We’re going to talk about over-the-counter scar treatments. The scar therapy that really works is silicone. Period. Exclamation mark! This is proven by medical research and can’t be disputed. Researchers keep trying to demonstrate it doesn’t work and end up proving it does.

The best scar treatments are 100% medical-grade silicone. Others combined silicone with a moisturizer. This is redundant, because silicone itself encourages moisture to stick around.

Why are we so confident in silicone?

• Medical research.
• Comparison to what else is out there.

Onion extract is “out there”.

Onion extract used to be a common scar therapy. You’ll spot it in older and homeopathic scar treatments. Researchers at a Texas medical school put onion extract to the test.

They wanted to know if it reduced redness, itching or size

1. 17 people with were in the test.
2. They were given a topical gel on the day stitches came out.
3. They were instructed to use the gel three times a day for a month.
4. Only half of the ointments contained onion extract; the others got petroleum jelly.

The doctors found no evidence the onion extract works. Plain old petroleum jelly actually worked a little better. It relieved itching better than onion extract.
Silicone relieves itching, fades redness, and works to shrink scar size.

What else is “out there”?

• Some scar creams use the juice of a bush called “siegesbeckia orientalis”. The Chinese-who know a thing or two about herbal medicine-consider it a weed and ignore it.

But it’s used, and here’s why: through the years the sticky stuff has been put on everything from wounds
to ringworm. It dries and coats the area. In short, it provides protection. There is no evidence it shrinks or fades scars. But protection is helpful.

Silicone also forms a non-sticky protective barrier, while it delivers healing silicone to the scar.

Really “out there”!

• We found sorbitan olivate. This is basically olive oil. It softens skin, but not permanently.
• Elicina. This is snail extract. We think the less said the better. Except that there’s no medical evidence it works. Remember, they used to use leeches in the Middle Ages.

A well-known brand of scar treatment can actually be counter-productive.

We found one cream made from a couple of things that actually make a scar worse:

1.Copper Peptide. It increases collagen production. Too much collagen production is why scars grow unnaturally large. This would be really bad for raised scars.
2.Arnica. This is a homeopathic remedy. But its effect is undone if it’s used with any other ingredients. The other stuff in this particular cream is the old-standby onion extract AND copper peptide.
3.If one ingredient counter-acts another, the scar cream can’t be very effective.

We looked up some of these ingredients for you. There is ample evidence silicone is the most effective scar treatment. Numerous studies find three reasons it works.

• It promotes moisture. Moisture speeds healing. Slow healing causes scarring.
• It fades color.
• It encourages the break up of tight fibers. The doctors don’t know why, they just know it does. This shrinks the size of a scar.

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