When you think of bacon, that beautiful, salty, cured pork, you might only think of it as a tasty treat. On the other hand, one of the first medical facts I learned in 2015 was that bacon can help your health in more ways than one. Being aware of this, it seemed like the right time for a bacon post, in case you needed another reason besides breakfast, lunch, or dinner to keep it in your fridge.
According to my PubMed search, Bacon as therapy has been published for three different medical conditions.
1. To stop a killer nosebleed. When a nosebleed goes bad, it can truly be life-threatening. A brave group of ear, nose, and throat (ENT) surgeons turned bacon into a nasal tampon to stop a terrible nosebleed. And I thought using a Tampax was clever; I had to do that last week in a pinch. It seems that the high salt content of bacon makes people swell, which makes blood vessels narrow. This slows the flow of blood and helps it clot. It does make bacon Band-Aids sound like less of a gag gift. To stop bleeding in the field during the zombie apocalypse, I guess I’ll have to add bacon to my survival guide.
2. As a way to treat furuncular myiasis, which is an infection of the skin and soft tissues with Dermatobia hominis larvae, Itchy boils and even terrible tissue damage can be caused by the larvae (only click the link if you are not scared). The treatment largely consists of manually picking out the larvae with tweezers. It looks like bacon fat can be used as bait to get the larvae to the skin’s surface so they can be removed more quickly and easily.
3. As a treatment for scabies. Granted, this is an older therapy and perhaps not quite as effective as newer methods. On the other hand, bacon fat (presumably rendered) has been used as a base for sulfur and salicylic acid, which are used to treat scabies on the skin. The study compared bacon fat with cold cream as a base. The bacon fat base worked 88% of the time, while the cold cream combination worked 100% of the time. However, the authors pointed out that the bacon fat mixture was 238 times cheaper than the cheapest scabicide in the U.S. S. (over-the-counter topicals for scabies are, of course, the treatment of choice).
Someone must have first thought that a piece of salted pork might help stop bleeding or attract parasitic larvae so they would be easier to get rid of. It always amazes me how many treatments come from combining basic science with what is available.
Many thanks to @DrLaryngeus, who first alerted me to the citation for a nasal bacon tampon.
Jennifer Gunter is an obstetrician-gynecologist and author of The Preemie Primer. She blogs at her self-titled site, Dr. Jen Gunter.
Unfortunately I do not have enough information from the provided sources to write a full article on “does bacon draw out infection”. The sources discuss using bacon for treating nosebleeds, parasitic skin infections, and scabies, but do not provide evidence on bacon’s ability to draw out infections in general. I can provide a high-level summary based on the limited information available:
The potential medicinal uses of bacon have been explored for a few specific medical conditions, A 2015 article discussed three conditions bacon has been used to treat
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Nosebleeds – Bacon has been fashioned into nasal tampons to help stop severe nosebleeds, as its high salt content may help constrict blood vessels
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Furuncular myiasis – Bacon fat can apparently be used to help remove larvae in this parasitic skin infection by luring them to the surface,
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Scabies – Bacon fat has been used as a base for topical sulfur/salicylic acid treatments for scabies.
While bacon’s effectiveness for these conditions seems limited based on the available research, the idea of using it therapeutically stems from some of its properties. The salt and fat content may have potential antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory effects that could aid in drawing out infections or parasites from the skin in some cases.
However, more research is needed on bacon’s ability to treat infections in general. The discussed cases for nosebleeds, myiasis, and scabies do not provide sufficient evidence to conclude bacon can effectively “draw out” infections. Any antimicrobial benefits would depend on the type and location of infection. Overall there is a lack of rigorous study on bacon’s infection-fighting potential.
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How do you draw out pus?
FAQ
What is the healing power of bacon?
What will draw out an infection?
Does bacon draw out boils?
Can bacon heal wounds?
What happens if you put Bacon on a puncture wound?
As for a recipe for infection, bacon at room or body temperature is a perfect environment for bacterial growth, and placing that bacteria-laden piece of uncooked meat directly on an open puncture wound for several hours increases the likelihood of infection.
Can one eat bacon with diverticulosis?
You can eat bacon with diverticulosis, but it is not the most recommended. In a person with diverticulosis, it is recommended to consume foods with soluble fiber such as vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and legumes.
Can you eat raw bacon on an open wound?
Having raw bacon on an open wound (granted, a small one) overnight, is a recipe for infection. While it doesn’t seem that there is an additional risk of trichinosis by this (the worms need to be introduced through the digestive system), there is plenty of bacteria and viri that will thrive in that environment.
Can bacon fat help a boil?
Bacon fat and adhesive bandages have battled boils for generations. Also a well-known folk remedy for splinters, “bacon fat may act as an irritant to increase the flow of moisture to a boil, bringing it to a head,” according to the book “Home Remedies What Works. 3 “
Is Bacon good for clotting?
“Apparently the high salt content of bacon is believed to induce swelling which causes the blood vessels to constrict slowing the flow of blood and helping clotting,” writes Gunter. When Humphreys won the IgNobel, Robert Jackler, chair of Stanford’s otolaryngology department, told Stanford’s Scope medical blog, “We are squealing with pride.”
How do you treat a boil on Bacon?
Change the bacon piece every 12 hours until the boil bursts and the blood and pus drain. Apply an antibiotic ointment to the wound for two to three days. Bacon fat and adhesive bandages have battled boils for generations. Change the bacon piece every 12 hours until the boil bursts and the blood and pus drain.