The best thing to stop the bleeding would be to stop cutting yourself.

It will sound weird, but I read something a while ago about bleeding and I never got the chance to try it out. I read that cayenne powder will quickly cause a cut to stop bleeding. The thing is, though, that I tend to get the accidental variety of cut at work where I don't have access to my cayenne powder. It doesn't happen often enough to make sense to bring some with me, and besides ... the cuts stop bleeding too quickly to really test this theory anyway. Most of the time I just end up with a series of lines on my hands and arms and never even actually see the blood. The last time I got a cut that was bad enough to actually see if this would work - the cayenne powder - was back in mid-1997. That was before I had read about it. I was working in a deli and I cut my hand on the slicer. It didn't entirely stop bleeding for a full week because it kept opening up again. Odds are that if I ever do have a cut serious enough to try the cayenne powder to stop the bleeding, it won't even occur to me to try to stop it by pouring cayenne on it. It will be some kind of emergency situation and I won't be thinking very clearly. Something tells me that putting cayenne on a cut might just hurt even more anyway, like putting lemon juice on it or alcohol or maybe like rubbing salt in. It feels a little weird to even be mentioning this at all when everyone else is only suggesting the preventative measure of not cutting yourself. On the other hand I get the feeling that this is easier said than done. Please don't go out of your way to need to try drastic measures to stop bleeding. All I am saying is that if you do happen to know that you are definitely going to be bleeding anyway, if you could put it off until you can get to the store and buy some cayenne powder to have it on hand, and if you could see if it works, then maybe you could let us know. It could easily be another fourteen years before I get the chance to see for myself. And I hope you are not offended that I asked. If anyone asks you why you decided to get some cayenne powder you can tell them that you heard that you can put 1/8 of a teaspoon into a large mug of hot chocolate to enhance the flavor. It really is tasty, but I have to use a lot more to taste it. Especially if I'm going to put whipped cream on top.

Actually I am reminded of a saying. If you are thinking about doing something good, especially something kind and generous for another person, you should go ahead and do it as soon as possible. If you are thinking about doing something that you don't think you should do, just wait a bit longer before you do it. When you are thinking about doing something and you don't do it right away there is the possibility that you won't get to it because the moment is gone. In the case of a good action, this is unfortunate, but if you were going to do something you might regret, this is an advantage. Back when I used to drink there were actually times when I didn't get around to it for various reasons because I didn't do it right away and by the time I got around to it, it was too late to buy the alcohol. Once I opened a bottle of liquor it didn't last very long, and I didn't have more at home on those occasions.