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A jellyfish sting can be very painful and even dangerous.
For every problem, disease or condition you can find 100 remedies of the Internet. The problem with these popular remedies is that they are not helpful. Some of them can be even dangerous. They can do more harm than good.
A jellyfish sting can be very painful and even dangerous. The popular remedies that you find on the internet for this sting include rubbing sand on it. Researchers from the University of Hawaii conducted a study to reveal if these methods really work.
Testing Popular Remedies For a Jellyfish Sting
In order to conduct this research, scientists decided to analyzed remedies for jellyfish stings from 2 box jellyfish species. These species are the Australian box jelly and the Hawaiian one. Experts said that these box jellyfish are some of the most dangerous marine animals. They can lead to more deaths than sharks every year.
The co-author of the study, Angel Yanagihara, mentioned that one of the most popular remedies is to rinse the affected area with seawater and to put ice on it. Some of the popular remedies can worsen the jellyfish sting.
When people rinse the area and put ice on it, they can increase the severity of the sting. They observed that when people remove the remaining tentacles they are not able to remove the microscopic stinging cells. These are the ones that can make the pain last a lot longer.
Other popular remedies are more inappropriate. A lot of people believe that urine can help with the jellyfish sting. Researchers mentioned that people should never try this option. It has no effect.
How To Treat A Jellyfish Sting?
If you get stung by a box jelly the best thing you can do is to put vinegar on the affected area. Researchers observed that this can decrease the amount of released venom. When you have no vinegar, you can try to remove the tentacle but you have to pluck them, not to scrap.
After you rinsed the affected area with vinegar you can apply hot water on it for 50 minutes. The findings showed that heat reduces hemolysis. If you don’t have any vinegar or hot water the best thing is to go to the nearest lifeguard station. Lifeguards have vinegar and hot packs and they know how to treat a jellyfish sting.
Image source: Pixabay
