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


© 2019, PrepSchoolDaily.blogspot.com  

2 august 2021

The Medicinal Uses of Honey

Disclaimer.  I am not a licensed health practitioner.  This is just another post on an item you might wish to have available if needed so that a physician can treat you and your family as best as possible.  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.  A qualified, licensed physician or other medical provider should be consulted before beginning any herbal or conventional treatment.

A simple online search for the medicinal uses of honey yields dozens of hits, if not hundreds, including all the health benefits of honey.  It's touted for helping with all manner of problems, from acne to weight loss.  We'll stick with what honey is most especially used for in a true medicinal sense when our society has collapsed.  After all, our honey supply may be limited and taking a teaspoon every day for allergies or in the evening to sleep better will exhaust our stores quickly.

First off, studies have shown that honey is more effective at quieting a cough in children than any over-the-counter cough syrup. Parents also reported that their children slept better.  (However, honey should never, under any circumstance, be given to a child under 12 months of age.)  In addition, it should be noted that the FDA has recommended removing many children's OTC cough syrups from the shelves because of adverse reactions.  Fortunately, we have honey, which is safer, more effective, and cheaper.  Just a teaspoon or two is all that is needed.  And it works for adults as well.  Also, honey tea does a tremendous job soothing sore throats.  Just remember, when making your tea, boil the water first, remove from heat, and then add the honey.  Boiling the honey itself will reduce or entirely negate many of its medicinal qualities.

Dr. Joseph Alton, author of The Survival Medicine Handbook, notes that honey was used to treat asthma in the 19th century.  Patients were directed to breathe deeply from a jar of honey, and improvement usually occurred within a few minutes.  To decrease the number of future episodes, doctors advised drinking one teaspoon of honey in twelve ounces of water three times per day.

As far as healing wounds goes, honey works in much the same manner as sugar, which was discussed last week.  Wounds, especially chronic wounds that aren't healing, have an alkaline pH, which provides an ideal breeding ground for bacteria, especially MRSA.  Honey (and sugar) are acidic, so they alter the pH and this kills the bacteria.  Honey may be spread directly on a wound and over the surrounding edges, but it will probably be more comfortable for the patient if the honey is spread on some gauze first and then applied to the wound. 

Honey is also an excellent treatment for burns, whether first- or second-degree, and may even be used with third-degree burns when there is no higher care available.  After the burned area has been cooled with running water for 15 minutes (not just immersing the wound in water, but running water), apply a generous amount of honey.  For third-degree burns, make sure this is very thick and covering the entire burn.  Per Dr. Alton, cover the honey with cling plastic wrap (the colored stuff found around Easter and Christmas is thicker and easier to manage) or a waterproof dressing and tape in place.  If the dressing begins to fill with oozing fluid, change the dressing.  The worse the burn, the more often the dressing will need to be changed, but make sure to change the dressing at least three times per day.  Continue for at least seven to ten days.  Do not wash off the honey for at least 20 days (unless the burn has healed).  Add more honey as needed, always making sure that there is a thick layer that goes beyond the edges of the burn to prevent infection and promote healing. 

So what kind of honey should you use?  What is best?

You can buy ridiculously over-priced manuka or Medihoney if that makes you more comfortable.  Manuka is what is most often used in medical studies.  But regular doctors like Dr. Alton and those who have taught the classes I attended say we can use any pure, raw honey.  Your best bet for getting real raw honey is going to be from a local beekeeper.  An awful lot of grocery store honey is adulterated with high fructose corn syrup, glucose solutions, or even just water.  There are numerous tests you can perform at home to determine if your honey is pure or adulterated, but I'm not going to go into those.  For me, the true test, the easy test, is if the honey has crystallized either partially or completely.  The fake stuff will never crystallize.  The real stuff almost always will eventually.

A couple of years ago my in-laws were going through their old food storage and were getting rid of two forty-year-old four-gallon tins of honey.  They were planning to give it to their youngest daughter to feed her livestock.  Fortunately, my husband stopped by first and brought them home for us.  (We have livestock, too, but not as much as his sister.)  And to heck with the livestock, that honey was for us.  So I asked Dr. Steve about using this really old honey medicinally on wounds.  His reply was that as long as it was pure (the honey was completely crystallized), there was no problem at all.  

In our trailer this summer, I found some older, unopened one-ounce jars of honey that I had totally forgotten about.  They're the little jars that come in gift baskets, or with room service in a hotel.  Anyway, they had partially crystallized, so I knew they were pure and put them in our medical kit.  If you have some jars or packets of honey lying around at home and you're wondering about whether they're pure, try putting them in the fridge or freezer.  If they are pure honey, they will crystallize.

Note, again.  Honey should never be given to children under the age of twelve months. 

For further reading:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18666717
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15944502
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23216146
https://www.livescience.com/7446-honey-works-cough-medicine.html
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/293638941_Medicinal_Uses_of_Honey

30 january 2023