Ultraviolet light apparently healed an infection for me.

I got a painful infection in one finger a few weeks ago when I knicked myself while helping skin a mountain lion. Tried the usual alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, opening skin to get meds down into the wound, polysporin, etc. with a band-aid to hold the med in place. It would fade a bit then come back stronger and more painful.

I tried ultraviolet light from a cheap disinfecting wand, ten seconds of light exposure with the light half an inch from the injury. Did that once a day for two days and the infection was totally gone and has not returned.

UV may cause skin cancer but that is extremely unlikely from a brief exposure. From reading online apparently UV is cautiously being used more and more for such healing.

FWIW

Very interesting.

ETA:
Where did you purchase the wand ?

Before the days of antibiotics did they not use sunlight to help heal wounds????

And homemade salt water.

My daughter the nurse says peroxide kills the skin, bad for wounds, don’t know if she is full of cshit.

We bought one of these devices at work during the height of covid, supposed to kill bacteria and bad stuff. Had a local science highschool class do tests before and after, they didn't do squat. Waste of money.

Another alternative to antibiotic ointments is raw honey. I am allergic to Polysporin/Neosporin, and I have gotten good results using he honey from our hives.

Just info along these lines.

UV light is commonly used in desalinators for drinking water (Water Makers) and in offshore sewer processing before discharging to the sea.

Relative has had UV-B treatments for skin issues.

I got the idea of UV light from the way sunlight has cured fungal infections for me. On the rare times I've had either crotch rot or athlete's foot, sunlight has been the best and quickest cure. I read that doctors on Corregidor put gangrene wounds in direct sunlight when they ran out of medicine, and it worked.

I bought mine from Amazon or Ebay, called a portable disinfection light, battery operated. Think I paid $19 for it. It claims "up to" 99.99% sterilization, but the fine print mentions time exposure and very close to item being disinfected. I've used it on two infections and it killed/cured both within hours.

Re hydrogen peroxide on skin: a Dr. told me the same, that it kills a lot of good cells along with the bad. I have used it anyway because IME it usually helps overall healing.

It denatures the cells. She is correct.

Be wary.

Ymmv

I just keep a bottle of isopropyl handy. 70% works pretty good, but the 91% really whacks bugs.

Almost cut my big toe off with a mower (yeah, yeah, I know ) and when I got to the hospital the ER doc said "That looks awfully clean". I told him it happened right outside the door, I hopped in, grabbed the quart of isopropyl, gave it a big squirt, grabbed a towel and had the neighbor drive me up. He then said "That must have hurt"................

I kinda looked at him and said "Not as much as the mower blade hitting it"

Jeebus, some people.