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E-bandages lightly zap and heal wounds

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51–60 of 69 posts

Re: E-bandages lightly zap and heal wounds

#51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do not see the argument as specious. You might be lacking sufficient exposure to the topic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WM8bQWfmeB8

It's specious because it doesn't speak to whether or not it does anything else. It's well established that the COVID vaccine causes a sore arm. Does that mean sore arms protect from COVID infection? This is the level of reasoning you both are applying here. And no matter how clearly you show that the vaccine causes a sore arm, you can't convince me it's the sore arm that prevents COVID infection.

Sore arms do protect from COVID. They keep you indoors. (I understand your main point.)

Re: E-bandages lightly zap and heal wounds

#52

I wondered why electricity would help a wound heal in the first place. > The inflammation associated with these wounds can disrupt the body’s normal electric signals, impeding the migration of new cells that can support the healing process.

The “migration of new cells”? I thought new cells would grow in place; do they really migrate from elsewhere?

Re: E-bandages lightly zap and heal wounds

#53
It's absolutely not crazy talk that electrical current in the body is likely relevant to the healing process.

Cystic fibrosis is a genetic disorder that makes people extremely vulnerable to infection, though I don't think current medical science knows why. It's a salt wasting condition and salt is an electrolyte.

The most common test for CF is a sweat chloride test which basically determines how salty you sweat is. A lesser known test is the nasal potential difference test which measures how out of whack your body is for electrical current.

https://cysticfibrosisnewstoday.com/cystic-fibrosis-diagnosi...

The only immediately obvious problem I can suggest for the idea of e-bandages is the same one I so frequently have with modern medicine: it strikes me as being pursued or optimized for making money, not healing patients.

The article cites issues with diabetes. Cystic fibrosis puts one at risk for a little known form of diabetes called Cystic Fibrosis Related Disbetes (CFRD).

It seems to me that there is plenty of room for upping our game on understanding how and why the body chemistry gets out of whack such that it interferes with electrical current in the body and providing dietary suggestions for how to prevent and/or reverse such.

But, of course, that's probably not going to lead to a patent that could potentially make someone very wealthy, so it's unlikely to be pursued, promoted, etc.

Re: E-bandages lightly zap and heal wounds

#55
post #47
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not conjecture :) This is actively of interest in that area. One of the researchers down the hall from me is working on it.

Wow, cool! Can you give any indication of the prospects? I'm wondering if there's a way that charge gradients can be exploited to advantage our tissues and disadvantage the bacteria...

I'll see if I can catch up with him. Candidly, the last few years have been...disruptive...to a lot of disease research.

Re: E-bandages lightly zap and heal wounds

#56

We use a zinc based cream to speed up healing after the wound has closed as it reduces inflammation and helps reduce scar tissue forming. Any cream with zinc oxide will do. It's a pretty magic ingredient. Even backed up by science :).

Zinc cream used to also be pretty common, applied to the nose, as a sunscreen in Australia.

Re: E-bandages lightly zap and heal wounds

#57
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regardless of the low level effect, if there was a measurable difference, wouldn't it be fairly trivial to have a trial where people measure healing time of this vs a normal bandage, to see if the difference is statistically significant?

The first (small) paragraph reads: > The first electronic bandage the body can absorb can apply electric signals to speed the healing of wounds by 30 percent, a new study finds.

the study[1], since TFA does not link to it

[1]: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.ade4687

Re: E-bandages lightly zap and heal wounds

#58

We use a zinc based cream to speed up healing after the wound has closed as it reduces inflammation and helps reduce scar tissue forming. Any cream with zinc oxide will do. It's a pretty magic ingredient. Even backed up by science :).

Zinc cream used to also be pretty common, applied to the nose, as a sunscreen in Australia.

Effective, and attractive!

Re: E-bandages lightly zap and heal wounds

#59
post #21

I wondered why electricity would help a wound heal in the first place. > The inflammation associated with these wounds can disrupt the body’s normal electric signals, impeding the migration of new cells that can support the healing process.

Reminds me a bit of Michael Levin's work, where they use electrical signals to cause organisms to regrow limbs.

This sounds amazing. What animal?

Re: E-bandages lightly zap and heal wounds

#60
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, that is indistinguishable from the crystal mumbojumbo you get. And it feels like we're at the magic/science interface with electrotherapy. That said it is somewhat suspect, and the hypothesis is not really falsifiable by the experiment which is why the journal article itself is not claiming to test that. It is really disappointing that IEEE didn't actually link to or name the article directly. Very poor sci…

You should look into the book The Body Electric. The ability of electricity to heal (the doctor in the book even reports some instances of finger regrowth in humans) is remarkable.

Good to see Robert O. Becker finally getting some recognition for a lifetime of work.
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