Honey - the best wound healer in the world?
Honey - the best wound healer in the world?
Have you ever guessed that this delicious food from bees is actually one of the oldest medicines known to mankind? Honey, which is 5,000 years old, has been successfully used to treat burns, coughs, and ulcers. Hippocrates, the Greek doctor, also praised the healing powers of honey and offered many honey treatments for ailments such as skin conditions, ulcers, and wounds.
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| Honey wound healer |
During World War I, German doctors used a mixture of honey and cod liver oil to treat gunshot wounds. According to John Riddle, professor of ancient science at North Carolina State University, it is a medical text on papyrus dating back to 3000 BC. specifies the use of honey for head injuries. He may say, "The honey helped prevent swelling and sealed the wound to keep out air and infection."
Recent research shows that honey is far superior to antiseptics and antibiotics. After two weeks of intravenous antibiotic treatment, they applied the sweet, sticky food to nine babies' wounds twice a day, and the daily antiseptic cleaning failed to heal them. After only five days of honey treatment, the babies' injuries improved significantly. After a further 16 days, they were closed, cleaned, and sterilized.
In a Yemeni study, honey was shown to have a significant advantage over antiseptics for infected surgical wounds. 50 women whose wounds were infected were divided into 2 groups. One group was treated with honey and the other with antiseptics. The patients in the honey group recovered between 7 and 11 days, while the antiseptic group took 12 to 27 days.
While modern antibiotics and creams can have healing effects, they have the disadvantage of killing tissue and causing scabs and scars. But how many of us would think of putting honey under that bandage or bandage? As in previous studies, the results of a three-year clinical study at the Calabar Teaching Hospital in Nigeria showed that raw honey can heal wounds when new dressings and antibiotic treatments fail. In 59 patients treated for external wounds and ulcers, honey was effective in all but one. To the researchers' surprise, topical applications kept the wounds sterile until they had time to heal, while the infected wounds became sterile within a week. Surprisingly, honey has even been shown to remove dead tissue from stubborn wounds, helping some patients avoid skin grafts or amputations.
According to the European Journal of Medical Research, topical honey has been shown to have beneficial effects on post-operative wound infections due to gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria following cesarean sections and hysterectomies.
The reason honey can stop infection can be quite simple. Regular honey holds backwater, so bacteria in a wound don't have enough water to multiply. The aqueous activity of honey inhibits bacterial growth. Additionally, honey's pH is between 3.2 and 4.5, which is low enough to stunt the growth of many common bacteria. However, it is believed that honey's main antibacterial activity is due to hydrogen peroxide, which is produced enzymatically. The content of hydrogen peroxide produced is antibacterial but does not damage cell tissue.
In July 2007, believe it or not, the United States Food and Drug Administration approved Derma Sciences, a New Jersey-based wound care product maker, to sell wound and burn dressings... Manuka as a medical device. Now manuka honey can officially be used in the US to treat wounds and burns. Manuka honey has been used as a dressing in the UK, Australia, and its native New Zealand for several years. Canada also approved its use as an antimicrobial dressing in early 2007. Honey was a standard conventional treatment for controlling infections until the early 20th century. With the advent of penicillin, its potent ability to cure honey began to fade from the public eye, and doctors were just too excited to use the new wonder drug.
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