61 lines
2.4 KiB
Plaintext
61 lines
2.4 KiB
Plaintext
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| File Name : BANDAID.ASC | Online Date : 09/14/94 |
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| Contributed by : Jerry Decker | Dir Category : BIOLOGY |
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| From : KeelyNet BBS | DataLine : (214) 324-3501 |
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| KeelyNet * PO BOX 870716 * Mesquite, Texas * USA * 75187 |
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| A FREE Alternative Sciences BBS sponsored by Vanguard Sciences |
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Electric Band-Aids
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Omni, Unknown date (1983-1986 range, probably)
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Electricity speeds up the rate at which broken bones knit. But what would
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happen if you electrified a skin wound? That's the question biochemist Oscar
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M. Alvarez and colleagues at the University of Pittsburgh Medical School asked
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themselves recently. The answer: a 30 percent reduction in healing time.
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The new procedure involves dipping a nylon cloth in silver, which acts as an
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electrical conductant. The cloth is then connected to a battery, energized
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with a tiny electric current, and placed on the wound.
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The Pittsburgh group treated minor surface abrasions on the skin of several
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domestic pigs, and the results whoed that the electrified wounds healed in an
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average of 2.9 days. This compared with 4.1 days for wounds treated with the
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silver cloth but without electricity, and 4.6 days for those wounds left open
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to the air.
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According to Alvarez, tests indicate that both silver AND the electricity are
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responsible for the rapid healing. "It is fairly apparent," he explains, "that
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the electrical-silver complex stimulates cells from surrounding tissue to
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aggregate at the wound site, increasing protein production and enhancing the
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healing process."
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Manufactured by the Sybron Corporation, the silver-coated bandage has recently
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been classified as a drug (of course.. has as much to do with drugs as, say,
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vitamins..). Approval by the Food and Drug Administration should follow on the
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heels of human tests, now being conducted by Dr. James Albright, chief of
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orthopedic surgery for the St. Louis Medical Center, in Shreveport, Louisiana.
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If all goes well, you'll find the bandages on your pharmacy shelf in a few
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years. (Damn, I can't find them, and its been a few years...) -Rick Boling
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