What Are the ~
Medical Benefits of Honey?

Thousands of years ago people discovered these along with the health benefits of honey and used it as honey medicine to cure their ailments.

Quite who the first person was to realise medical honey works so well on internal and external wounds we shall probably never know. But whoever they were they knew a thing or two about honey as medicine.

I do have to laugh to myself when I read articles written by medical professionals proclaiming with a EUREKA that they have discovered the Medical Benefits of Honey.

I suppose we should thank them for once again bringing it to our attention, but let's not forget, these are often the very same people who have spent vast amounts of time and money inventing chemical based medication over the last couple of hundred years.

And we have spent vast amounts of time and money humouring them by buying and using them.

They pretend to have discovered "secrets" of Medical Benefits of Honey which are in fact not secret at all, they are just forgotten secrets.

The secrets of honey have been known for eons of years! It is possible you have a secret or two in your cupboard without even realising it!

If not then I strongly advise you to stock up as soon as you can to try for yourselves the many medical benefits of honey even as a quick remedy if you cut or scald yourself.

John Hill, M.D (England 1759) wrote: The slight regard at this time paid to the medicinal virtues of honey is an instance of neglect men shew to common objects, whatever their value; acting in contempt, as it were of the immediate hand of providence, which has in general made those things most frequent, which have the greatest uses; and for that reason, we seek from the remotest part of the world, medicines of harsh and violent operation for our relief in several disorders, under which we should never suffer, if we would use what the Bees collects for us at our doors.

These are indeed wise words, we should and need to pay particular heed to them. He, John that is, certainly recognised the medical benefits of honey, I wonder if he had words with other medical professionals who were busy concocting chemical based medicines!

Why I wonder, would they do this when the benefits of honey have been used for thousands of years, honey also contains Propolis yet another powerful natural healer.

Honey in itself is the end product of a honey bees work which starts with them collecting delicious nectar from plants and flowers including those we grow in our honeybee gardens.

They take it back to their bee hives to feed themselves and without realising it, they convert into a medicinal miracle.

Hence that other saying "The Nectar of Life. Actually the honey making process starts in the bees honey stomachs, we only get the benefits from the hive when the process is complete. It must be said that not any old honey will do.

If you intend to use it for medical purposes such as open infected wounds it should ideally be Active Manuka Honey. On the label of the jar it will state that it is, check for the UMF (Unique Manuka Factor) with a factor of 16+ or above, the higher the better. Or at the very least a tested medical grade honey.

Don't forget you get what you pay for! We must give credit here to Peter Molan who introduced the UMF to rate the antibacterial potency of a given honey.

It does cost more but is worth the cost when you realise just how effective it is for medical purposes. Thank you Peter for opening eyes to the Medical Benefits of Honey once again.

Practically all honeys except for the fakes have antibacterial and anti-fungal properties, however, Manuka Honey also contains a mystery phytochemical which makes it the most efficient honey for medical purposes.

This honey is only produced in New Zealand and does have a very strong medicinal flavour. The nectar is collected by the bees from the Manuka bush which grow in unpolluted areas of both the North and South Islands.

Because it is completely natural and is such a powerful medical honey that has undergone a huge amount of scientific research. As a honey remedy it has been proven to be effective on wounds which are normally anti-biotic resistant, including the dreadful flesh eating disease mrsa.

Oh Yes, it is an effective mrsa treatment and incredibly effective at killing super bugs! WOW, that blew me away when I learned that.

The glucose oxidase which is in honey when combined with water produces hydrogen peroxide which is released as soon as it touches the infected areas.

This is why it is so effective at medically curing afflictions of the skin, super bugs, burns and even skin infections and acne, it is preferably used on damp skin.

Bulgarian soldiers suffered numerous casualties during the Balkan War in 1913 and they ran out of medicine to treat their wounds.

An officer decided that a small honey supply they had stumbled across by chance in a small village would be used as treatment on some of the soldiers wounds. There was not enough in their find to go around and give as nourishment.

He actually did not realise that this honey remedy was about to perform a miracle, he used it more to show that he cared for their welfare.

A few days later he astonishingly discovered the wounds that had been treated with the honey applied, were clean and rapidly improving, whereas others who had not had the honey remedy had become badly infected.

He must have marvelled at what he had discovered, the Medical Benefits of Honey! The same treatment is now used effectively on the war wounded in Unnecessary Wars around the globe.

Medical honey is also very effective for burns, as we now know even the military use it for this purpose.

They use a Manuka honey based dressing called Medihoney as an effective way of treating wound infections.

These wound dressings are particularly useful when burns victims have become resistant to anti-biotics. It peels away from the skin easily without taking newly healed and grown skin tissue with it.

This reduces scarring dramatically. It is worth noting that Medihoney helps the improvement of infected skin for cancer patients heal much faster.

I have personally seen Medihoney in action, it was as a dressing on my lovely sister-in-laws foot when she had an infection on her heel.

She has endured Multiple Sclerosis, and been in a wheelchair for many years. Her foot became painfully red and sore bought about by the pressure of just resting it on the footrest of her chair.

Whilst visiting her recently I was pleasantly surprised when the district nurse arrived to dress the sore with Medihoney guaze pads.

Pack some honey into deep wounds or for more superficial wounds it would only be necessary to apply a honey dressing with a clean, sterile dressing.

How long the wound will take to heal will of course depend on the seriousness of it, but heal it will and usually with no scarring at all.

I have even used it myself on the annoying chilblains I get once in a while.Honey to the rescue once again. I just rub it on my damp hands and feet and pop on a clean pair of cotton gloves and socks overnight, it is certainly a favorite honey remedy for me.

The honey stops the itching and calms the inflammation. They rarely last longer than two days and Oh the relief.....What joy!

For the past 100 years or so people have depended on artificial means for curing their medical needs, most of these are poison in their own right and we can do away with many of them with just the use of honey.

The problem is that although these chemical based medicines were designed with good intentions as antibiotics, we have mainly become immune to them.

This is quite possibly because we have used them too often but this will not be the case with the medical benefits of honey. Even Gangrene can and has been successfully treated with honey!

Those with very high Anti-inflammatory and Antimicrobial properties, these actually discourage and kill off micro-organisms and along with the hydrogen peroxide content actually prevents the growth of bacteria such as E.coli and other super bugs.

It is thought the darker the honey is in colour, the more effective it is as a medical honey. Its antioxidant properties are stronger.

Buckwheat Honey is very dark but as a medical honey, has been proved to cure coughs and colds far quicker than chemical medications.

It really was about time the word got out concerning the medical benefits of honey, so spread the word and spread the honey! Honey as medicine is truly the best!

It must be said here that doctors, nurses and other medical experts do a fantastic job and none of us in all

seriousness would consider using honey alone if we have had a serious accident or needed them to keep us alive by other means such as breathing apparatus and major operations.

However, we could all cut down on our visits and the expense to these fantastic but busy people by treating a lot of our medical needs ourselves simply using the medical benefits of honey.

It seems to be natural for people to take flowers and bunches of grapes along as gifts when visiting hospital patients. There is nothing wrong with this, they make lovely gifts but I prefer to take in a jar of honey.

If they look at you funny just explain you thought to speed up their recovery it would be nice for them to benefit from some honey as medicine. This may be a blessing in disguise if the MRSA bug is doing the rounds at the time!

For long term patients there is often a major problem with bed sores, Medihoney is hopefully used but if not your gift of honey will help considerably.

I used it myself after having spinal surgery, I wasn't offered it, I bought it myself and certainly they were amazed at how quickly my wound healed.