http://simplenaturalandhomeremedies.blogspot.co.uk/ In this video Dr Agatha Thrash of Uchee Pines Institute teaches all we need to know about diabetic and how they can be treated with unna boots.
Below is a transcript of the video above: –
So, I have some pictures to show you of some of those problems that can occur on the skin. And the first one that I would like to show you is a diabetic ulcer. Now, the usual diabetic ulcer is just as you see here with a little pus and dead material down in the active part of the ulcer. The edges are little raised and a little reddened and if the usual leg will be a little different from this because it is usually quite a lot larger and it is quite a lot more swollen. Because of the swelling of it, it makes the skin tense. And that tends to draw the edges apart more and to retard healing.
So, one of the things that we can do to improve the healing is to put on a type of bandage that will make the, the leg, the skin on the leg to pull together more, so that the, the tissue can grow, can spread over, the skin surfaces can spread over the wound and heal it in that way.
Now, another thing that we need to do with this ulcer is to clear up the pus and the dead material down in the active part of the ulcer. And, there is a rigid bandage, which we call the Unna boot, which I would like to show to you now. The, and for that I would like to have a product, which you can buy on the market may not go by this brand name, but it will have or may have the name of Unna boot or Unna’s boot as this one does. Now, the Unna boot is the original and of course we have used the Unna boot for I suppose 100 years or more and it goes on very nicely, even when you use the old fashion Unna’s boot itself.
And, I’ve here the ingredients for the old Unna boot that we used to make up 50 years ago and it is zinc oxide, which you simply measure out into a cup and you get the formula properly for it. And at which you can get online and then you use glycerin. And glycerin can also be obtained from a pharmacy as this one was. And the glycerin is mixed with it along with some gelatin, which you can get from a grocery store just the plain Knox gelatin or any kind of clear gelatin, which you can use. I suppose Agar could also be used in the same way, but the Knox gelatin is by all means the best. And so you can make, you can make this yourself, it needs to be heated because of the gelatin, so the gelatin is softened in some water and heated to dissolve it and then the zinc oxide and the glycerine put in. And then the part of foot and leg and the ulcer is wrapped with gauze such as this and then with a little paint brush the old Unna paste is painted on the first layer of the gauze and then a second layer of gauze is wrapped on that and it’s allowed to harden and to gel and that makes the rigid bandage. Now, while I have put on I suppose a hundred Unna boots with the old fashion paste and the paint brush.
I would like to show you how to use this, this new variety. This is more expensive, but it’s also it’s so much more convenient. So, I’ve asked an assistant and that so Arianna Hartsfield. So, Arianna if you will come here and join me, and I would like you to sit right here and Arianna is one of our students in our church school at Uchee Pines and we are pretending that she has a large diabetic ulcer on her left leg. So, if you remove your left sock, we will proceed to put on an Unna boot. Unna boots are extremely successful and they will both clear up the ulcer. It will clear that to dead an infective material up. And also will make the, the swelling go down and heal the ulcer, you can see it from one bandage change to the next. Okay, Arianna if you let me have your left foot and I’ll just put this right up here on my knee that’s the very best way that you can put this Unna boot on. And then you just take the gel cast that you have and it would be packaged very tightly because it is, it, it should not dry out and then you can see that sort of sticks together little bit like this and on the ulcer we will put a 4×4, so, let’s pretend that she has a big ulcer right here. So, we will put this right there and then we will put this on top of that just like so that will help it to stay on. And, then we just wrap this on, it isn’t difficult to put it on, it goes on sort of like a little cast. And because it is made of rather thin gauze, it is of course going to mold a bit to her foot and this has to go down all the way to the base of the toes as you see me doing here.
