Despite improvements in burn care over the years, many patients are still at risk of poor recovery. Complications can range from delayed wound healing through to infections. Patients with severe burns are at high risk of infection that may lead to life-threatening sepsis. Vitamin D is known to have antibacterial actions that may help combat infection and therefore aid in wound healing of burn patients.
Since burns are at high risk for abnormal scarring, it’s crucial to begin treatment early. Silicone gel is recommended as the first-line topical scar treatment option by physicians, surgeons, and scar management experts.
Read on to learn more about the benefits of taking vitamin D to support the burns wound healing and prevent scars as well as the role of silicone gel in burns scarring management.
What vitamin D is and how it can help burns and scars to heal
Healthline indicates that Vitamin D is sometimes called the “sunshine vitamin” because it’s produced in your skin in response to sunlight. It’s a fat-soluble vitamin in a family of compounds that includes vitamins D-1, D-2, and D-3.
Your body produces vitamin D naturally when it’s directly exposed to sunlight. You can also get it through certain foods and supplements to ensure adequate levels of the vitamin in your blood. Perhaps the most vital function of vitamin D is regulating the absorption of calcium and phosphorus, and facilitating normal immune system function.
According Natural News, it has been summarized that vitamin D supplements can help speed up the time taken for burns to heal and help to protect the skin against consequences of burns.
Additionally, to order to investigate the role of vitamin D in recovery from burn injuries, Professor Janet Lord and Dr Khaled Al-Tarrah, at the Institute of Inflammation & Aging in Birmingham, assessed the recovery progress, over one year, in patients with severe burns and correlated this with their vitamin D levels. The study found that patients with higher levels of vitamin D had a better prognosis, with improved wound healing, fewer complications and less scarring. The data also showed that burns patients tend to have lower levels of vitamin D. These data suggest that vitamin D supplementation immediately following burn injury may have potent health benefits to the patient, including enhanced antimicrobial activity to prevent infection, and improved wound healing.
“Major burn injury severely reduces vitamin D levels and adding this vitamin back may be a simple, safe and cost-effective way to improve outcomes for burns patients, with minimal cost.”, says Professor Janet Lord.
Professor Janet Lord continues to state that “low vitamin D levels were associated with worse outcomes in burn patients including life threatening infections, mortality and delayed wound healing. It was also associated with worse scarring but vitamin D levels are something generally overlooked by clinicians.”
Vitamin D has also been evaluated in studies (PubMed) with severe scarring. With severe burns to the skin, the vitamin D levels are dramatically lowered. It is vital to add vitamin D back into the patient’s system to support to heal the burn and minimize scarring. The amount of vitamin D lost is in no correlation with the severity of the burn though. This means that less severe burns could also create the same amount of vitamin D loss.
The role of silicone gel in burns scarring management
Although the benefits of vitamin D in speeding up the burns wound healing and minimizing the scarring are highlighted in studies mentioned above, but for the next step, finding out an effective method for burns scars treatment is extremely important.
Silicone gel technology is a clinically-proven treatment option for reducing the abnormal scars (certainly, including severe burn scars) with over 30 years of evidence to support its effectiveness. Silicone gel is recommended as the first-line topical scar treatment option by physicians, surgeons, and scar management experts.
Silicone gel contains long chain silicone polymer (polysiloxanes), silicone dioxide and volatile component. It spreads as an ultra- thin barrier and works 24 hours per day. It has a self- drying technology and itself dries within 4-5 minutes, even within 60 seconds like Nourisil™ MD silicone scar gel. Silicone gel increases hydration of stratum corneum and thereby facilitates regulation of fibroblast production and reduction in collagen production, which results into softer and flatter scar. It allows skin to “breathe”. Additionally, silicone gel protects the scarred tissue from bacterial invasion and prevents bacteria-induced excessive collagen production in the scar tissue.
DTP Medical supplies the high quality silicone-based scar products such as Nourisil™ MD, Bapscarcare Gel, Bapscarcare Sheet. You don’t have to live with unwanted scarring. Try silicone-based scar products supplied by us today and see the difference!