Did you know that human spit can help to heal a cut faster?

    You may think that your mouth has too much bad bacteria to justify sucking on a cut, but it turns out that it can actually help to make the cut heal quicker. By using saliva from people who had just woken up, scientists were able to test saliva on wounded skin cells and found that little "nets" were found all over the cut.

    "When you suck on a cut finger, white blood cells in your spit release an arsenal of weapons to defeat bacterial invaders. First, white blood cells can simply engulf the bacteria and die as martyrs. Or they can shoot bacteria with deadly substances that cause the bacteria to disintegrate. But white blood cells can also do something even cooler: create sticky, viscous “nets” and throw them out like lassos to capture and wrestle bacteria to their deaths." (R.E. Gross)

Discussion Question: Why do you think that the spit used in the experiment had to be collected from people who had just woken up?

For more information on the subject, and the answer to the discussion question, see the following article:

Spit heals wounds: White blood cells in saliva mucus. (Written by Rachel E. Gross)