SLIMY STINGER: Urinating on a jellyfish sting will do you no good but washing it in salt water might. This particular Cyanea is common on the coasts of New England in summer. Watch out!
Image: © OAR/NATIONAL UNDERSEA RESEARCH PROGRAM/UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT
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Back in 1997 all the friends from that eponymous television show trekked to the beach, only to witness a jellyfish sting Monica. In this episode, Joey remembered seeing a documentary that advised urinating on the sting to ease the pain. Monica agreed to try the treatment and it worked. Unfortunately, in the real world treating a jellyfish sting by urinating on it may actually cause someone in Monica's situation even more pain, rather than relief. Urine can actually aggravate the jellyfish's stingers into releasing more venom. This cure is, indeed, fiction.
Jellyfish, those bulbous Medusa-like creatures, float near many of the world's beaches. Some of the jellyfish's skin cells are stinging cells, or cnidocytes. These specialized cells have organelles called nematocysts that contain venom. Cnidocytes are spread along the entire length of the jellyfish's tentacles.
These tentacles can be so long that swimmers might not see the jellyfish that stings them, but they will certainly feel it. "The pain is instant," says Joseph Burnett, a dermatologist at the University of Maryland Medical Center, who is part of the school's Consortium of Jellyfish Stings, which tracks jellyfish injuries worldwide. Once stung, angry, red, whiplike lash marks mar the skin. The pain radiates from the sting site and starts to itch, burn and throb as it blisters. Scratching it, though, can make the pain worse, because rubbing activates the nematocysts, which release more venom.
Jellyfish stings are painful, but they are rarely life-threatening. For most such injuries, in North America at least, the pain will not last longer than 24 hours, typically peaking five minutes after the sting occurs then dissipating over the next few hours. "[But] it depends on what jellyfish gets you," notes Christopher Holstege, a toxicologist and professor of emergency medicine at the University of Virginia.
Those 24 hours, though, could be uncomfortable without any treatment, which can be administered on the beach. Both Burnett and Holstege recommend washing the area with saltwater. Such rinsing will deactivate those pesky nematocysts that are still hanging on.
A freshwater rinse will have the opposite effect. Any change to the balance of solutes, such as the concentration of salts inside and outside of the cnidocyte, sets off stinging. Adding freshwater to the sting site dilutes the salts outside the cell, unbalancing the solutes. In reaction to this change, the nematocysts in the cells release more venom--and cause more pain.
But what about urine? It contains salts and electrolytes. "I can think of many other things I'd rather have on me," Holstege notes. The concentration of salts and other compounds people have in their urine changes, he explains. If it is too dilute it will be similar to freshwater and cause those stingers to fire.
Other liquids and compounds, however, can help. Most stings in North American waters can be assuaged by vinegar, or 5 percent acetic acid. For stings from a few species, Cyanea capillata and Chysaora quinquecirrha, a baking soda and seawater paste is even better.
Once rinsing deactivates all the nasty nematocysts, the attached bits of tentacle can be removed by coating them with shaving cream or a slurry of seawater and sand followed by shaving with a razor or even a credit card.
For pain, an oral analgesic should do the trick for North American jellyfish stings. Australia, though, has nastier jellyfish (such as the deadly Box Jellyfish) and most Australian lifeguard teams are equipped with morphine and antivenoms to treat unlucky swimmers Down Under.
Ultimately, time, not urine, is the best treatment for a jellyfish sting. "Urine is worthless," Burnett says.
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7 Comments
Add CommentThe "pee on it" is old Russian folk medicine for blisters raised in the work camps. A basis of pain relief from injected formic acid might involve its reaction with urea. 30-0-0 fertilizer not being available, the natural solution obtains a certain legitimacy. The protein irritants from the jellyfish might be dissociated by the immediate application of meat tenderizer after removal of the stingers.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI live in Australia and I surf. Once I had the excruciatingly painful experience of stinger laden water wash over my lower legs (I was wearing a spring-suit) and the pain was instant and almost beyond description. I was surfing at Bondi Beach.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPain is a curious thing - from my calves - where the tentacles lay - I soon experienced a severe aching in my testicles which invaded my privates like a medieval torturer's wicked alchemy. Sitting on my surfboard I was obliged to pick the the tentacles off my legs with bare fingers - there were six or seven strands - each a foot long. Odd that my fingers experienced none of the pain I felt in my calves or genitals.
The villain in my case was a Blue-bottle jellyfish - a non-lethal but God awful venomous creature that creates an un-erasable memory of pain.
Aussie lifesavers wear pantyhose as a first line of defense against these toxic, wind blown, passive/aggressive predators.
Vinegar certainly works - but there is advanced anti-venene pharmacology available for lesser toxic jellyfish stings.
http://www.outback-australia-travel-secrets.com/box-jellyfish.html
Australia is an exotic, unspoiled and gorgeous travel destination - but there are rules which we locals will always remind you of:
Rule NUMBER ONE: NEVER SWIM CLOSE TO SHORE IN UNPROTECTED CORAL SEA WATERS NORTH OF FRAZER ISLAND.
Rule NUMBER TWO: REMEMBER RULE NUMBER ONE.
Come on down - Australia is a special place on earth. We'll show you a special good time and a lifelong experience.
Don't quite agree with the science on this because two days ago I was swimming in keansberg nj and was stung by a jellyfish. In five minutes my arm had a horrible rash and I was felling a stinging pain througout my arm. I got out the water, the jellyfish and tentacles were not on me at this time. I had my husband urinate in a cup I soaked a papertowel in his urine and placed it over the sting and held it in place with an ace bandage from my first aide kit. Two hours later the rash, pain and swelling was gone. So I would have to say the liquid gold works once the tentacles are removed
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAccording the science in this article, "the pain will not last longer than 24 hours, typically peaking five minutes after the sting occurs then dissipating over the next few hours."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSounds like you soaked your arm in piss for no reason.
I disagree with the science of this article either... I was stung on the elbow by a jellyfish in Pensacola, Florida. A woman on the beach had meat tenderizer and said that it would work... it didn't. I then remembered an episode of "Friends" about urinating on a jellyfish sting... so I had my friend pee in a cup since I could not pee on my elbow myself. Yes, I tried... I poured his urine directly on my elbow and the pain went away almost immediately.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTelling people that urine does not work could potentially cause someone's pain to last longer than it should by them not trying it. It's URINE... it's free... and when you're in that much pain, you will do anything. Unless you have actually been stung and tried it then you do not know. Bull on the "scientifically speaking"... I'm talking about "realistically speaking" it works!!!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAbout seven years ago, a fishing partner and I were surrounded by a fairly large smack of Box Jellyfish approximately 4.5 miles off the coast of Beaufort, South Carolina. Fortunately, we identified the animals just prior to jumping in for a swim. (They are not just found "down under.")
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt certainly appears that pH plays a large role in the effectiveness of this home remedy. Most sources I have read indicate a weak-to-moderate acid (e.g. vinegar)is the most likely to succeed. But who brings pickles to the beach? So, take the lime off your Carona and squeeze it on the wound site. If that doesn't work, try the other direction...pee on it.