The Healing Power of Honey

Posted by admin on February 14th, 2010 at 03:45pm

Tom Sawyer declared to Huck Finn that warts could be cured by spunk (stump) water and a magic chant during the dark of the moon … Huck maintained it was better to use a dead cat.

While we might laugh at such notions today, the fact is, many “old time” remedies should share a place alongside more conventional treatments in our home medicine cabinet. For example, soaking with ordinary vinegar over a few days time will indeed remove a wart, if you don’t mind smelling like a salad.

Grandma didn’t know exactly how or why, she only knew that they worked. Many time-tested, common cures and traditional or folk-lore treatments are now being seriously investigated under laboratory conditions, with some interesting results.

One of the most useful items that might be found in our kitchen cupboard is the humble honey jar. We might expect honey to be helpful for soothing a sore throat when added to hot herbal tea or lemon juice, but consider its other medicinal uses:

For example, ingesting honey and the pollen from local hives will also assist your body’s immune system, helping you to build antibodies against allergies.

Due to its wound-healing properties, it was used extensively during the Civil War; doctors in both field hospitals and on the battlefield used honey for an immediate dressing and for post-surgical treatments. As well as needing no refrigeration, honey also had the field advantage of being readily available (a “honey tree” could usually be located by scouting the surrounding countryside), and it could be put into jars or oilcloth packets and easily transported.

The notion of “germs” and other medical knowledge was still rather vague in those days … they only knew honey was useful stuff. They couldn’t have known of its natural anti-bacterial, antibiotic, and anti-inflammatory properties, or that it contains helpful enzymes in so-called “bee spit”: that magical concoction produced by the bees and exchanged in a sort of bee version of a French kiss, in order to convert nectar into honey.

But it’s important to note that these helpful enzymes and anti-bacterial elements are only found in raw, unheated honey … heat and over-processing destroys them. Visit your local beekeeper to get the best and most gently-handled honey.

According to a blurb in the Health section of the New York Times*, scientists have also found that honey may be a quick and easy treatment to soothe and promote healing of minor burns. One study found that small, non-serious burns healed faster when treated with gauze and a dash of honey, on average, than those treated with antibiotic creams and other dressings. A separate report published earlier found similar results. The reason? Air circulation is needed to assist skin tissue in healing … and honey “breathes”.

So take the honey jar along on your next camping trip … you might find it comes in handy.

Yours in health …

* “Honey Can Soothe a Burn” by Anahad O’Connor; NYTimes, Feb 19, 2008

Under CAM+ Food & Nutrition