My mother always made us rub butter or margarine on our bumps and bruises to help them heal - and it really seemed to work! I know of others who do this too - but is it just an old wives tale or is there a reason it would be useful?
2006-12-06 18:19:50 · 12 answers · asked by Anonymous in Health ➔ General Health Care ➔ First Aid
I have been in health care for over 15 years and i can't think how butter could help. A bruise is nothing but a small amount of blood settling to the surface after some kind of trauma to that area. Butter could not do anything to break up or desolve the bloos that clotted. I would think the ONLY way it could work is if it was very cold and alot of it like a ice pack to reduce the swelling. They use to put butter on burns right away to but now they know that it can cause bad scarring and tissue damage.
2006-12-06 18:24:56 · answer #1 · answered by melindarix@sbcglobal.net 4 · 1⤊ 5⤋
Yes it works. If you haven’t heard, if you get punched in the face or bump your noggin, you should put butter on in right away. This will help prevent bruising and I’ll tell you why. Your skin is very vascular (meaning lots of blood vessels in it) when you bounce your fore head off of a pole the tissue gets irritated and releases histamines into the area. The histamines break down the cell walls of your blood vessels and cause you to bleed the tissue thus presenting a bruise. The cell walls of your vessels are made up of phospholipids and that is what is dissolved when the histamine is released. Butter is full of fat which is high in phosphate; phosphate is the leading ingredient in phospholipids which make up the blood vessel cell walls. By applying butter you sustain those phospholipids and prevent bleeding into the tissue. This is the same reason putting raw steak on a potential bruise can help, because it is packed with phosphate.
2016-04-19 18:45:28 · answer #2 · answered by Myra 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Ever since we heard about the butter on bruises and swelling we haven't used anything else but butter when we get hit around our house! It really works where otherwise if u just put ice on a bruise it will still be purple but when you put butter their is no bruise and no bumps!!
2016-12-06 05:55:18 · answer #3 · answered by raisa 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Butter stick rubbed onto the bruise helps bring out the dis coloration assosiated with the bruise. Ice for the swelling .. First 24-48 HR followed by heat.. Yes the old wives tale works
2016-04-22 04:44:16 · answer #4 · answered by bmth31 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Butter has no effect on a bruise. So no I haven't.
2016-03-13 04:16:07 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 3⤋
Wives tale. Bumps and bruises heal differently depending on where or how hard the bruise / bump was made. And butter / margarine doesn't work.
2006-12-07 01:16:14 · answer #6 · answered by GirlinNB 6 · 1⤊ 2⤋
Old wives tale. Use ice on a bruise. I've been bitten by dogs three times. (Each time my fault.) I didn't ice up the first bite and it swelled to the size of a grapefruit. I iced up the other bites and had no problems except the occassional twinge when I knocked it against something.
2006-12-07 01:47:47 · answer #7 · answered by Laoshu Laoshi 5 · 0⤊ 2⤋
It seems it does work!
"Butter Apply butter (not margerine!) immediately after getting bruised. Remedy courtesy of Rosie Kinsey, as learned from an RN friend in rural Indiana. "
http://www.health911.com/remedies/rem_bruis.htm
2006-12-06 18:23:05 · answer #8 · answered by ??? LadyBoyd ??? 3 · 2⤊ 1⤋
a bruise is blood under the skin's surface. I can't reason how butter would make it go away.
2006-12-06 18:23:25 · answer #9 · answered by ? 6 · 0⤊ 2⤋
a friend said to keep a metal spoon in the freezer and to rub the frozen metal on the bruise to make it disappate faster...seems to work
2006-12-06 19:14:19 · answer #10 · answered by OliveRuth 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋