Honey making a medical comeback

Everyone who did not know honey is an antibiotic, raise your hand or go ‘huh’ or something like that. I am as surprised as I’m sure a lot of people are to learn this.

Ancient Egyptians, creative and curious individuals that they were, used to dress wounds with honey. Whether they thought it was natures glue or understood how it works remains a mystery. Why they started using this in the first place as a band-aid is unknown.

Derma Sciences Inc., a New Jersey company that makes medicated and other advanced wound care products, began selling the first honey-based dressing this fall after it was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Their product is called Medihoney, what else, and is made from a seaweed-based material that is saturated with manuka honey.

Manuka honey, to be specific, is collected from the flower of the wild tea tree bush (leptospermum scoparium).

Evidently, the rest of the world has known about its healing, antiseptic properties for quite some time. Australians and New Zealanders have been using it to treat their patients for decades.

Since ancient times honey has been used as a natural medicine in many cultures. The antibacterial properties of honey however have only been discovered a century ago.

Why does it seem the U.S. is always last to learn of these things? I think it is because Americans are too egotistical about their medical professional to think that something natural could work just as well if not better than whatever medical science forces on us. And of course advertisers play a very large hand in this.

Honey in fact inhibits a broad spectrum of bacteria. Some reports even show an anti-fungal activity in honey. Some honeys will work better than others though. The Honey Research Unit at the Waikato University in New Zealand is constantly researching honey as a therapeutic agent.

“The reason that Medihoney is so exciting is that antibiotics are becoming ineffective at fighting pathogens," said Derma Sciences CEO Ed Quilty. This is what happens when our bodies are constantly filled with unnatural chemical agents. The body simply reacts better to natural treatments.

Another big advantage, he said, is that the dressings' germ-fighting and fluid-absorbing effects last up to a week, making them convenient for patients being cared for at outpatient clinics or by visiting nurses. They also reduce inflammation and can eliminate the foul odors of infected wounds.

Regular honey can have mild medicinal benefits. A study published Dec. 3 showed it helps to calm children's coughs so they can sleep. But manuka honey is far more potent, research shows.

Medihoney dressing can also prevent the dangerous drug-resistant staph infection known as MRSA from infecting open wounds.

Manuka honey can kill the toughest bacteria even when diluted 10 times and it is recommended especially for people with weak immune systems.

This is used as a barrier to keep infections out, it won’t work if the infection is already in the blood.

Some U.S. hospitals and wound care clinics are already using Medihoney dressings to treat patients with stubborn, infected wounds from injuries or surgical incisions and nonhealing pressure ulcers on diabetics' feet, which too often lead to amputations.

David Crosby, a retired insurance claims examiner from Hanover, Massachusetts, began using Medihoney two months ago on a 2 1/2-year-old burn on his leg after high-tech treatments did not help. The burn's size has shrunk by half and it continues to heal.

At a military clinic for Iraqi children, Medihoney was used on patients with severe burns from cooking fuels, open fires and explosions. Iraqi families soon preferred the honey over other treatments because it was natural and because the honey dressings don't need to be changed as often as traditional ones. The children also healed more quickly and with fewer complications.

This is yet another example of how nature has what we need to survive if we would only continue to look for it. Just because medicine is modern doesn’t mean it is better.

We need to look more closely at what we can do to preserve what nature is left on this Earth as a means of helping ourselves in the long run.