Honey heals savage 'superbugs'

[fluffwad]

honey heals savage 'superbugs'

http://www.abc.net.au/southqld/stories/s1086885.htm

presenter: jenny swan

wednesday, 14 april 2004

the medicinal properties of some types of honeys are helping to fight superbugs like golden staphfor generations our mothers have been soothing our sore throats with a teaspoon of honey and lemon. and in recent years, research has revealed that this motherly remedy is more than just a wives tale.

the ceo of australian company medihoney, anthony moloney says the medicinal benefits of honey were almost forgotten.

"honey's been used for such a long time and it's so surprising that we forgot about it after the second world war," he says.

"it's quite exciting now to see some clinical evidence coming through to prove that honey is a good dressing for wounds."

recent clinical trials conducted by medihoney reveal that antibacterial honey inhibits the growth of a range of organisms in both slow-healing chronic wounds and post-surgery acute wounds, stimulating the healing process.

australia is in an unbeatable position to capitalise on the medicinal honey industry.

"australia is quite unique in that we have in excess of 20,000 flowering plants and ferns and because of that we have one of the greatest floral diversities in the world in terms of honey production," anthony says.

"so the honey industry funded research looking at different floral types and tried to find which honey from which trees had exceptional antibacterial activity. and we found that some trees had these really unique honeys that don't appear anywhere else in the world and they're the sort of that are screened and specially prepared for wound management."

in fact the queensland government has been so inspired by the healing properties of honey and its ability to protect against resistant superbugs, such as golden staph, that it has launched medihoney in the united kingdom as part of the smart state initiative.

the presence of 'superbugs' in uk hospitals has many concerned.

"all throughout the uk there's concern about the emergence of these superbugs and when i was over there, a report said that up to 100 people are dying each week of these superbugs," anthony says.

as such, anthony says patients in the uk are clamouring to be part of medihoney trials.

"we have another study over there [in the uk] dealing with two hundred patients which is looking at the healing of chronic wounds with healing rates of honey compared to conventional treatments. the only difficulty we have with this is that most people wanting to go onto the honey group rather than the control group."

and while the honey we put on our toast probably won't cure too many ills, it's a nice thought that a few of the sweeter things in life can be used to produce such positive results.

- online story by jess daly

[RosesrReder, BSN, MSN, RN]

Very interesting post, thanks fluffwad :)

[elkpark]

It's not just honey, and it's not new information (although I'm sure there are health food people out there who would contend that honey has "special" properties, and that may be true -- I don't know) It's been known for a long time that bacterial growth is inhibited in high sugar content media (this is why jams and jellies last so long in the fridge without growing stuff! :chuckle )

Any other old-timers here who remember the era when we used to pack pressure sores with sugar to keep them from getting infected? And, when I was in nursing school, some orthopedic surgeons used to pack hip ORIFs or replacements with sugar before they closed up, because the sugar was supposed to help prevent post-op infection.

If you wait around long enough, everything cycles back around again ...