Home » Gain »

Glue in the Wounds: Can Super Glue Mend Cuts?

December 4, 2007 4:57 pm 1 comment

Share This:

Subscribe:

Author:

Tags:

The New York Times "The Claim" column wonders: Can Super Glue heal wounds? The short answer, according to NYT health answer man Anahad O’Connor, is yes. A longer answer yes, but you would be foolish to use it when you can use Dermabond, which is made for that purpose. 
O’Connor informs us that "during the Vietnam War, emergency medics began using the all-purpose
glue to seal battle wounds in troops headed for surgery. The glue was
so good at stemming bleeding that it was credited with saving many
lives. Nowadays, professional athletes often close small cuts
with Super Glue or similar products to get back in the game in a hurry.
The glues are also used by veterinarians, and many people keep a tube
around the house to help them out of a medical pinch. It is believed
that the glues — made from the chemical cyanoacrylate — not only stop
bleeding quickly, but also lead to less scarring."
For practical purposes, not to be confused with posts on SportsGeezer, Anahad recommends a similar, antibacterial form of the substance called 2-octyl-cyanoacrylate, which is  marketed as Dermabond. For larger wounds, Geezer recommends duct tape.
Read more from Anahad O’Connor.

1 Comment

  • Eric Nisonger
    December 5, 2007
    5:02 pm

    I used Dura Bond in the 1980′s because I had severely cut my finger. It sealed up the wound and didn’t leave a scar. I thought I ahd discovered something new. A doctor friend of mine told me that they were in the approval stage for using it in humans. It is GOOD stuff!

    Reply

Leave a Reply


Recent Posts

  • Pain

    Bad News About Good Cholesterol

    Remember good cholesterol? You know, HDL cholesterol, the kind that was associated with reduced risk of stroke? Forget it. Now comes a study from researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Broad Institute suggesting that people with genes that boost HDL levels  do not, in fact, have a lower risk of heart attacks. Strange. The Boston Globe reports that the scientists in looked at a gene variation that raises HDL levels, and should consequently give people a 13 percent decreased [...]

    Read more →
  • Gear

    Sports That Don’t Break Your Bones Make Them Stronger

    What doesn’t break your bones makes them stronger. Especially if what doesn’t break your bones is a load-bearing sport like basketball or volleyball. How to we know? Because when researchers at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden measured the bone mass of more than 800 young men and studied their exercise habits, they found that after five years, the men who did a lot of load-bearing activities at the start of the study and those who increased their amounts of [...]

    Read more →
  • Pain Camel Jumping Strengthens Core

    Camel Jumping Strengthens Core

    Sports physiologists have yet to analyze the muscle groups that benefit most from the popular Yemenite entertainment plainly named “camel jumping,” but we’re guessing it’s good for the core, and not so good for the ankles. The New York Times’ Lens gives us an enlightening photo essay, shot, admittedly, by a photographer in Yemen who got bored waiting around for actual news. Anyone up for an over-50 team?

    Read more →
  • Attitude Pain

    Email Dependence Is Bad For Your Health

    Don’t have time to read SportsGeezer because you just got an email? That’s a bad sign, according to researchers at the University of California at Irvine. Researchers at the school attached heart rate sensors to workers in a suburban office, and divided the users into two groups; one with email, one deprived. A university news release reports that people who read email were found to work in a steady “high alert” state, with more constant heart rates. Those removed from [...]

    Read more →
  • Gear Pain

    “Workout Boosters” Boost Blood Pressure Too

    The names of the products—Jacked3D, Oxy Elite Pro, Code Red, and Nitric Blast, should offer some clues to the kind of science behind their sales; the science of marketing. Now comes the science of medicine, brought to bear on these “workout boosters” by the Food and Drug Administration, which determined that the active ingredient in the supplements, dimethylamylamine or DMAA, said in marketing materials to increase energy, concentration and metabolism, actually increases blood pressure. The FDA has sent letters to [...]

    Read more →
  • Attitude Pain

    Latest Treatment For Chronic Pain: Don’t Think About It

    Researchers in the psychiatry and behavioral science department of Johns Hopkins Medical School have some radical advice for sufferers of chronic pain: don’t think about it. Isn’t that what my mother used to say? Futurity reports that researchers at the school surveyed 214 people with myofascial temporomandibular disorder, or TMD, serious facial and jaw pain, about their sleep quality, depression, pain levels, and emotional responses to pain, including whether they ruminate on it or exaggerate it. Guess what? The scientists [...]

    Read more →
  • Uncategorized

    For Heart Health, Coffee Not Soda

    Why is is unsurprising that soda has been associated with a higher risk of stroke? Perhaps because it has long been associated with weight gain, diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and coronary artery disease. Hmmm. Now, finally, comes a study from the Cleveland Clinic’s Wellness Institute and Harvard University, showing not only that sugar-sweetened and low-calorie sodas is associated with a higher risk of stroke, but that coffee, either caffeinated or decaffeinated, is associated with a lower risk. A [...]

    Read more →
  • Pain

    Would You Give Up Your Arms And Legs To Live?

    Would you give up your arms and legs to live? Will Lautzenheiser, a 36-year-old instructor at the Montana State University, made that choice after his body was invaded by a flesh eating bacteria. Now Lautzenheiser is in the sites of the limb transplant team and Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, who would like to replace some of his sacrificed limbs. Read the whole story here.

    Read more →