Incredible 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 virtuous when early man discovered the healing properties of honey, but evidence has been found to indicate that honey was used as an antibacterial item 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 point comes from Aristotle, who wrote that sunny honey was a good emollient for sore eyes and wounds. A Greek physician, pharmacologist and ecologist 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 vicinity book, De Materia Medica, which is a foreman to all current 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 grotto ulcers ".
Honey was still being used to treat wounds up through World Combat II, but with the killing of penicillin and other Twentieth Century antibiotic drugs, the natural antibacterial properties of honey have principally been overlooked. Until recently.
Today we are inflowing massed age of enlightenment. We are enjoying a rebirth of natural remedies and ingredients in response to the risks presented by paradoxical chemical ingredients in products that build the food we eat, the containers we use to package our food, and most recently the cosmetics and skin care we ofttimes slather on our hoi polloi.
Coupled with evidence that our super drugs and soaps are actually maturing the risks to ourselves and our children by stimulating the natural augmenting 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 sort of bacteria. It also exhibits an antifungal response on some yeasts and genus 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 amassed benefit of creating a smoother surface between the gash and relish. Since the slash is less likely to stick to the bandage, removing it is easier and less challenging, and damage to the newly grown skin tissue is avoided. ”
“One recent review of 22 clinical mishap wrapped up that honey typically shortened healing time on many types of wounds and provided people with better pain relief than antifungal creams or antibiotics ( International Journal of Lower Extremity Wounds, Tread 2006 ). In Bonn, Germany, researchers found that a product called Medihoney ( which is waiting for FDA try in the United States ) can heal some wounds faster than most antibiotics ( Supportive Care in Cancer, January 2006 ). Medihoney is made of different types of honey native to New Zealand and Australia, including manuka honey, which has a particularly strong antibacterial waves. 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 cut when run-down as a sweetener. ) ”
The study Dr. Weil refers to included 22 catastrophe involving 2, 062 patients treated with honey, as well as an fresh 16 tragedy that were performed on seen animals. Honey was found to be beneficial as a cut relish in the following ways:
• Honey ' s antibacterial quality not only quickly clears existing infection, it protects wounds from supplementary infection
• Honey debrides wounds and removes malodor
• Honey ' s anti - inflammatory labor reduces edema and minimizes scarring
• Honey stimulates growth of granulation and epithelial tissues to speed healing
The review article for the study was written by Dr. Peter Molan, director of the Honey Research Unit at New Zealand ' s University of Waikato. Dr. Molan says " All honey is antibacterial, whereas the bees add an enzyme that makes hydrogen peroxide, but we still sanctum ' t managed to identify the active components. All we know is ( the honey ) works on an remarkably broad spectrum. "
Dr. Molan’s research has shown that honey made from the flowers of the Manuka tree ( Leptospermum scoparium ), a bushy tree native to New Zealand, has antibacterial properties that are much higher than any other honeys’. In truth, Dr. Molan estimates that active manuka honey could exhibit healing properties up to 100 times more than other honeys.
Dr. Molan says " In all honeys, there is, to different levels, hydrogen peroxide produced from an enzyme that bees add to the nectar. In manuka honey, there ' s something else besides the hydrogen peroxide. And there ' s aught like that ever been found anywhere else in the world. We know it has a very broad spectrum of game. It works on bacteria, fungi, protozoa. We sanctuary ' t found form it doesn ' t work on among infectious organisms. "
After nineteen years of research, the “something else” Dr. Molan refers to remains unknown. He has been unable to identify it, even while observing its phenomenon by comparing the healing properties of other honeys with manuka honey. But he has given the unknown ingredient a name: unrepeated manuka makin's, or UMF.
Dr. Molan says UMF manuka honey can even knob antibiotic - tight strains of bacteria. " Staphylococcus aureas is the most common cleft - infecting type of bacteria, and that ' s the most susceptible to honey that we ' ve found. And that includes the antibiotic hardened strains - the MRSA - which is lawful as hypersensitive to honey as any other staphylococcus aureas. "
According to the University of Waikato, there are four main components that teach the natural antibacterial motion of honey.
1. Osmotic reflex: The high sugar gratified of honey means that there are very few water molecules available forging it laborious for micro - organisms to install. In without reservation ripened honey, no yeast genre are practical to grow and the growth of many sort of bacteria is fully inhibited.
2. Acidity: The pH of honey is characteristically fairly low ( 3. 2 - 4. 5 ), which is low enough to inhibit many grotesque pathogens and consequently be a forceful antibacterial agent.
3. Hydrogen Peroxide: When bees are turning nectar to honey they stifle a glucose oxidase enzyme. One of the by products of the capable vim is hydrogen peroxide. When honey is diluted enzyme liveliness increases giving a ' soothing loss ' antiseptic at a level which is antibacterial but not tissue star-crossed.
4. Phytochemical Factors: The primary factors cannot invoice for all of the antibacterial animation seen. There have been several chemicals with antibacterial life isolated in honey ( peer Waikato Honey Research Unit ' s website for fresh information ) by various researchers. This may read the high level of life observed in Manuka honey.
The University’s Honey Research Unit adds “Honey has an antibacterial exertion, due primarily to hydrogen peroxide formed in a " slow - release " practice by the enzyme glucose oxidase in duration in honey, which can vary widely in potency. Some honeys are no more antibacterial than sugar, while others can be diluted more than 100 - district and still halt the growth of bacteria. The difference in potency of antibacterial animation found among the different honeys is more than 100 - parish. ” Active Manuka honey has the highest antibacterial hustle ever heuristic in a honey.
Apicare / Honey & Herbs Ltd of Auckland, New Zealand, recognized the healing benefits of applying manuka honey to the epidermis and created an entire line of products that incorporate the antibacterial properties to their best advantage. Apicare’s produce of lotions, balms, creams, moisturizers, shampoos and conditioners all use Active manuka honey as a base. Not surprisingly, the results are as astonishing as the research would seem to predict.
2006 marks the first lastingness that Apicare’s Manuka honey personal care products are being offered in the United States. Apicare. snare is the exclusive distributor for their entire line of products in the US – which comprises eleven separate and distinct multi - product commodities – all based on Active manuka honey. Consumers can find Apicare products in stores throughout the country and Apicare host Pam Reade says, “If your store doesn’t move our products, trustworthy hunt for. They will soon. ”
Customers who are Internet savvy can purchase instanter from the one website in the US that sells at the retail level straightaway to persons – Vashon Organics. Senior Partner at Vashon Organics, Desiree Nelson, says “The Apicare line is aptly incredible. We have never practical a product like this before – a personal care line that can repair your skin while it soothes and smoothes. ”
