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 impartial when early man discovered the healing properties of honey, but evidence has been found to indicate that honey was used as an antibacterial makin's 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 portion comes from Aristotle, who wrote that radiant honey was a good liniment 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 neighborhood book, De Materia Medica, which is a chief to all latest 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 War II, but with the triumph of penicillin and other Twentieth Century antibiotic drugs, the natural antibacterial properties of honey have largely been overlooked. Until recently.
Today we are inward and age of enlightenment. We are enjoying a rebirth of natural remedies and ingredients in response to the risks presented by occult chemical ingredients in products that have the food we eat, the containers we use to box our food, and most recently the cosmetics and skin care we oftentimes slather on our rabble.
Coupled with evidence that our super drugs and soaps are actually boost 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 type 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 likewise benefit of creating a smoother surface between the slash and flavouring. Since the gash 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 calamity completed that honey typically shortened healing time on many types of wounds and provided people with better pain relief than antifungal creams or antibiotics ( International Periodical of Lower Extremity Wounds, Tread 2006 ). In Bonn, Germany, researchers found that a product called Medihoney ( which is waiting for FDA oral in the United States ) can heal some wounds faster than most antibiotics ( Profitable 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 strapping antibacterial outgrowth. 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 incision when tuckered out as a sweetener. ) ”
The study Dr. Weil refers to included 22 disaster involving 2, 062 patients treated with honey, as well as an further 16 blow that were performed on practical animals. Honey was found to be beneficial as a gash flavouring in the following ways:
• Honey ' s antibacterial quality not only briskly clears existing infection, it protects wounds from supplementary infection
• Honey debrides wounds and removes malodor
• Honey ' s anti - inflammatory exertion 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, as the bees add an enzyme that makes hydrogen peroxide, but we still sanctuary ' t managed to identify the active components. All we know is ( the honey ) works on an totally 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 actuality, 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 wind like that ever been found anywhere else in the world. We know it has a very broad spectrum of operation. It works on bacteria, fungi, protozoa. We refuge ' t found situation 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 existence by comparing the healing properties of other honeys with manuka honey. But he has given the unknown ingredient a name: individual manuka thing, or UMF.
Dr. Molan says UMF manuka honey can even handgrip antibiotic - sinewy strains of bacteria. " Staphylococcus aureas is the most common wound - infecting species of bacteria, and that ' s the most susceptible to honey that we ' ve found. And that includes the antibiotic fibrous strains - the MRSA - which is objective as allergic to honey as any other staphylococcus aureas. "
According to the University of Waikato, there are four main components that reveal the natural antibacterial animation of honey.
1. Osmotic reflex: The high sugar ecstatic of honey means that there are very few water molecules available making it hard for micro - organisms to install. In precisely ripened honey, no yeast genre are powerhouse to grow and the growth of many type of bacteria is totally inhibited.
2. Acidity: The pH of honey is characteristically absolutely low ( 3. 2 - 4. 5 ), which is low enough to inhibit many misshapen pathogens and and so be a forceful antibacterial component.
3. Hydrogen Peroxide: When bees are turning nectar to honey they duck a glucose oxidase enzyme. One of the by products of the virtuous enterprise is hydrogen peroxide. When honey is diluted enzyme enterprise increases giving a ' stormless finish ' antiseptic at a level which is antibacterial but not tissue inappropriate.
4. Phytochemical Factors: The ultra factors cannot balance for all of the antibacterial life seen. There have been several chemicals with antibacterial exercise isolated in honey ( penetrate Waikato Honey Research Unit ' s website for additional information ) by various researchers. This may translate the high level of exercise practical in Manuka honey.
The University’s Honey Research Unit adds “Honey has an antibacterial exercise, due primarily to hydrogen peroxide formed in a " slow - release " manner by the enzyme glucose oxidase under consideration in honey, which can vary widely in potency. Some honeys are no more antibacterial than sugar, while others can be diluted more than 100 - flock and still halt the growth of bacteria. The difference in potency of antibacterial exertion found among the different honeys is more than 100 - canton. ” Active Manuka honey has the highest antibacterial liveliness ever observed 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 products 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 term that Apicare’s Manuka honey personal care products are being offered in the United States. Apicare. net is the exclusive distributor for their entire line of products in the US – which comprises eleven separate and distinct multi - product merchandise – all based on Active manuka honey. Consumers can find Apicare products in stores throughout the country and Apicare hotelier Pam Reade says, “If your store doesn’t bear our products, even-handed direct. They will soon. ”
Customers who are Internet savvy can purchase instantly from the one website in the US that sells at the retail level promptly to tribe – Vashon Organics. Senior Partner at Vashon Organics, Desiree Nelson, says “The Apicare line is plainly incredible. We have never empirical a product like this before – a personal care line that can repair your skin while it soothes and smoothes. ”
