the OTHER Honey that is

A household remedy millennia old is being reinstated: honey helps the treatment of some wounds better than the most modern antibiotics. For several years now medical experts from the University of Bonn have been clocking up largely positive experience with what is known as medihoney. Even chronic wounds infected with multi-resistant bacteria often healed within a few weeks.

For several years now Bonn paediatricians have been pioneering the use in Germany of medihoney in treating wounds. Medihoney bears the CE seal for medical products; its quality is regularly tested. The success is astonishing: “Dead tissue is rejected faster, and the wounds heals more rapidly,” Kai Sofka, wound specialist at the University Children’s Clinic, emphasises. “What is more, changing dressings is less painful, since the poultices are easier to remove without damaging the newly formed layers of skin.” Some wounds often smell unpleasant — an enormous strain on the patient. Yet honey helps here too by reducing the smell. “Even wounds which consistently refused to heal for years can, in our experience, be brought under control with medihoney — and this frequently happens within a few weeks,” Kai Sofka says.

It has already been proved that medihoney even puts paid to multi-resistant germs such as MRSA. In this respect medihoney is neck and neck in the race to beat the antibiotic mupirocin, currently the local MRSA antibiotic of choice. This is shown by a study recently published by researchers in Australia. In one point medihoney was even superior to its rival: the bacteria did not develop any resistance to the natural product during the course of treatment.

Apparently, there are two processes at work here: an enzyme called glucose-oxidase and utilizing honey which has special anti-bacterial properties — from trees in New Zealand and Australia.



  1. Nirendra says:

    Can you lick your wounds? 😀

  2. Kevin says:

    Great, now I’m gonna have to buy honey from the internet or Canada if I want to avoid paying $100 per bottle.

  3. tallwookie says:

    I wanna use some medi-honey to make some medi-mead

  4. ECA says:

    This took them HOW LONG to figure out??
    DUH!! DUH DUH DUH DUH!!!
    they found PERFECT seeds stored in jars of honey, from the OLD Egypt sarcophegus…

  5. Roc Rizzo says:

    Forget applying the honey directly to the wound!
    Just brew up a batch of good ‘ol mead, (aka honeywine) and drink it. It can be up to around 20% alcohol by volume. Aside from your ability to see the gods, it’s good for you, because of all the residual stuff from the honey that’s still in there. Mead has been a medicine for thousands of years also, especially when infused with medicinal herbs. For more mead facts, recipies, and most things mead, point your browser to http://gotmead.org
    Take it from your resident brewer, there’s nothing like a nice mead for whatever ails you!

  6. prophet says:

    I can see this causing problem for diabetics that can’t control their food urges:

    “I know I shouldn’t eat my festering foot wound, but damn, this new antibiotic tastes so good!”

  7. Mike Voice says:

    Even wounds which consistently refused to heal for years can, in our experience, be brought under control with medihoney…

    …for years???

    What kind of wound is that? Amputation?

  8. ECA says:

    8,
    This is fruitose, not glucose, and can be eaten by diabetics. NOT in large quanities, but it wont harm sugar levels to much.
    Its like hard alcohol and beer, its the NATURAL process that dont hurt it.

  9. jccalhoun says:

    If you are on a honey kick, you might want to try some “Mellified Man” http://www.boingboing.net/2006/07/26/better_illegal_foods.html

  10. Edwin Rogers says:

    The honey is from beehives grazed on the “Manuka” or “Tea Tree”. It is commonly available in edible form from most good quality stores, and is a nice way to treat a throat infection when drank with a warm cup of tea. Unreliable lore points to its use by Maori and Aborigine for treating wounds. The most effective form for applied dressings is made from honey from New Zealand, applied in a sterile dressing pack which is pre-medicated with the honey and available in sealed individual application pads for hospitals.

  11. Eideard says:

    Even though I can be found doing part of my weekend grocery shopping in one natural/organic foods chain, I still have to shop according to my budget. The Web makes it all a lot easier — including online purchases.

    Just comparison shopping between the UK — where products like this from OZ and NZ are common — I find this honey for about $0.50 an ounce. In the US — with freight from OZ and NZ about the same as to the UK — retailers are asking as much as $1.65 an ounce.

    Phew!

  12. ECA says:

    13,
    YES…Someone ELSE see’s this.
    The prices in the US are OUT rageious for ANYTHING imported, even short distances…But its not taxes, or tarriffs…Its the resellers and distributours.
    Even the makers here, send out for goods in other countries, Put them together HERE, and charge AS IF, they were made HERE.

  13. Paul says:

    The active ingredient of honey is Hydrogen Peroxide, but more dilute than the stuff you buy at the store.

  14. RTaylor says:

    Mike many people have wounds that refuse to heal. I had an Aunt that survived ovarian cancer. Immediately after surgery show was given an intense of radiation therapy. The surgical incision never closed completely due to radiation damage. She wore a pad for wound seepage the next 20 years of her life. Wounds must heal from the inside out. If the deeper tissues don’t close properly the wound can reopen easily and drain for decades. Pockets of infection can do this also, thus the importance of surgical drain tubes while healing.

  15. Angel H. Wong says:

    Just for precaution, don’t even think of using it as an anal/vaginal lubricant/toy. I don’t know if its antiseptic use will work effectively in those areas but You don’t want a yeast/bacterial growth explosion there.

  16. Angel H. Wong says:

    And no, that’s not the voice of experience talking *g*


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