The December issue of Mayo Clinic Women ™s HealthSource offers these tips:

Cover the wound with a sterile dressing and apply pressure to stop the bleeding. Wash the wound with tap or bottled water or sterile saline. Seek medical treatment if you need stitches, can ™t clean the wound or if it was caused by animal or human bite. If it ™s been 10 years or longer since you had a tetanus shot, you ™ll need medical attention, too.

Next, cover the wound with a topical antibiotic ointment. Create a barrier to keep the wound moist by applying a heavy lubricant such as Vaseline or Aquaphor. Don ™t use betadine, alcohol or hydrogen peroxide because these harsh chemicals interfere with healing.

First, cover the wound with a sterile dressing to create a warm, moist environment -- the best condition for wound healing. (This differs from past recommendations to leave the wound open to air.) A protected environment decreases pain, infection and the likelihood of reinjury.

The ideal dressing keeps the wound moist and the surrounding tissue dry. Avoid plain gauze because it can stick to the scab and cause reinjury when removed. Instead, use a nonstick dressing and gently change it every day or two. Attempt to keep a wet scab intact. Wounds should normally stay covered for five days or until the surface layers have healed.

Don ™t scratch. Itching is normal to the healing process and scratching may reopen the wound.

Maintain a healthy diet and don ™t smoke. These healthy behaviors promote healing.

Seek medical attention if the wound develops signs of infection including redness, increased pain or swelling or a yellow or green discharge.

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Potential causes of esophageal adenocarcinoma were identified by Mayne and her colleagues in a previously completed population-based, multi-center study of 1,095 cancer patients and 687 control subjects. As part of that study, they conducted a full dietary interview and had access to available data on consumption of both regular and diet soft drinks.

"Our team analyzed that data as the first direct test of the hypothesis that soft drinks might have contributed to the increase in this cancer," said Mayne. "We found that contrary to the hypothesis put forth by other researchers, carbonated soft drink consumption was inversely associated with esophageal adenocarcinoma risk, mainly attributable to diet soda, and that high intake did not increase risk of any esophageal or gastric cancer subtype in men or women."

Other Yale authors on the study included Harvey Risch, principal investigator of the grant that supported the work, Robert Dubrow, and Mayne's former student, Lauren Borchardt. Authors from other centers included Wong-Ho Chow, Marilie D. Gammon, Thomas L. Vaughan, Janet B. Schoenberg, Janet L. Stanford, A. Brian West, Heidi Rotterdam, William J. Blot and Joseph F. Fraumeni, Jr.

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