Nature First Aid for Bleeding

In Herbal Medicine herbs that stop bleeding are called styptics.
A styptic can contract the blood vessels to ally bleeding.
Nature's very best styptics are cayenne pepper and red chili. They are best used in powder form.
I never go anywhere without either of these being nearby. I make sure I always have some in the car whilst traveling.
Another handy styptic to have on board is kelp powder.

I have stopped arterial bleeds by sprinkling on cayenne powder and I always joke that the blood gets such a shock that it stops in its tracks instantly.
Surprisingly enough it doesn't sting either and no-one has ever complained about stinging or burning. I have used it on myself and had no sensation of either heat or stinging and I have administered it a few times to others and everyone has told me how surprised they were that no sensation involved with its use.
Bleeding invariably stops instantaneously.

My daughter jokingly once counted up how many stitches she had missed out on having as a child being that I always stitched her up myself. I'm not suggesting that everyone do this but even before studying naturopathic medicine I had a lot of exposure to first aid training and situations being that my father dealt with many accidents as part of his work.
My daughter once severed an artery near her wrist and before I could arrive at the source of her screams there was already blood sprayed onto the ceiling and around the walls. A sprinkling of cayenne pepper instantly stopped the bleeding.

On another occasion a friend rang me one evening and told me that her husband had had a nosebleed since about 9am. This is an alarming situation. I told her to get him to drink quickly a level teaspoon of cayenne in half a glass of water and then take him to hospital. The nose bleed stopped immediately and the patient refused to go to hospital. This was the first time that I had suggested cayenne for other than a wound and was relieved when it worked instantly.
I would also hazard a guess that cayenne could also fire up a weakened heart in an emergency situation.
Kelp powder works well though not quite as instantly.

There are other herbs that are also styptics and another herbal tincture to have handy in a first aid chest is calendula. Besides being a styptic calendula is also a vulnerary. Vulneraries help wounds to heal and calendula is the most excellent herb for disinfecting, cleaning and dressing a wound.

Another very useful thing to have in the Nature First Aid Kit is Tea Tree oil (melaleuca alternifolia). I will later write a different article about this oil as it has so many uses but why I make mention of it here is because it is also useful in the first aid kit as it can kill tetanus. I always put it onto any wound where tetanus could possibly be involved. You need to make sure it is indeed Melaleuca Alternifolia as there are other (inferior) oils sold as Tea Tree (Ti Tree) that do not work in the same way against tetanus.

I have also used homeopathic snake venom to instantly stop internal bleeding; but this is another topic entirely and is not what could be considered a first aid situation. The patient was hooked up to emergency machines and her blood pressure was dropping quickly and was dangerously low. With permission from her mother I slipped one homeopathic preparation of snake venom under her tongue (she was unconscious) and her blood pressure stabilized and started to rise instantly.
Though by conventional western methods the efficacy and mode of action of homeopathy cannot be explained I have many times used homeopathic remedies in situations where placebo could not possibly explain or justify effectiveness. Fodder for further articles.

To read my previous Nature First Aid article that discusses how to deal with burns please right click your mouse here.

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