Q. I just want to say thank you. I burned the tip of my finger last night. I immediately put it in ice water. After about an hour it still hurt if I took my finger out of the ice water, but it was time for bed.
I looked in your book, Best Choices From The Peoples Pharmacy, and saw that yellow mustard was good for a burn. I put mustard on my finger. I was amazed that the pain went away and I was able to go to bed pain free. This morning there is just a little white area where the burn was.
A. We too have been surprised that many people report cold yellow mustard eases the pain of a minor household burn. Equally mystifying are the stories we get about soy sauce. Here is the latest one:
“I just tried soy sauce for a burned finger after someone said that the military experimented with this. I touched an ultra hot burner–one of those used to boil water fast–and immediately started running cold water on it.
“Then I remembered the soy sauce. I immersed my finger in a little cup of it and kept it there while watching TV. I went to bed with the little cup next to me and in the morning, I didn’t even have a blister.”
