Studies reveal how maggots clean wounds and aid healing

Saturday, April 13, 2013 by: Antonia
Tags: maggot therapy, wound healing, alternative medicine

(NaturalNews) Maggots have been used in ancient times, probably just until antibiotics were developed, to prevent infection and clean wounds. Maggots are known for feasting on dead flesh, with zero desire to munch on healthy skin tissue.

What has invoked the new interest in maggots as a healing modality?

Because of antibiotic overuse, and unnecessary prescriptions (used for viral infections, for example), widespread resistance was the result. This then resulted in doctors and scientists looking at different options for wound healing and cleaning.

In 2004, maggots were approved by the FDA as a valid "medical device." If the idea of maggots chewing on your dead skin makes you queasy, it may ease the feeling slightly to know that the larvae are raised from sterilized fly eggs. Plus, they are placed in a tea-bag like package before being placed on the wound.

Maggots take a two-pronged approach

A study from 2012, presented in the Archives of Dermatology, "showed that maggots placed on surgical incisions helped to clear more dead tissue from the sites than surgical debridement." Surgical debridement is the current standard in which a scalpel or scissors are used.

Maggot therapy is said to eliminate the "often lengthy and painful" procedure for that of surgical debridement.

In a different study from late in 2012, published in Wound Regeneration and Repair, indicated "that secretions from the maggots modulate the complement response, a part of the immune system that reacts to invading pathogens and is crucial to clearing infections."

"Maggot secretions turned down complement activity in blood samples from healthy adults by inhibiting the production of several important complement proteins, and, the researchers found, reducing this overactive immune response speeds up healing."

It is estimated that more than half, and perhaps up to 80% of wounds can be healed using maggot therapy.

Perhaps this approach to wound healing falls in the same category of leach therapy, and maybe for good reason. Mother Nature provides.

Sources for this article include:

scientificamerican.com

monarchlabs.com

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

About the author:
A science enthusiast with a keen interest in health nutrition, Antonia has been intensely researching various dieting routines for several years now, weighing their highs and their lows, to bring readers the most interesting info and news in the field. While she is very excited about a high raw diet, she likes to keep a fair and balanced approach towards non-raw methods of food preparation as well. >>> Click here to see more by Antonia