Cheese as antiseptic

Does bacterial crowding-out help prevent minor cuts becomming infected?

I was cutting the last slice from some bread, stupidly holding the bread in my hand as I cut with the other. Not surprisingly the serated bread knife cut quite deeply into my finger.

I've done this before. A cut like that hurts a bit at first, but what's really annoying is if it becomes a little bit infected, a bit red and hot, and so you have a throbbing pain that can last a couple of days.

But this time my my fingers were covered in raw milk cheese. And this time after I wrapped a bandage round the cut to stop the bleeding, it just seemed to heal, no infection, no redness, no throbbing pain. I was surprised.

So I wonder if the phenomnon of bacterial crowding out - ie good bacteria preventing the growth of bad bacteria - can happen on the skin as well as happening in the gut?

Published on Feb 25, 2017