early research on cancer by the likes of Otto Warburg and other scientists.
How to use sugar as a wound or ulcer remedy
To treat a wound with sugar, all you do is pour sugar onto the wound, packing it with sufficient sugar to provide a complete cover. Apply a bandage to hold the sugar in place and protect the wound or infection. The sugar grains also soak up the moisture that allows bacteria to thrive.
Use pure white sugar. In vitro trials found that there was no difference in outcomes between cane or beet sugar. However, brown, raw, and demerara sugars were not as effective. (3)
Use a sufficient covering of sugar on the wound or infection. A study showed that strains of bacteria grew in low concentrations of sugar but were completely inhibited in higher concentrations. (3)
Research and evidence on sugar's effectiveness
A growing collection of case studies from around the world supports the effectiveness of sugar in treating wounds and skin infections, including examples of successful sugar treatments on wounds resistant to antibiotics.
Here is a picture of a leg ulcer that conventional antibiotic treatment had not been able to help. In fact, it got worse over a couple of years. The second picture was taken after 30 days of treatment with sugar.
There is little funding available for research on sugar as a treatment and alternative to pharmaceutical antibiotics. Pharmaceutical companies cannot patent or control the use of sugar, so they have no incentive to fund any research. Just the opposite - sugar is a severe threat to many current skin antibiotics and all their pharmaceutical treatments for skin infections, ulcers and wounds. The pharmaceutical industry has a lot to lose if sugar takes its rightful place as a first treatment, so they try to discredit sugar and hide its use from doctors and hospitals.
Unfortunately for the pharmaceutical industry, several hospitals (5) are getting dramatically improved outcomes at very low cost by using sugar as an approved and first treatment. The savings to both government and insurance company expenditures are impossible to ignore.
Sugar was able to save a woman's leg in a case where a hospital had not been able to treat a wound for five years. Doctors were ready to amputate the leg when sugar was applied as a last resort. They washed the wound, applied a thick layer of sugar and bandaged the wound. The sugar treatment was successful and her leg was saved. (5)
Murandu has also carried out clinical studies on 41 patients in Wolverhampton in the UK. He hasn't yet published the trial results but has presented them at national and international conferences.
Diabetics need to control the level of glucose in their blood. However it is safe to use sugar on the wounds of diabetic patients, who frequently have leg and foot ulcers. When sugar is applied to a wound or infection, it has virtually no effect on their level of blood glucose. According to Murandu, "sugar is sucrose - you need the enzyme sucrase to convert it into glucose." As sucrase is only found within the body, it is only when sugar is absorbed that it is converted.
Maureen McMichael, a veterinarian practicing at the University of Illinois Veterinary Teaching Hospital, has been using sugar on wounds and infections on animals since 2002. She uses both sugar and honey on pets (especially dogs and cats) and farm animals. She said it was a combination of the simplicity, speed and low cost that attracted her - especially for pet owners who often couldn't afford the conventional methods of bringing the animal to the hospital and using sedation.
She gave an example of a stray dog they treated after she was used as "pit bull bait" being attacked by pit bull dogs being trained for fighting. The stray dog presented with 40 bite wounds on each limb. There was no money for conventional treatment so they treated her with both honey and sugar. She did "fabulously well" and was "all healed" within eight weeks.
Your comments about any of your experiences - positive or negative - with your use of sugar are welcome at Grow Youthful. I am always curious about your use of and experience with natural remedies, and your feedback is very welcome.
References
1. Mphande AN, Killowe C, Phalira S, Jones HW, Harrison WJ.
Effects of honey and sugar dressings on wound healing.
J Wound Care. 2007 Jul;16(7):317-9.
2. Muhammad Yar, Lubna Shahzadi, Azra Mehmood, Muhammad Imran Raheem, Sabiniano Roman, Aqif Anwar Chaudhry, Ihtesham ur Rehman, C.W. Ian Douglas, Sheila MacNeil.
Deoxy-sugar releasing biodegradable hydrogels promote angiogenesis and stimulate wound healing.
Materials Today Communications, Volume 13, December 2017, Pages 295-305.
3. Murandu M, Webber MA, Simms MH, Dealey C.
Use of granulated sugar therapy in the management of sloughy or necrotic wounds: a pilot study.
J Wound Care. 2011 May;20(5):206, 208, 210 passim.
4. Aldo Naselli, Laura Accame, Piero Buffa, Anna Loy, Roberto Bandettini, Alberto Garaventa, Ornella Della Casa Alberighi, Elio Castagnola.
Granulated sugar for adjuvant treatment of surgical wound infection due to multi-drug-resistant pathogens in a child with sarcoma: a case report and literature review.
Le Infezioni in Medicina, n. 4, 358-361, 2017.
5. West Midlands medic trials sugar remedy.
BBC online news, 9 January 2015.