Urine as Sting Medication: The False Notion
We all have heard about the notion that urine can help ease the pain of being stung by a jellyfish. However, recent research shows that this is not true at all. As it turns out, urine does not do much when it comes to healing jellyfish stings.
When it comes to healing stings, it would be best for you to use vinegar. Some other alternatives would be seawater as well as vinegar. You may ask why does it not work? According to scientists, this is because urine does not have the same concentration as vinegar does. For this reason, it will not neutralize the sting.
Here are some steps on how you can prevent jellyfish stings from hurting you very much. If you feel the sting of the jellyfish in the water, it would be best for you to get out of the water as soon as possible. This will prevent you from getting stung again.
After this, you would have to pour seawater onto the affected area. This will ease your pain. Then you can go to the hospital as necessary. You can also use vinegar. If you don’t have vinegar, here are some alternatives that you can use to deal with the sting.
• Alcohol
• Ocean water
How do they help?
They help treat the sting through the acidic chemicals in the vinegar or the ocean water and alcohol. It will deactivate the nematocysts which have the venom that affects your skin. Urine is much more concentrated and variable than any other substances that are available.
After pouring yourself with salt water, you will have to remove the nematocytes in your skin. Use any object with a defined edge such as a credit card to remove it.
So next time you go to a beach, it would be best if you have a bottle of vinegar in your bag so that you would have basic first aid available if ever you encounter jellyfish. In addition to this, you also have to have presence of mind so that you would not end up being stung and helpless.
In these emergency cases, presence of mind is important so that you don’t lose your life because of jellyfish stings. In addition, you also have to learn everything that you can about how to prevent jellyfish stings from attacking you.
So next time you would come to the beach, remember that urinating on yourself or any other jellyfish victims will not help ease the pain at all. In fact, it may aggravate the situation even further.
Learn more about Jellyfish, different Jellyfish Species, general Jellyfish Information, Jellyfish Pets and Jellyfish Safety