Essential oil first aid for burns

If you follow us on Facebook you know all about our #WellnessWednesday videos where Sinead, the founder of yogandha, shares wellness tips and insights. And last week we sadly had to cancel. The reason why the Facebook Live was cancelled became the topic of this week’s #WellnessWednesday video and this very blog post.

We are going to talk about essential oils and burns

This is Sinead’s personal story on how she made herself a nice pot of tea… and tipped it all over herself. This resulted in second-degree burns and was indeed pretty severe. In this and our next post, we will discuss how and why using essential oils can help to heal burns and scarring. We will look at pain release and essential oils to uplift when feeling low.

The miraculous healing powers of lavender

The story goes that a French chemist and scholar named René-Maurice Gattefossé burned his arm badly on the bunsen burner in his perfumery lab. His first reaction was to plunge his arm into the nearest vat of liquid he saw. He stuck his arm in and waited for the burn and pain to calm down.

That container happened to contain pure lavender essential oil. It is said that his burn healed miraculously well and quickly with little scaring.

Many of Yogandha Oils also contain lavender essential oil as it has so many healing properties. Have a look here at our selection. But for burns, only use the pure essential oil. Once healed and on other areas of the body, we highly recommend Yogandha Relax to calm and sooth both body and mind.

This whole experience is thought to be the initiation into what is referred to as 'modern aromatherapy'. Gattefossé actually wrote a book called Aromathérapie (in French) where he describes the incident. Although a slightly different account from the well-known story above it confirms how he used lavender essential oil after he was involved in a laboratory explosion. And he was so impressed that he later started the study into essential oils and even worked with doctors on healing injured soldiers with lavender and other essential oils.

Modern first aid for burns

Most of us don’t have a huge container of lavender essential oil lying about. But we might have a 10 or 30 ml of lavender essential oil. And we really only need a little. We generally don’t like to suggest using neat essential oils but there are exceptions to the rule. On a burn, we can use just a couple of drops. Something like 2-3 drops per square inch is plenty. You can also add a few drops in water, mix it well and soak a flannel or sterile gauze, wring it out and use as a compress.

• But first of all, immerse the burn in cool water for as long as possible through numbness and beyond. If the burn happens to a child make sure you keep encouraging keeping it in cool water.
• Any severe burns need to be assessed by a medical professional so do go the A & E department. This is also true for any electrical burns.
• Burns that are larger than the size of the hand needs to be checked at the hospital and if the burn blisters please also head to A & E.
• Please also be aware that burns can cause both shock and dehydration. Make sure you have someone near you to check you are ok and rehydrate by drinking plenty of water or watery vegetables and fruits.

In our next post, we will explore exactly why lavender and other essentials recommended for burns and healing. And more on recovering from burns - physically and mentally.

Read all the details about our Yogandha Year where we support you through the process to wellness using the power of scent (you get the amazing Yogandha products sent directly to your door) and the power of the seasons and nature.

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