Hydrogen peroxide

In dilution, hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) is an effective and inexpensive disinfectant – and seems to stimulate healing.

It also has an intriguing research history – and non-history. A speculative article in The Lancet in 1984 mentioned a Nobel Prize awarded for research in the 1920s showing tumours in rats healed with H₂O₂ dropped on them.

The authors argued lipid peroxidation is a good candidate for the hypothesised ‘Destruct’ button in cells. (The body doesn’t repair damaged cells, it flushes and replaces them. So cells must have something that functions as a ‘Destruct’ button.) Perhaps H₂O₂ helps that and so catalyses the body’s immune response.

As best I recall, they speculated the lack of research activity since might relate to the difficulty of making a profit out of so cheap a chemical.

We Aussies stay alert for skin cancers. So for 20 years I’ve dabbed H₂O₂ on anything that hangs around on my skin.

So far they’ve all disappeared.