News: Cardiff scientists look at honey as drug alternative

[Arcadia]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-65233103.amp
“According to the largest study to date and published in the Lancet medical magazine, more than 1.2 million people died worldwide in 2019 as a direct result of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections.

… "Before antibiotics we used herbal and traditional remedies to treat diseases. 

"We have gone back to these traditional remedies to see if we can learn from our ancestors."

Scientists at Cardiff are looking to see if honey has a part to play. 

Traditionally, it has been used for wound healing and contains compounds which are antimicrobial.

The challenge now is to find these compounds and isolate them so that, potentially, they can lead to new remedies to deal with health problems.  Researchers are currently testing various samples of honey to see which plants the bees have visited during their working lives. 

Using technology, they can see if the bees went to a plant which had an antibiotic. When scientists have discovered the plant, they then analyse its compounds.

The honey, they say, works as a "drug discovery tool" in the search for new antibiotics. At the moment, they are looking closely at dandelions, as they contain compounds that "kill bacteria and viruses", according to Prof Baillie.

"They are called weeds by gardeners, but they have value, and we should be celebrating the dandelions not exterminating them," he said.”

[prairiewindmomma]

Honey is actually used medicinally by medical care professionals already. Manuka honey is particularly effective against infected wounds that are resistant to antibiotics. Honey has the additional benefit of keeping a wound moist. My daughter’s wound care team had us using the stuff 15 years ago!

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8496555/

 

[ktgrok]

1 minute ago, prairiewindmomma said:

Honey is actually used medicinally by medical care professionals already. Manuka honey is particularly effective against infected wounds that are resistant to antibiotics. Honey has the additional benefit of keeping a wound moist. My daughter’s wound care team had us using the stuff 15 years ago!

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8496555/

 

Yup! I used it on a boil/abcess thing my older daughter had on her leg. It had been there for weeks with no change. I did NOT expect the honey to actually work, but was willing to try anything to avoid a trip to the doctor for lancing and draining and oral antibiotics and everything. Overnight it was 90% better, totally gone in a few days. At that point I was a believer!

[Arcadia]

2 minutes ago, prairiewindmomma said:

Honey is actually used medicinally by medical care professionals already.

The article says the researchers are looking into honey to create new drugs for antibiotics resistant illnesses.

I lean towards TCM and would personally rather take honey than antibiotics again. It benefits my heartburn and my teens sore throats (due to low humidity). 

[Clarita]

I always drink hot honey citrus water when I have congestion and coughing. I always just thought it was more of a feel good placebo thing, but now I'm going to say it's needed. That's why I finished off the jar of honey in a week...

[prairiewindmomma]

Right…Manuka is a plant from the Myrtle family. The plant was traditionally used for rheumatism, but combined with honey’s anti fungal properties, it is an effective antibiotic as well. The combined interaction is more effective or different than the singular plant who already had known properties.

[Faith-manor]

I don't know about bacteria, but for me, it helps with viral laryngitis. I used to have a horrible bout annually. For more than a decade, every October like clockwork practically, three weeks, no voice, misery. I decided to hark back to an old remedy since my doctors just kept sayng, "Viral. Nothing we can do. Gargle with saltwater." 😠 No one could explain why gargle with saltwater was supposed to work if it wasn't bacterial. But I digress.

Lemon tea, lemon vodka, honey. One a day before bed at the first sign of trouble. After a couple of years, I stopped having laryngitis problems.

100% anecdotal, and worth exactly nothing as medical data. But if honey turned out to be the answer to antibiotic resistance, I would not be surprised.

[prairiewindmomma]

Fwiw, in the traditional (western) medicine classes I took, one of the bedrock theories is that an artificial drug contains typically one note/compound. An herb contains many. Because an herb contains many, it is less likely to develop antibiotic resistance.

[Grace Hopper]

3 hours ago, Faith-manor said:

I don't know about bacteria, but for me, it helps with viral laryngitis. I used to have a horrible bout annually. For more than a decade, every October like clockwork practically, three weeks, no voice, misery. I decided to hark back to an old remedy since my doctors just kept sayng, "Viral. Nothing we can do. Gargle with saltwater." 😠 No one could explain why gargle with saltwater was supposed to work if it wasn't bacterial. But I digress.

Lemon tea, lemon vodka, honey. One a day before bed at the first sign of trouble. After a couple of years, I stopped having laryngitis problems.

100% anecdotal, and worth exactly nothing as medical data. But if honey turned out to be the answer to antibiotic resistance, I would not be surprised.

My singing kids were popular during concert season; I used to order honey sticks in bulk and they were happily shared. 
 

I’m glad to read about topical use today, I’ve got an abrasion on the back of my hand that is healing slowly. Gonna stop for a fresh bottle of manuka. 

[Faith-manor]

I am not one of those people who puts a lot of stock in alternative medicine. But one other thing that I have had work for me for bruising, bad bruises, is comfry tea compresses, warm ones. No idea why. Someone told ds and I to use them after our car accident, and there was a bit of difference in healing rates between the ones that received the comfry treatment, and those that didn't. But again, totally anecdotal. I would be very interested in seeing that studied.

I am not well versed in the specifics about honey. What is Manuka and how does it differ from say, my local honey which is heavily influenced by clover and apple blossoms?

Edited April 13, 2023 by Faith-manor
Punctuation

[ktgrok]

3 minutes ago, Faith-manor said:

I am not one of those people who puts a lot of stock in alternative medicine. But one other thing that I have had work for me for bruising, bad bruises, is comfry tea compresses, warm ones. No idea why. Someone told ds and I to use them after our car accident, and there was a bit of difference in healing rates between the ones that received the comfry treatment, and those that didn't. But again, totally anecdotal. I would be very interested in seeing that studied.

I am not well versed in the specifics about honey. What is Manuka and how does it differ from say, my local honey which is heavily influenced by clover and apple blossoms?

The Manuka plant has antiseptic properties, I believe? Any honey can help in the sense of maintaining a proper fluid balance in the wound. But some honey has properties more than others where the enzymes react with the exudate from the wound to produce what is essentially hydrogen peroxide. That kills the germs. It can actually tingle a bit, if there is a lot of exudate, but not for long. 

[prairiewindmomma]

In addition to the above, Manuka honey is rated, for medical purposes, according to antibacterial strength. Some uses require a really high strength. You can Google and find charts. 
 

My position on traditional medicine is that it needs to be treated as such—subject to double blind testing for efficacy, counterindications studied, and some sort of measuring of dosage…ie…treat it like medicine. I would never drink colloidal silver, as an example. 

[bookbard]

There was a fascinating article in Guardian a few weeks back about people researching all this stuff including recipes from an Anglo-Saxon herb book. They discovered at least one recipe which worked brilliantly. They are scientists doing it scientifically btw, but what an interesting job it would be!

[Grace Hopper]

1 hour ago, prairiewindmomma said:

In addition to the above, Manuka honey is rated, for medical purposes, according to antibacterial strength. Some uses require a really high strength. You can Google and find charts. 
 

My position on traditional medicine is that it needs to be treated as such—subject to double blind testing for efficacy, counterindications studied, and some sort of measuring of dosage…ie…treat it like medicine. I would never drink colloidal silver, as an example. 

[Grace Hopper]

Ok so I couldn’t figure out how to add text after I added the images! Anyway, it looks like Trader Joe’s offers a 10+ UMF rating according to the chart is a nice topical with antibacterial qualities.  Just rubbed some on my hand. Getting ready to put some in my chamomile tea, too, because I’m curious about the taste. It’s thick stuff, reminds me of spun honey. 
 

The only downside is that it is pretty sticky, and I will probably need gloves to sleep with or it’ll be in my hair by morning, even though I applied it   sparingly. 
 

eta @prairiewindmommaI forgot to say that I’m with you, no drinking sketchy potions! But I think of all the generations that had no pharmaceuticals, only natural remedies. Where I grew up in the swamp, fisherman with just take out their knives and carve a little bark off of willow trees to chew on it for a headache. It would be nice if we could all be as smart about such folklore AND have unadulterated environmental sources to draw on.  

Edited April 13, 2023 by Grace Hopper

[gardenmom5]

My understanding has been honey has antimicrobial properties.

So does allicin - which is a compound in garlic.

[Arcadia]

Previous thread on manuka honey with recommendations 

 

 

[Grace Hopper]

Ok I apologize for taking over this thread but I’m kinda fascinated with this stuff. 
 

I did taste it and it has a very rick flavor. It seems weird to say, and maybe my taster is off because I had a smoothie with spinach and ginger for dinner, but it seems to have a teeny undertone of beer… a really good pilsner. But just barely, so don’t let that scare anyone off! Anyway, I put a tad in my hot chamomile and it is very nice. 

[Myra]

My son's surgeon recommended to apply honey for 3 weeks on the incision to prevent infections - but only to start using it 10 days after procedure. 

[skimomma]

Honey is my go to for burns.  Dd burned her arms very badly on a remote camping trip.  We were hours from a hospital.  Like many burns, they did not look terrible at first and I did the standard cleaning, anti-bacterial cream, "non-stick" pads, and wrapped it up.  The next morning, they were much worse and the weeping made the pads stick.  It was terrible.  A woman from a neighboring campsite came over and offered some raw honey and told us it would prevent the sticking because of the high-osmolarity properties as well as protect from infection due to the antibiotic properties.  She was right!  No more sticking and the burns were so healed by the time we got home that her doctor was shocked.  We use it for all burns and minor wounds now.

[Grace Hopper]

Significant overnight improvement to my hand abrasion!

[ktgrok]

I have a cyst/thing that I get sometimes in um...a nether region, and I have yet to find anything that helps much with these, other than maybe hibiclense used in the shower once a day. I may have to get some manuka honey to try.  Problem is that I have a feeling it isn't a true infection, so meh. 

[KSera]

12 minutes ago, ktgrok said:

I have a cyst/thing that I get sometimes in um...a nether region, and I have yet to find anything that helps much with these, other than maybe hibiclense used in the shower once a day. I may have to get some manuka honey to try.  Problem is that I have a feeling it isn't a true infection, so meh. 

It’s somewhat expensive, but you can get medical grade intended specifically for wounds. Amazon carries the Medihoney brand. It works very well. I don’t know if I missed it or if it hasn’t been mentioned in this thread, but the tree that bees use to make it is related to the kind of tree that tea tree oil comes from.

[BeachGal]

The majority of manuka honey on the market is not manuka honey at all and as bad as that is, some also contain ingredients that are not even honey. Before you buy, research and check the product out.

Manuka honey might also improve gut health. Some people swear by it.

A bit off topic but there’s an interesting documentary that dives into the problem of adulturated honey, not just manuka. Many honeys actually contain other types of sugar. China is behind some of this. I can’t remember the name of the movie but it might have honeygate in the title.

[ktgrok]

1 hour ago, KSera said:

It’s somewhat expensive, but you can get medical grade intended specifically for wounds. Amazon carries the Medihoney brand. It works very well. I don’t know if I missed it or if it hasn’t been mentioned in this thread, but the tree that bees use to make it is related to the kind of tree that tea tree oil comes from.

OH! I think I have some of that in the house somewhere! Where...that is the question. Oldest DS has a reaction to one of the ingredients in triple antibiotic ointments, so I have to use only bacitracin with him. But he balks at even that, fearful that maybe I'm wrong about which of the three is the issue (sigh). So "Santa" put a tube of medihoney in his stocking last year, so he'd have something that wasn't an antibiotic but would be better than the "do nothing" approach he typically took. 

I'll have to see if it is in his bathroom! Lord knows he likely never even opened it.