(02-05-13) Studies reveal how maggots clean wounds and aid healing

by Antonia

(NaturalNews) Maggots have been used in ancient times, probably just until
antibiotics were developed, to prevent infection and clean wounds. Maggots are
known for feasting on dead flesh, with zero desire to munch on healthy skin
tissue.

What has invoked the new interest in maggots as a healing modality?
Because of antibiotic overuse, and unnecessary prescriptions (used for viral
infections, for example), widespread resistance was the result. This then
resulted in doctors and scientists looking at different options for wound
healing and cleaning.

In 2004, maggots were approved by the FDA as a valid "medical device." If the
idea of maggots chewing on your dead skin makes you queasy, it may ease the
feeling slightly to know that the larvae are raised from sterilized fly eggs.
Plus, they are placed in a tea-bag like package before being placed on the
wound.

Maggots take a two-pronged approach
A study from 2012, presented in the Archives of Dermatology, "showed that
maggots placed on surgical incisions helped to clear more dead tissue from the
sites than surgical debridement." Surgical debridement is the current standard
in which a scalpel or scissors are used.

Maggot therapy is said to eliminate the "often lengthy and painful" procedure
for that of surgical debridement.

In a different study from late in 2012, published in Wound Regeneration and
Repair, indicated "that secretions from the maggots modulate the complement
response, a part of the immune system that reacts to invading pathogens and is
crucial to clearing infections."

"Maggot secretions turned down complement activity in blood samples from
healthy adults by inhibiting the production of several important complement
proteins, and, the researchers found, reducing this overactive immune response
speeds up healing."

It is estimated that more than half, and perhaps up to 80% of wounds can be
healed using maggot therapy.

Perhaps this approach to wound healing falls in the same category of leach
therapy, and maybe for good reason. Mother Nature provides.

Sources for this article include:

scientificamerican.com

monarchlabs.com

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

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In evidenza

"L'informazione presente nel sito serve a migliorare, e non a sostituire, il rapporto medico-paziente."

Per coloro che hanno problemi di salute si consiglia di consultare sempre il proprio medico curante.