The Healing Power of Honey

Yummy honey — it's not just for sweetening your morning tea or hot biscuits. In its raw form, research is proving that this lovely sweet foodstuff made by honeybees is an antimicrobial agent that can actually help wounds heal and improve certain health conditions.

Honey was used in ancient Egypt, Rome and Greece as a topical treatment for scrapes and cuts, both to cure and prevent infection. The Egyptians used honey in a wide variety of applications, including preservation of pharaohs that were mummified. Cleopatra was said to use honey as part of her skin-care regimen. The knowledge of the healing and nurturing properties of honey that began with ancient civilizations was passed down through the centuries.

Today, we know that honey will soothe a sore throat and relieve some of the discomfort brought on by the common cold or flu, among other things.

"Raw" honey is honey in its natural state that has not undergone any type of processing for commercial packaging.  (Processed honey has been pasteurized, mainly to minimize crystallization, but the high temperature of the process can also destroy the product's beneficial enzymes.)

Raw honey can supply our bodies with energy, as well as those helpful enzymes and a number of important nutrients such as vitamins, minerals and amino acids.  It can also be applied externally to aid in the healing process on humans — and animals. For example, researchers at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center on Jekyll Island are using raw honey to treat deep gashes found on loggerhead turtles.

According to the center's website (www.georgiaseaturtlecenter.org), honey actually pulls debris and fluid out of a wound because of its high glucose content — an enzyme called glucose oxidase converts the glucose to hydrogen peroxide, a bubbly infection fighter we humans purchase in bottled form from our local pharmacies.

Honey's medicinal properties have also been found to help human ailments such as minor burns, cuts, cold sores and even shingles. A quick search of the Internet yields a wealth of sites with information about raw honey and its healing properties.

 Dr. Joseph M. Mercola, an osteopathic physician who publishes a widely distributed free natural health newsletter weekly through his website, www.mercola.com, hails raw honey as an alternative to antibiotics because of its anti-infection and anti-inflammatory properties.  He cites the moderate use of raw honey for treating everything from burns and scrapes to colds and insomnia.

So, the next time you open your medicine cabinet to search for something to aid indigestion, soothe a sore throat or heal a cut, you may want to head over to your local farmer's market or organic foods store for some honey instead.  and  in Johns Creek would be great places to purchase your honey. Be sure to purchase it raw, though — and save the commercially processed honey for your sweet tooth!