Honey benefit by Ray Sahelian, M.D. Health benefit of honey

Honey is a sweet fluid produced by honeybees and other insects from the nectar of flowers. "The definition of honey stipulates a pure product that does not allow for the addition of any other substance. This includes, but is not limited to, water or other sweeteners," according to the United States National Honey Board 2003 and other nations' food regulations. This article refers exclusively to the honey produced by honeybees (the genus Apis); honey produced by other bees or other insects has very different properties. An alternative to honey is agave nectar.

Types of Honey

The color and flavor of honey differ depending on the nectar source (the blossoms) visited by the honey bees. In fact, there are more than 300 unique types of honey available in the United States, each originating from a different floral source. Honey color ranges from nearly colorless to dark brown, and its flavor varies from delectably mild to distinctively bold, depending on where the honey bees buzzed. As a general rule, light-colored honey is milder in taste and dark-colored honey is stronger.

What's in Honey?
Honey has a number of nutrients which include:
1. Sugars like fructose, glucose, sucrose, maltose, lactose and other disaccharides and trisaccharides.
2. Proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals, enzymes and amino acids.
3. Volatile aromatic substances.
4. Bioflavonoids, depending on the type of honey and which flowers the bees visited.

Honey as a remedy

Honey has been used as a remedy for thousands of years. The ancient Egyptians wrote about its curative properties when applied to wounds; similar references have been found in texts from ancient Greeks, Romans, Mesopotamians, Chinese and Indians. Dozens of clinical trials and more than 150 medical journal articles have been published, involving thousands of patients using honey as a wound dressing. Findings have shown that honey is effective in quickly clearing existing infection, protects wounds from further infection, minimizes scarring and also reduces wound odors. Various studies show medical honey to be effective in treating a huge range of injuries, including surgical wounds, burns, infectious wounds, ulcers and pressure sores as well as eczema, dry eye, dental wounds and even nappy rash.

Honey and blood sugar

The effect of honey on blood sugar levels is the same no matter what its source. Tupelo, clover, buckwheat and cotton honeys have virtually identical glycemic indexes. The glycemic index of a food is a measure of how quickly it causes blood sugar to rise. High carbohydrate, low fiber foods such as white bread or bananas have a high glycemic index, while high fiber foods containing complex carbs, including most vegetables, have a low glycemic index. There is no evidence that the fructose to glucose ratio contained in honey affects its glycemic index, nor does its floral source. Nevertheless, the researchers note, honey may offer advantages over other sweeteners such as refined sugars. Dark honey can be rich in antioxidants, while some honey varieties contain beneficial bacteria. "Because honey has potential health benefits and induces a similar glycemic response, substituting honey in place of sugar may be warranted.
 

Honey for cough
Honey is used around the world as a folk remedy for cough, and might provide a safe, effective alternative to cough medicine. A spoonful of honey can ease children's nighttime cough and help them sleep better. Dr. Ian M. Paul of Pennsylvania State University in Hershey compared buckwheat honey, a honey-flavored dextromethorphan preparation, and no treatment in 105 children who had sought treatment for nighttime coughs due to colds. Among the three groups, children given honey had the greatest reduction in cough frequency and severity, and the most improved sleep. Honey has a sweet, syrupy quality that is soothing to the throat. Honey also has antimicrobial effects. The high fructose content may also help with sleep induction. The dosage was half a teaspoon for two- to five-year-olds, a teaspoon for six- to eleven-year-olds, and two teaspoons for children twelve and older. Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, December 2007.

Honey for wound healing - results are not consistent

Studies show honey is not consistently effective in treating wounds or leg ulcers. Perhaps different types of honey have different effects.

Dr Shona Blair, a post-doctoral microbiology researcher at the University of Sydney, has been researching the properties of honey for more than six years. She says there have been a large number of worldwide clinical trials showing that honey applied to various wounds has impressive healing properties. Blair found that some types of honey are highly effective in killing many bacteria, including golden staph, (Staphylococcus aureus) - a major problem in hospitals because it is resistant to most antibiotics. Honey also leaves infected wounds very clean, because of its ability to break down the "biofilm" found in many wounds. It also has anti-inflammatory properties, reducing pain, particularly in burns and ulcers. It also can reduce scarring. Treating wounds effectively with honey is not as simple, however, as squirting a bit of honey bought from the supermarket on a Bandaid. Not all honeys are the same. Some Australian and New Zealand honeys have outstanding levels of anti-bacterial properties. One of the top experts in honey research for wound care is Professor Peter Molan, who heads the Honey Research Unit at the University of Waikato. Molan, a biochemist, has been researching the properties of honey for about 23 years. The anti-bacterial properties are particularly high in manuka honey, from New Zealand. Similarly high levels have since been discovered in honey produced from other plants of the Leptospermum species - and the majority of these is in Australia. Part of Molan's research was funded by the New Zealand health solutions company, Comvita, which is now producing honey-impregnated sterile wound dressings.

Dr. Andrew Jull of the University of Auckland reports honey dressings used as a treatment for difficult-to-treat leg ulcers cause more pain and adverse events than standard wound coverings. Venous leg ulcers are sores in the lower leg that persist for several weeks and are typically treated with compression bandages. Dr. Andrew Jull randomized 386 men and women with venous leg ulcers to receive standard wound dressings or dressings impregnated with honey. After 12 weeks, 55 percent of the honey-treated wounds had healed, compared to 49 percent of the wounds in the control group, which wasn't a statistically significant difference. Wounds healed in an average of 63 days for the honey group compared to 65 days for the control group, again, not a significant difference. However, patients in the honey group were 30 percent more likely to have adverse events, and they were also more likely to report pain. British Journal of Surgery, January 2008.

Medical grade honey kills antibiotic-resistant bacteria grown in the test tube and may be used to prevent or treat infections of skin, burns, catheters and other skin-penetrating medical devices. Researchers evaluated the antibacterial activity of a medical grade honey called Revamil (Bfactory), which is produced in greenhouses under standardized conditions. Antibiotic-susceptible and antibiotic-resistant isolates of several common bacteria, including Staphylococcus aureus and E. coli, were killed within 24 hours after incubation with the honey. After applying honey for 48 hours to "bacteria-laden" patches of forearm skin, the extent of skin colonization was reduced 100-fold. The vast majority of the honey-treated skin patches yielded negative skin culture results compared to a fifth of control patches. Clinical Infectious Diseases, June 1, 2008.

Manuka honey

Bees gather pollen from the flowers of the Manuka Bush, which is indigenous to New Zealand. The honey making process is enriched by the pollution free environment of New Zealand.

Manuka honey questions
Q. Curious if you've "researched the research" and/or have had any experience using topical or ingested Manuka Honey (UMF grade). I recently read in the June 9, 2007 issue of Science News that it is effective against MRSA (before the staph enters enters bloodstream). Online research about the honey reveals additional health claims similar to longstanding ones made for other honeys.
   A. There have been some in medical journals regarding the potential benefit of Manuka honey used topically for skin infections by MRSA, but we don't have any personal experience ourselves.

Manuka honey dressing: An effective treatment for chronic wound infections. Br J Oral Maxillofac Surg. 2006 Nov 17;
Visavadia BG, Honeysett J, Danford MH. Maxillofacial Unit, Royal Surrey County Hospital, Egerton Road, Guildford Surrey, UK.
The battle against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) wound infection is becoming more difficult as drug resistance is widespread and the incidence of MRSA in the community increases. Manuka honey dressing has long been available as a non-antibiotic treatment in the management of chronic wound infections. We have been using honey-impregnated dressings successfully in our wound care clinic and on the maxillofacial ward for over a year.

Topical manuka honey for MRSA-contaminated skin ulcers. Palliat Med. 2006 Jul;20(5):557.Chambers J.

Healing of an MRSA-colonized, hydroxyurea-induced leg ulcer with honey. J Dermatolog Treat. 2001 Mar;12(1):33-6.
Natarajan S, Williamson D, Grey J, Harding KG, Cooper RA. Wound Healing Research Unit, University of Wales College of Medicine, Heath Park, Cardiff, UK.
We report the case of an immunosuppressed patient who developed a hydroxyurea-induced leg ulcer with subclinical MRSA infection which was subsequently treated with topical application of manuka honey, without cessation of hydroxyurea or cyclosporin. MRSA was eradicated from the ulcer and rapid healing was successfully achieved. Honey is recognized to have antibacterial properties, and can also promote effective wound healing. A traditional therapy, therefore, appears to have enormous potential in solving new problems.

Manuka Honey