Raw unpasteurized honey from the health food store (not processed or pasteurized from the supermarket) is one of the oldest and most reliable healing foods - specifically Manuka Honey is highly recommended for its healing properties. It's a superfood that provides antioxidants, minerals, vitamins, amino acids, enzymes, carbohydrates, and phytonutrients. It fights bacteria, builds the immune system, and provides energy.
* Processed Honey: According to the National Honey Board (NHB), (http://www.honey.com) , 82 percent of households currently use processed honey, which has been heated and pasteurized, and can contain botulism and High Fructose Corn Syrup, (HFCS). Processed honey is not as antibacterial, as raw honey, and is dangerous for diabetics and infants under 12 months old.
Benefits of Raw & Unprocessed Honey:
May Berenbaum, Ph.D., a University of Illinois entomologist, shares that "Honey has been used for centuries to treat a wide range of medical problems like wounds, burns, cataracts, skin ulcers and scrapes," Various researchers worldwide are finding strong antimicrobial properties in some honeys.
Healing Qualities:
Raw honey is used by many cultures as a remedy for ulcers, digestion, bronchitis, and as an energizer, as well as many other answers to health problems.
* Recently, the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration, the equivalent of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, approved Manuka Tree honey as a medicine.
Wound Care / Burns:
One reports published in the 1998 issue of the journal Burns, tells how researchers from the Dr. V. M. Medical College in Maharashtra, India, compared honey with silver sulfadiazine, the standard treatment for superficial burns.
* The researchers first smeared honey on gauze and used it to dress the burns of 52 patients. Another 52 patients got the same treatment but with silver sulfadiazine in place of the honey.
* In the 52 patients treated with honey, 87 percent healed within 15 days, compared with 10 percent of those treated with silver sulfadiazine.
* The honey-treated patients also experienced less pain, leaking of wound fluid, and scarring.
Up until World War II, honey was used commonly to treat skin wounds. With the introduction of antibiotics in the 1940s, honey was taken out of the medicine cabinets and returned to the kitchen. Some doctors are starting to use honey when modern medicines have been tried - and failed - to cure skin wounds. Honey contains three ingredients that make it ideal for treating wounds.
* Molan, a biochemist at the University of Waikato in New Zealand, and other researchers have found special bacteria-killing properties in honey made from the nectar of the tea tree (Leptospermum). In laboratory experiments, reported in the November 1992 Journal of Applied Bacteriology, Molan and his colleagues found that it was particularly effective in slaying staphylococcus aureus. This so-called "Golden Staph" -- which infested the English woman's 20-year-old wound -- sometimes survives the most potent antibiotics, killing its victims. "Manuka honey has worked in very desperate cases where nothing else has worked," says Molan.
* Because it's high in sugar, it absorbs much of the moisture inside wounds, making it hard for bacteria to survive.
* In addition, many honey varieties contain large amounts of hydrogen peroxide, the same medicine you use at home to disinfect cuts and scrapes.
* Finally, some honey contain propolis, a compound in nectar that can kill bacteria. In a laboratory study, researchers smeared honey on seven types of bacteria that frequently cause wound infections, and according to a renowned professor of biochemistry at the University of Waikato in Hamilton, New Zealand, it effectively killed all seven types.
Cataracts:
An ancient Egyptian folk remedy involves the use of unprocessed pure honey to heal cataracts. The instructions were to put a few drops of raw honey in the eyes. Apparently, this remedy has helped many patients.
According to May Berenbaum, Ph.D., a University of Illinois entomologist. "Honey has been used for centuries to treat a wide range of medical problems like wounds, burns, cataracts, skin ulcers and scrapes."
