The Many Uses of Petroleum Jelly
How to Use Vaseline-like Products for Everyday Problems
Jul 18, 2007
The benefits of petroleum jelly or Vaseline are well known. It is an excellent lubricant, it can be used as a coating to prevent substances from adhering to surfaces and can be used to slide out tight rings. Vaseline, however, can also be used by many as a basic first aid item that can help minor irritations and problems.
Composition
Vaseline is a mixture of hydrocarbons that was developed from petroleum. Robert Chesebrough refined and patented the process of manufacture. Physically, the petroleum jelly doesn’t oxidize to air, doesn’t react with many chemical reagents, is water insoluble and is transparent, odorless and clear in color. Today its use includes easing skin disorders and eczema. It is used in many ointments and is useful by itself.
Helpful uses
- It protects cuts and scrapes. When it first appeared, Vaseline was promoted as an ointment for the protection of cuts. The jelly creates a barrier that keeps the air, water and bacteria out, promoting healing.
- It prevents windburn by creating a barrier between the skin and the wind, helping to prevent windburn.
- It helps psoriasis by lubricating the patchy, itchy white scales and keeping eczema under control in dry weather.
- It helps to eliminate lice, by smothering and snuffing out the lice, when thickly applied to the scalp, when nothing else works.
- It moisturizes chapped lips and burns to prevent dryness and promote healing.
- It may help minimize allergies by trapping pollen when placed under the nose, thereby minimizing the pollen spores entry in through the nostrils.
Petroleum jelly don’ts
- Do not use on fresh burns. Although petroleum jelly is helpful as a moisturizer on older burns, it can trap heat in a fresh burn, making it more uncomfortable.
- Don’t use with latex condoms. Petroleum jelly products can weaken and degrade the structure of the latex and thereby promote tears and ruptures, which can result in unwanted pregnancies.
- Petroleum Jelly shouldn’t be used in people with nasal congestion. Due to the thickness of the jelly, it may immobilize the cilia or nose hairs reducing the amount of air that can enter the nose. Direct inhalation of petroleum jelly can lead to potential aspiration into the lungs possibly causing pneumonia.
Judicious use of petroleum jelly makes it beneficial as a medicament in one's medicine chest or first aid kit. Do use Vaseline as a moisturizer, to soothe and protect injured or damaged skin. Don’t use Vaseline on fresh burns, in the nose or with latex condoms.
Source:
Nine Hundred Seventy-three Extraordinary Cures. RDA Inc,2007
