The Honey Prescription The Amazing Power of Honey as
Medicine
Visit the link below to download the full version of this book:
https://medipdf.com/product/the-honey-prescription-the-amazing-power-of-honey-as
-medicine/
Click Download Now
This book is dedicated with affection to my aunt and uncle, Mildred and
Michael I. Aissen.
Disclaimer
The author of this book is not a physician. The following material is presented in the
spirit of historical, philosophical, and scientific inquiry and is not offered as medical
advice, diagnosis, or treatment of any kind. Those who wish to treat themselves with
honey to cure a serious infection or other major health problem should do so only
under the supervision of a qualified health care practitioner.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank the following individuals for sending me copies of
their research papers: Ali Al-Jabri, Joy Bardy, Shona Blair, Phil G. Bowler,
Katrina Brudzynski, Neil Burton, Dee Carter, Rose Cooper, Ilteris Ensen,
Jed W. Fahey, Peter Gallman, Ülkü Yapucu Günes, Ronald Ingle, Diane
Langemo, Ahmad Mansour, Eraldo Medeiros Costa-Neto, Thangam Menon,
Subramanian Natarajan, Aykut Misirlioglu, Rosa Ana Perez martin, Faisal
Rauf, Arne Simon, Peter Taormina, Alex Tonks, and Jenny Wilkinson.
I also thank the following for providing (and for permission to use)
illustrations: The Town of Fahler, Alberta, for the “World’s Biggest Bee”
photo; Ronald Appleton of Appleton Galleries (Vancouver, BC) and Rupert
Scow Jr. for permission to reproduce the photograph of Mr. Scow’s
wonderful Bee mask, along with thanks to Sara Wark for taking the photo.
I would also like to thank the following members of my family and my
friends for their encouragement, ideas, and support: Judith L. Aissen, Rudy
Chapman, Edward Gasser, Mark E. Graboyes, Elizabeth and John Sell, Shi-
Wei Shei, and Vincent Hsieh.
I am grateful to my literary agent, Stephany Evans of FinePrint Literary
Management in New York City, who inspired me to write this book, for her
continuous support and suggestions during its preparation.
Finally, special thanks go to Dr. Peter C. Molan, director of the Honey
Research Unit at the University of Waikato in New Zealand, for his
generosity in supplying me with research material and for his many hours
of consultation and advice.
World’s biggest bee. Photo courtesy of the Town of Fahler (Alberta, Canada).
CONTENTS
Cover Image
Title Page
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Introduction
PART I
Grounding
1 Who are the Honeybees?
Honeybee Anatomy
Life in Honeybee Society
Honeybee Memory
Bee Communication
How the Bees Make Honey
Extracting the Honey
2 Honey: Gift of the Gods
Honey: The Definition
Honey: Two Basic Types
Honey Purity
Pre- and Probiotics
Antioxidant Activity
Hydrogen Peroxide Activity
Non–Hydrogen Peroxide Antibacterial Activity
On the Market
Where Does Your Honey Come From?
3 Sacred Bee, Sacred Honey
A Distinguished Ancestry
The Arrival of Apis mellifera
The First Honey Hunters
Honey in History: The First Beekeepers
Honey in the Middle Ages
Bees and Honey in the New World
The Arrival of Apis mellifera to America
Native Americans and Honey
Australia and New Zealand
The Honeybee Today
4 Honey in Medicine
Egypt
Greece
Rome
Ancient Israel
India
Traditional Chinese Medicine
Healing Honey in Islam
Medieval Europe
Finland
Ireland and America
Contemporary Folk Medicine
PART I I
Honey as Healer
5 How Does Honey Heal?
Honey and Bacteria: The Scientific Research
Honey: a Broad-spectrum Killer of Bacteria
Honey as Bactericide
The Problem with Wounds
The Power of Osmosis
Honey: Low pH for Health
Hydrogen Peroxide
H2O2 and Honey
Varying Antibacterial Potential
Phytochemical Factors
The Antioxidant Capacity of Honey
Honey Antioxidant Research
Which Honeys Have More Antibacterial Activity?
The Power of Manuka
Methylglyoxal
The Properties of Manuka
The Testing Criteria
What Do the UMF Ratings Mean?
Medical Grade Manuka
6 How Honey Treats Wounds
Doctors Take Another Look
What Kinds of Wounds Can Honey Treat?
Antibacterial Activity
Honey and Emergency First Aid
Enhanced Immune System Activity
Deodorization
Wound Debridement
Anti-inflammatory Action
Reduced Scarring
New Tissue Growth
Honey: The Downsides
7 The Clinical Evidence
Chronic Wounds Resistant to Healing
Pressure Ulcers
Postsurgical Wounds
Studies among Cancer Patients
Meningococcal Septicemia
Honey and Milk against Staphylococcus aureus Infection
Herpes
Research among Gold Miners
Studies with Patented Honey Dressings
After Nail Bed Surgery
MRSA-infected Wounds
Which Honey Is Best for Wound Healing?
Two Suggested Protocols
8 Honey for Burns
Problems in Treating Burns
How Honey Works to Help Heal Burns
Clinical Evidence: The India Trials
Burns and Pseudomonas aeruginosa
Honey versus Pseudomonas
Toward the Future
9 Honey and Internal Disorders
Honey and Cough
Honey and Intestinal Disorders
Salmonella
Infantile Gastroenteritis
Dyspepsia and Stomach Ulcers
Cystic Fibrosis
Hemorrhoids
Honey: a Possible Cure for Yeast Infection?
10 Honey in Oral Health and Ophthalmology
Can Honey Fight Tooth Decay?
Potential for Honey in Dentistry
Honey: Good for the Eyes?
11 Honey: Safe for Infants? Safe for Diabetics?
A Difference of Opinion
Recommendations
Is Honey Safe for Diabetics?
Honey and the Glycemic Index
The Dubai Studies
The India Study
The Karachi Study
A View from the Diet and Human Performance Laboratory—USDA
Recommendations
12 Honey and Wellness
Honey and Sound Nutrition
Honey: A Source of Bioavailable Antioxidants
Honey and Calcium Absorption
Honey and Selenium Absorption
Honey, Prebiotics, and Friendly Bacteria
Honey and Sports Nutrition
Honey: Key to a Restful Night’s Sleep?
13 The Future of Honey Research
The First International Symposium on Honey and Human Health
The Predictions of Dr. Noori S. Al-Waili, M.D.
Waikato Honey Research Unit
Future Acceptance?
PART I I I
Honey Remedies and Recipies: A Selected Compendium for
Health, Wellness, and Beauty
14 Honey Remedies
External Applications
Internal Applications
15 Honey: Key to Beauty
Honey Treatments for the Skin
PART I V
Bees and the Future
16 A Threatened Species
A Multifaceted Syndrome
A Virus and a Mite
Stress and the Traveling Honeybee
Guest Workers from Abroad
The Weather
Poor Nutrition
Diseases
Pesticides
17 Restore the Environment, Protect the Bees
Protecting Honeybees from Pesticides
Creating a Welcoming Habitat for Honeybees and Other Pollinators
Conservation or Restoration?
Leave the Trees
Creating Bee Nesting Habitats
Encourage Diversity
Conclusion
Appendix: Honey Varieties
Resources
Books
Organizations and Blogs
Where to Find Medicinal Honey
Glossary
Footnotes
Endnotes
About the Author
About Inner Traditions • Bear & Company
Books of Related Interest
Copyright & Permissions
INTRODUCTION
Like many people, I’m fascinated by honeybees and have been since
childhood. I grew up on a three-acre “rocky farm” in upstate New York,
with early memories of a rustic beehive that the previous owners attached to
an old locust tree at the edge of our property. Every spring the bees would
leave the hive and visit the blossoming peach trees, apple trees, and
blackberry bushes on the hill behind our farmhouse. We also found them
taking nectar from the forsythia, lilac, and rose bushes that bloomed in the
yard. Like most boys raised in the country, my brother and I built lookouts
and forts and often hiked through the property, where invariably we’d cross
paths with bees and wasps. Yet unlike the wasps and yellow jackets that
would often pursue and sometimes sting us, the honeybees tended to go
about their business and left us alone.
Over the years I have written a number of books about natural and
alternative healing, and my book The Oxygen Prescription (Healing Arts
Press, 2007) focused on the therapeutic value of ozone and hydrogen
peroxide. Our body naturally produces small amounts of hydrogen peroxide
to help protect us from disease. Hydrogen peroxide not only helps
oxygenate the body but also has the capacity to stimulate oxidative enzymes
or proteins that accelerate oxidative reactions. They, in turn, can destroy
viruses and bacteria. This is one reason why physicians have clinically
administered small amounts of hydrogen peroxide (usually diluted in a
standard saline solution) to patients as a healing agent for more than a
hundred years.
I was surprised to learn that honey contains an enzyme that can actually
help produce low yet continuous levels of hydrogen peroxide. This has been
found to be a major reason for honey’s legendary ability to kill bacteria,
viruses, and fungi.
Buckwheat field. Photo by Hideo Sakata.
The use of honey as a healing agent is nothing new. It was an ingredient
in medicinal compounds and cures made by Egyptian physicians five
thousand years ago. In India ayurvedic physicians recommended using
honey to promote good health, while the ancient Greeks believed that honey
could promote both virility and longevity. Traditional Chinese healers
started using honey thousands of years ago, and it continues to make up an
important part of Chinese medicine today.
Although several hundred articles on the medicinal value of honey
appeared in medical and scientific journals between 1935 and 1990,
scientific research was often overlooked by physicians who focused on
antibiotics, antivirals, and other drugs to treat human disease.
But with the rapidly increasing spread of superbugs like methicillin-
resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), vancomycin-resistant enterococci
(VRE), various strains of extended-spectrum beta-lactamases (ESBLs), and
other microbes like Pseudomonas and coagulase-negative staphylococci
that are becoming resistant to antibiotics, modern medicine has taken a
second look at the healing properties of honey.
Scientists have found that honey has a powerful inhibitory effect on no
fewer than sixty species of bacteria. Many of these bacteria are
notoriously resistant to antibiotics, but they are powerless against the
antibacterial properties of honey.
