Does It Really Have To Be Manuka Honey?

Disclaimer.  I am not a licensed health practitioner.  This is just another post on knowledge and understanding you might wish to acquire in advance of a disaster in case no higher care is available.  As long as our society is functioning, you should leave anything more substantial than applying a Band-Aid to the professionals.  No medication, including those available over the counter, should be taken without consulting a physician.  Information shared here is for educational and entertainment purposes only.  It is not medical advice nor a substitute for licensed medical care. 

I hate to admit it, but it's true.  I have some pet peeves.

One of them involves people who just agree with what the loudest voices are saying (or writing), without even blinking or thinking about it.  Like most of our society.

Some of those voices in the prepper world shout that you have to have manuka honey for your medical needs.

So what, exactly, is manuka honey?  Manuka honey is made by honey bees foraging on the manuka tree, also called the tea tree.  Those with even a passing familiarity with essential oils know that tea tree oil is used a lot in treating skin issues.  Manuka honey is what has been promoted as the gold standard in medicinal honeys.  And it costs about as much as the yellow precious metal, at least when wound dressings are made with it or it is packaged as "medical grade."

So what do doctors who are teaching others how best to prepare for their own medical issues have to say about manuka honey?

In his book The Survival Medicine Handbook, Dr. Joseph Alton writes that any raw, unprocessed honey will do.  In Armageddon Medicine Dr. Cynthia Koelker has at least a dozen references to using honey.  She indicates that medical grade honey or standard clover honey may be used.  (And when she burned herself at home, what did she use?  A packet of honey from KFC--yeah, Kentucky Fried Chicken.)  Sam Coffman, author of The Herbal Medic, suggests only that manuka may possibly be better.  And Dr. Steve Pehrson said that any raw, unprocessed honey will work.  So then I had to ask him about some of my honey, which is over forty years old and totally crystallized.  And he said it was just fine.  Dr. Stephen Buhner, author of Herbal Antibiotics, suggests that any raw wildflower honey should be just fine, but that it would be best to avoid grocery store clover and alfalfa honeys, as these are more likely to be contaminated with pesticides.

Yes, as a matter of fact, most (but not all!) clinical studies are conducted with manuka honey.  When conducting these studies, scientists have to reduce the number of variables as much as possible.  But remember, manuka honey comes only from New Zealand, and yet people have been using honey medicinally for thousands of years.  They sure as heck weren't traveling all the way to New Zealand to get it.  They used what they had, which was what was being produced locally.  You can, too.  Maybe it is slightly less strong.  Like 99 is slightly less than 100.  That's about the difference, if it's even that great.  If you think it will make a difference, you could even add a drop or two of tea tree oil to your honey. 

In short, don't be suckered by the manuka honey hype. Save yourself a wad of dough and use those funds for other medical preps.

Oh, and one more thing, in case you're wondering if there is any honey that is harmful.  Actually, there is.  Apparently, the honey from some Rhododendron species in Nepal may cause "mad honey poisoning," so when you're in Nepal, make sure your honey is not from rhododendrons. 

Links to related posts:
Alternative Medicine--Honey

For further reading:
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/02/20/the-natural-way-to-speed-wound-healing.aspx
https://www.buzzaboutbees.net/manuka-honey-wound.html
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19559969


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2 august 2021