Home remedies · Skin, wounds & stings
No home remedy here replaces treatment, and none is talked down. What has done good for generations does good — even if no one ever measured it. Where something is well studied, it says so. Where it is only experience, it says that too.
In the first hours cool several times for 15 to 20 minutes, always with a cloth in between, and elevate.
Cold narrows the vessels and dampens pain and swelling in the early phase.
After the first day cooling brings little; then movement within the pain-free range and gradual loading count.
Never directly on the skin — cold injury happens fast. Not with circulation problems and not with reduced sensation.
See a doctor: wounds that gape, bleed heavily or are deep, bite wounds, burns larger than your own palm or with blisters on the face and joints. Likewise redness spreading quickly, especially with fever. And any mole that changes.