Burns

What are Burns?

Burns are a type of traumatic injury caused by thermal, electrical, chemical, or electromagnetic energy. An open flame is the leading cause of burn injury for adults, while scalding is the leading cause of burn injury for children.

There are many types of burns caused by thermal, radiation, chemical, or electrical contact:

• Thermal burns - burns due to external heat sources which raise the temperature of the skin and tissues and cause tissue cell death or charring. Hot metals, scalding liquids, steam, and flames, when coming in contact with the skin, can cause thermal burns.
• Radiation burns - burns due to prolonged exposure to ultraviolet rays of the sun, or to other sources of radiation such as x-ray.
• Chemical burns - burns due to strong acids, alkalies, detergents, or solvents coming into contact with the skin and/or eyes.
• Electrical burns - burns from electrical current, either alternating current (AC) or direct current (DC).

Burns are classified as first-, second-, or third-degree, depending on how deep and severe they penetrate the skin's surface.

• First-degree (superficial) burns
  First-degree burns affect only the epidermis, or outer layer of skin. The burn site is red, painful, dry, and with no blisters. Mild sunburn is an example. Long-term tissue damage is rare and usually consists of an increase or decrease in the skin color.

• Second-degree -(partial thickness) burns
  Second-degree burns involve the epidermis and part of the dermis layer of skin. The burn site appears red, blistered, and may be swollen and painful.

• Third-degree (full thickness) burns
  Third-degree burns destroy the epidermis and dermis. Third-degree burns may also damage the underlying bones, muscles, and tendons. When bones, muscles, or tendons are also burned, this may be referred to as a fourth-degree burn. The burn site appears white or charred. There is no sensation in the area since the nerve endings are destroyed.

How does Emu Oil help?

While there are a lot of treatments and courses of recovery for burns, Emu Oil can be an effective treatment for relieving the pain and discomfort from burns and skin damage (such as redness, scarring). Emu Oil effectively penetrates the skin due to its compound structure (it is very similar to normal skin structure), and is considered to be both hypoallergenic and non-comedogenic, which explains why Emu Oil has such an extremely low irritation rate and doesn’t clog pores. Laboratory testing has shown Emu Oil to have the same degree of irritability as water when applied to the skin. Furthermore, Emu Oil is also bacteriostatic, meaning that it does not promote the growth of bacteria. These factors help restore and/or repair the skin and helps bring moisture to extremely dry and damaged skin.