Those who advocate putting hydrogen peroxide into contact with your nose to clear sinus passages and other mucous membranes or using it in a douche to prevent yeast infections, may be stretching the solution’s uses. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention note that hydrogen peroxide’s standard, household-grade solution levels of 3 to 5 percent are mildly irritating to the skin and mucous membranes. If you spray it on a sensitive area, you could be asking for trouble.

While everyday people believe hydrogen peroxide is something of a magic formula, even some doctors question hydrogen peroxide’s use as a wound cleanser.

While it bubbles and injects oxygen into a cut, scrape or wound, making it appear to be working, it is also damaging the healthy cells in the affected area that are working to heal the wound. Thus, hydrogen peroxide can slow healing and allow the wound to stay open longer and making it potentially open to more infections. Many emergency rooms do not stock it, aware that it may cause more harm than good. Instead of using hydrogen peroxide, doctors advocate washing any wound with unscented soap and water, then putting petroleum jelly on the wound to put up a barrier against germs. Hydrogen peroxide may irritate the area rather than soothe it.

Some hydrogen peroxide fans have a strict belief in its power, also believing that it not only works medical miracles, but that it kills all germs. They use it as an all-purpose disinfectant in the kitchen and other areas of the home. At 3 to 5 percent, the solution is too weak to be a total germ killer, and thus may leave more than a fair share of germs on surfaces.

Other uses, such as curing boils, canker sores, fighting foot fungus or even killing infections, is questionable. Because hydrogen peroxide can irritate the skin, putting it on an infected wound several times a day may cause more tissue damage.