When you do a quick search on “Do egg whites help in burns,” it will surely yield results showing not so reputable websites claiming this is true, but the short answer to your question is, No! Egg whites do not help with burns. Instead, they can make the situation worse. As many of us know and truly understand why egg whites are probably not an excellent choice for burn treatments, let’s read on and look at what we’re trying to treat when burned, and what’s hiding back behind the egg whites.
On the surface level, we can say that this theory does seem probable. The egg whites are made mostly of numerous proteins (10%) and water (90%). Compared to the burnt area of the skin, egg whites tend to be colder. They only leave us with a lot of proteins to consider for this use. There are several types of burns, including friction, radiation, chemical, electrical, and thermal (both cold and hot). No matter what the cause of the burn is, the result might leave the skin and underlying tissues extremely damaged.
When it comes to the severity of the burn, it is broken into three main classes. The outer layer of the skin (epidermis) falls under First-degree burns. Second-degree burns involve both the epidermis and the layer underneath called dermis. Third-degree burns involve the epidermis, dermis, and the muscle tissues which lie beneath.
The focus on treating burns revolves around four main things. To Stop the burn infection and to control pain, and warding off hypothermia and dehydration.
Now let’s take note of whether egg whites can help.
Stopping the burning
In a condition of chemical burns, egg whites are a big NO. Egg whites will do nothing to stop thermal, electrical, nor friction burns either. Unless, of course, you have something like a bathtub filled with egg whites for the burning person to jump into because if that be the case, then this might help (seems a bit far-fetched, right?). In the end, we can conclude that egg whites won’t stop the burning processes.
Pain relief
Third-degree burns damage the nerve cells so severely that the areas affected by these types of burns don’t hurt so that we can focus on 1st and 2nd degree. In a study, it is shown that subjects treated with egg whites had no more significant decrease in pain compared to those who used only water.
Infection control
Burns lead to many complications, which are directly associated with Infections. This is why they’re arguably the most important thing to consider while treating someone who’s burned. But again, one could get some sort of infections as eggshells, yolks, and whites all can contain numerous types of bacteria. All we can conclude is that egg whites will not play a positive role in helping treat burns, particularly not over something like water, though, of course, they may better help with something like, say, a burn with batter