Aluminum Foil Works for Burns!

Burned my hand taking a mug of boiling water out of the microwave - first on the ceramic handle of the mug which was unexpectedly a lot hotter than normal, and then with the boiling water splashing out onto my hand as I dropped the mug down onto the counter. Spent over 2 hours with water and ice packs on it and took 3 ibuprofen and the pain was increasing instead of improving. Had put Solarcaine and aloe on it, as well as Arnica, all to no avail. I was in so much pain I was considering pulling out some narcotics left over from a surgery a few months earlier. I sat the pill bottle down by the computer and went online and saw the foil tip posted here. Read through about half the 127 postings on it before deciding to try it. As others posted, initially, the pain increased. I removed the foil, put on somebaking soda paste and put the foil back on. After about 5 minutes, I got up and went to go get tape to tape the foil on and when I was done I realized the pain was improving. Had a few more waves of intense pain but noticed that I was starting to have pain-free periods of a minute or two. It's been 45 minutes now and the pain is almost entirely gone. I have put away the painkiller bottle - unopened! I was skeptical of this remedy, as so many home remedies have not worked for me (or made things worse) but I was in so much pain I had to try it and this one worked!!

UPDATE: It's now been 3 hours. I took the foil off my hand about an hour ago. There is almost no pain at all. The swelling that had been there has gone down. The blistering that had begun has stopped. There is a bit of the feeling of "tight skin" where the burn is, but otherwise, it feels fine - I'm able to type this with both hands! I can't thank everyone enough for listing this suggestion. It works, it works, IT WORKS!!!!!!

I grabbed a cast iron pot that wasn't completly covered by a potholder and burned the insides of my index and middle fingers where large white blisters popped up immediately along with a lot of pain. After dipping them in cool water for ~30 minutes, I gave the foil wrap a try and after ~45 minutes in the foil, the pain had subsided to a manageable level. Not sure why or how this works, but it definitely made a big difference for me!

I got burned from a power washer muffler, placed ice on it and this kept the pain away, but as soon as I removed the ice the pain came back. I looked up how to treat this type of burn and came to this page. Today is Christmas eve and after reading the post with aluminum foil I thought to myself, "like I must be a Turkey going to be baked" the pain was so intense that I was willing to try the aluminum foil, at first the pain increased but 40 minutes after I'm posting this, it really works. Thanks guys.

Ughh, I just vacuumed up my MacBook charger cord. It was plugged in and when I pulled it out, the wires were exposed and a black tar was formed on the outside, burning my fingers and palms pretty badly! I thought I was going to die. Literally! Nothing worse than a burn! Found this website after 15 minutes of cold tap water, and so far, my hand has stopped throbbing! I'm so glad, that was awful!

While preparing Thanksgiving dinner I placed my right hand down on a burner, searing the skin on my fingers and palm. Nothing would releave the pain except to keep my hand under cold running water. I tried burn gel and spray, alcohol.... And none of these would work for very long. Desperate, I decided to use the aluminum foil, which I wrapped my hand and fingers in. I grasp a cold can of soda since it does not work instantly. I would say after about an hour I was able to let go of the cold can and just keep the foil on. After about 2 hours I was able to take the foil off and am almost pain free. Wow I would never have believed that this could work. I certainly didn't learn this in nursing school or 20 years working in the medical field. I am sold on the foil!!!

I grabed a 400 degree cookie sheet and burned my fingers. I was in some seious pain. I don't belive it, but I'm sitting here with three fingers taped up in foil, looking like an idiot, with ZERO PAIN!

I tried cold water - great but not practical. I tried alcohol on cotton and that worked great too, but I was running out of alcohol. After about an hour I decicded to try the tin foil. Its an hour later and while it's difficult to type, I am pain free!

I'm going to wear them overnight and see if I have the same luck as one of the other posters had and be able to type again. I work on a pc, so I am keeping my fingers crossed, or should I say "taped"?

Last night, my husband burned his elbow with an air gun. We wrapped aluminum foil around it for about 15 minutes (shiny side on the skin). The pain was gone almost immediately, and all that remains today is a red spot-no blister. He's an AC tech & explained that it works by heat transference-the alum. Foil pulls the the heat away from the skin and disperses it. I always refer to this site first. But this is my first post :-)

Holy s*** this actually worked. My husband thought I'd lost it. I mean, I'm a RN for god's sake. But I'd grabbed the handle of a pan that had been in a 400 degree oven. 50% of my hand had been burned. Some parts blistered. All white and all in horrible pain. After trying running water for 3 hours, raw honey, aloe, witch hazel, two Tylenol with codeine, and 800 mg of Motrin, I was still in excruciating pain and desperate. The only thing that relieved the pain was running water. And how was I going to sleep, let alone nurse a 5 month old like that? So I slapped on a fresh piece of aloe and wrapped the whole hand in foil like a boxing glove. My husband snickered and I said a prayer. The pain got worse but I told myself I'd give it 40 minutes. I couldn't see the harm. What did I have to lose? The pain worsened. But after 30 minutes it got better. Didn't go away, but lessened. Now 2 hours later it's actually a dull pain and I don't think I'll have trouble sleeping other than the fact that I have foil wrapped around my hand and have to nurse my baby in a few hours. I'm amazed and thankful. Thanks earth clinic and all of your crazy posts that convinced me to give it a try.

I seared a pork loin in a stainles steel pan and then placed it n the oven to cook. I grabbed it out with apotholder and not 5 sec later picked it up with my bare hand!! I severely burned half of my hand. After 3. 5 hrs of holding an ice bag, which helped the pain alot, I had to find another alternative. Once I took the ice off, the pain became very SEVERE and SEARING. I started looking onine to find other remedies. I did not have aloe vera. I read about Aluminum foil. I put baking soda on my hand and wrapped it in the foil, the pain became unbearable the first 15 min!! I would pace and cry out loud! Then it was in waves and after 1 hr the pain was completely gone!!!!! I had only taken 2 tylenol as well. I kept my hand wrapped all night and woke up to a swollen hand but the redness and pain are gone! Unbelievable! I am a veterinarian, so no stranger to medicine and was very doubtful this was going to work. I thought I was going to be in severe pain and not be able to work. I am completely pain free and keep looking at my hand in disbelief. Do it.... The pain will go away after 20 min or so! Thank you Earth Clinic!!!

Burned the whole tip of my index finger on hot oil. Gotta say, after 2 hours of cold water/ice packs and intense pain, the foil actually helped quite a bit. Got a tea bag soaking just in case. Not sure I will even need it. Still a dull pain but after 15 mins, it's feeling hot but a lot better. Cheers and thanks for the help!

Okay I admit it, when I read about the foil thing, even after several posts I thought it was the dumbest thing I had ever heard in my life. I mean, how can that help? but just to prove to myself I was in fact stupid I tried it so I could say I did and post that it was ridiculous... And then the pain went down.... Okay how in the world does this work? Why does it work?... This shouldn't work! But it does! Weird.

Also I highly recommend Aloe, and don't just squeeze it onto a burn, just split it open and lay it on the burn it amazing stuff. Unfortunatly my plant got destroyed while moving and I haven't picked up another one.

I pulled a 350°C pot out of the oven with an oven mitt then pretty much immediately forgot about it and went back to grab it again for a good two seconds.

I immediately ran it under cold water and kept doing for a good half hour. After that I could not remove my hand from a bowl of cold water for more than a minute or it would hurt like hell.

To be honest, I didn't really want to try tin foil because I thought it sounded dumb. Dissipate the heat from a burn? Create an airtight seal? Unlikely.

I'm glad I did try it though because after I applied the foil there was still just about a minute of pain before I noticed a significant reduction and eventual cessation.

I was able to sleep through the night without any discomfort aside from occasionally scratching my face on a foil wrapped thumb, haha.

It was instant relief! Now I can sleep thank you!

I am writing with another story about using foil to cover a burn. Redundant, yet had I had not run across this cure in the "latest posts" so often, I might not have thought of it when I burned both hands badly in a cooking accident. As it happened, once I collected myself I asked my daughter to break a couple of eggs into a plate while I ran water over my hands. Then I worked the eggs through my fingers until the egg had heated up to about room temp. I had read about this somewhere: It felt heavenly! After I rinsing, we created foil mitts around my hands, pressing the foil down between the fingers. When my hands would start to feel too hot, I cooled them down by waving them in the air and a couple of times, I had to pull the mitts off and run water over them again. I went to sleep in those mitts, but they came off in the night. Next morning, there was very little discoloration, very light stinging, and there were no blisters at all. Amazing! I went through the day performing my usual chores and 2 days later, the nerves in my hands were completely calmed and the color was back to normal. I want to express my gratitude to everyone who wrote in to tell of this cure, which turned out to be so helpful to me in my time of need.

First day of the school holidays, time to mow the lawn so the kids can play. Out comes the old lethal petrol mower. 'Stay back kids, it's got a big blade and it's very dangerous.' Twenty minutes later and it's not working properly. So I reach down and pointlessly touch the exhaust plate. Three burnt fingers literally sticking to the plate as the flesh cooks away. Screaming, shouting, point safely made about the dangers of the lawnmower. Two hours of ice packs later, it was still like i'd just burnt them. Found this site. Utterly brilliant. Top tips: tin foil should be shiny side down on the burn. Also, crumpling foil helps. And wrap around the bottom with sellotape/scotch tape to seal. I look like a rubbish version of the Terminator, my kids have called me 'silly' for the past few hours, but 30 minutes later and the pain is all but gone. KEEP THE FOIL ON, THIS TOTALLY WORKS!!!