Skin Healing Properties of Active Manuka Honey
Honey has been used throughout the ages as a medicinal treatment for wounds and other topical skin conditions.
We don't know just when early man discovered the healing properties of honey. However evidence has been found to indicate that honey was used as an antibacterial agent by ancient Egyptians thousands of years before bacteria were discovered to be the cause of infections.
One of our first written accounts of using honey as a healing agent comes from Aristotle, who wrote that light honey was a good salve for sore eyes and wounds. A Greek physician, pharmacologist and botanist named Pedanius Dioscorides, who practiced in Rome around the time of Nero, traveled extensively throughout the Greek and Roman empires in search of medicinal substances. He is famous for writing a five volume book, De Materia Medica, which is a forerunner to all modern pharmacopeias and continues to this day to be one of the most influential books on herbal remedies in history. In his writings, Dioscorides described honey as being "good for all rotten and hollow ulcers".
Honey was still being used to treat wounds up through World War II, but with the arrival of penicillin and other Twentieth Century antibiotic drugs, the natural antibacterial properties of honey have largely been overlooked. Until recently.
Today we are entering another age of enlightenment. We are enjoying a rebirth of natural remedies and ingredients in response to the risks presented by questionable chemical ingredients in products that include the food we eat, the containers we use to package our food, and most recently the cosmetics and skin care we regularly slather on our bodies.
Coupled with evidence that our super drugs and soaps are actually increasing the risks to ourselves and our children by stimulating the natural development of super-bugs - bacteria that are becoming resistant to even the strongest of our antibacterials - the shift to effective natural remedies is becoming a stampede.
Honey has been found to inhibit some 60 species of bacteria. It also exhibits an antifungal response on some yeasts and species of Aspergillus and Penicillium, two of the most common. Dr Andrew Weil says in his November, 2006 newsletter Self Healing "Honey's antibacterial properties, due in part to its hydrogen peroxide content, help to quickly clear an infection and prevent new ones from developing. Honey stimulates the growth of skin tissue, reduces inflammation, and minimizes scarring, and it has the added benefit of creating a smoother surface between the wound and dressing. Since the wound is less likely to stick to the bandage, removing it is easier and less painful, and damage to the newly grown skin tissue is avoided."
"One recent review of 22 clinical trials concluded that honey typically shortened healing time on many types of wounds and provided people with better pain relief than antifungal creams or antibiotics. [1] In Bonn, Germany, researchers found that a product called Medihoney (which is waiting for FDA approval in the United States) can heal some wounds faster than most antibiotics. [2] Medihoney is made of different types of honey native to New Zealand and Australia, including manuka honey, which has a particularly strong antibacterial effect. Honey can also be a useful treatment for people who have built up a tolerance to certain antibiotics. (I know of no evidence that honey helps to heal wound when consumed as a sweetener.)"
The study Dr Weil refers to included 22 trials involving 2,062 patients treated with honey, as well as an additional 16 trials that were performed on experimental animals.
Honey was found to be beneficial as a wound dressing in the following ways:
- Honey's antibacterial quality not only rapidly clears existing infection, it protects wounds from additional infection
- Honey debrides wounds and removes malodor
- Honey's anti-inflammatory activity reduces edema and minimizes scarring
- Honey stimulates growth of granulation and epithelial tissues to speed healing.
1 International Journal of Lower Extremity Wounds, March 2006
2 Supportive Care in Cancer, January 2006.
