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Because so much and so many antibiotics have been used in raising livestock (they feed the stock with it), this over-use has created strains of antibiotic resistant ‘super bugs’.
Now scientists have renewed their studies of the natural antibiotic that has been around longer than the human race. This natural antibiotic is honey. “In fact, honey was traditionally used to fight infection up until around the early 20th century. Around this time, honey was forgotten and predominantly replaced with penicillin, but is now regaining its former popularity as the world continues to become more conscious to the dangers of pharmaceutical drug use (which now kill more individuals per year than traffic accidents).” - Anthony Gucciardi, editor of “Natural Society”.
The journal Microbiology reports that: “In lab tests, just a bit of the honey killed off the majority of bacterial cells — and cut down dramatically on the stubborn biofilms they formed. It could also be used to prevent wounds from becoming infected in the first place.”
Manuka Honey
“Fifteen antibiotics were tested with and without sublethal concentrations of manuka honey against each of MRSA and Pseudomonas aeruginosa using disc diffusion, broth dilution, E strip, chequerboard titration and growth curves,” wrote the study authors in PLoS ONE. “Five novel antibiotic and manuka honey combinations were found that improved antibacterial effectiveness in vitro and these offer a new avenue of future topical treatments for wound infections caused by these two important pathogens.” - Christina Sarich, Natural Society
Dr. Meschwitz, who works with the Natural Society, says that honey acts using a combination of components toxic to bacterial cells, including osmotic effect, high sugar content, polyphenols, acidity, and hydrogen peroxide. “Honey may also disrupt quorum sensing, which weakens bacterial virulence, rendering the bacteria more susceptible to conventional antibiotics.”
This information can be used to pave the way for honey to be used as a natural alternative in fighting infection. It can even prevent the infection in the first place.
Not all honey products are the same. Manuka Honey is extra special and can be used to fight heart disease. This is a honey from Australia and New Zealand made by bees feeding on the Mauka bush, which is a natural antibiotic. It is even used to cure acne.
Medicinal properties
A 2002 review found that although the antibacterial activity of honeys (including mānuka honey) had been demonstrated in vitro, the number of clinical case studies was small. The review concluded that there was a potential for its use in "the management of a large number of wound types".[6] A 2008 Cochrane Review found that honey may help improve superficial burns compared to standard dressing, but there was insufficient evidence from studies, many of which were on mānuka honey, to be conclusive, and the use of honey for leg ulcers provided no benefit. The review found that there was insufficient evidence for any benefit in other types of chronic wounds, as all of the data came from a single centre of research, and that "data from trials of higher quality found honey had no significant effect on healing rates or had significantly slower rates of healing".[7] Methylglyoxal is the major antibacterial component of mānuka honey.[8] Other smaller antibacterial effects are expected to arise from the osmolarity and pH of the mānuka honey.[7] In vitro studies indicate methylglyoxal is an effective antimicrobial agent against forms of MRSA,[9][10] although studies have not been done in humans.[6][7]
Mānuka honey, alongside other antibacterial products, does not reduce the risk of infection following treatment for ingrown toenails.[11]
Manuka honey can be found online in medical concentrations. However, beware that counterfeit product is on the shelves.
Counterfeiting and other price-related problems
In the wake of the high premium paid for mānuka honey, the majority of product now labelled as such worldwide is counterfeit or adulterated. According to research by UMFHA, the main trade association of New Zealand mānuka honey producers, whereas 1,700 tons of mānuka honey are made there annually representing almost all the world's production, some 10,000 tons of produce is being sold internationally as mānuka honey, including 1,800 tons in the UK.[12]
In governmental agency tests in the UK between 2011 and 2013, a majority of mānuka-labelled honeys sampled lacked the non-peroxide anti-microbial activity exclusive to mānuka honey. Likewise, of 73 samples tested by UMFHA in Britain, China and Singapore in 2012-13, 43 tested negative on the same count. Separate UMFHA tests in Hong Kong found that 14 out of 55 mānuka honeys sampled had been adulterated with syrup. In 2013 the UK Food Standards Agency asked all trading standards authorities to alert all mānuka honey vendors to the need for legal compliance.[12]
There is a confusing range of systems for rating the strength of mānuka honeys. In one UK chain in 2013, two products were labelled “12+ active” and “30+ total activity” respectively for “naturally occurring peroxide activity” and another “active 12+” in strength for “total phenol activity”, yet none of the three was labelled for the strength of the non-peroxide antimicrobial activity specific to mānuka honey.[12]
One reason for bona fide mānuka honeys to vary in the last regard is that the bees cannot be forced to forage only on mānuka flowers, especially given the pressures toward maximal exploitation of known blooms. So intense is the demand for the correct trees that New Zealand honey farmers have been using helicopters to locate them and deploy hives nearby.[12] There have been increasing turf disputes between producers operating close to large mānuka tree clumps, and also cases reported of many hives being variously sabotaged or stolen.[13]
At least one British supermarket has taken to stocking jars of the honey in tagged security cassettes, such were the losses from shoplifting.[14]
Honey sold in stores can actually be fake or of inferior quality. Raw organic honey is the best. The less processed it is the better it is for you. The very best is the local honey produced by your neighbors or in your own hives. Most cities permit at least one or two backyard hives.
“Last year, we decided to raise bees and got our own hive. Our bees did not survive the winter, but we got in touch with a local bee rescue and this year we have two hives of native Colorado bees that have evolved to survive the harsh winter. We harvested the honey left in the hive in the spring and one hive produced almost three gallons of honey. All we had to do was strain it through a screen and bottle it.
“We have personally found that the use of honey from our own hives reduces and eliminates allergies. By using our own honey, the local pollens that cause allergies and stuffy sinus no longer bother us because we build up a resistance and the honey prevents infection and allergic reactions.” - The Fintons
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Credit: © martinlee / Fotolia
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April 13, 2011
Honey can reverse antibiotic resistance, study suggests
Date: April 13, 2011
Source: Society for General Microbiology
Summary:
Manuka honey could be an efficient way to clear chronically infected wounds and could even help reverse bacterial resistance to antibiotics, according to new research.
Manuka honey could be an efficient way to clear chronically infected wounds and could even help reverse bacterial resistance to antibiotics, according to research presented at the Society for General Microbiology's Spring Conference in Harrogate.
Professor Rose Cooper from the University of Wales Institute Cardiff is looking at how manuka honey interacts with three types of bacteria that commonly infest wounds: Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Group A Streptococci and Meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Her group has found that honey can interfere with the growth of these bacteria in a variety of ways and suggests that honey is an attractive option for the treatment of drug-resistant wound infections.
Honey has long been acknowledged for its antimicrobial properties. Traditional remedies containing honey were used in the topical treatment of wounds by diverse ancient civilisations. Manuka honey is derived from nectar collected by honey bees foraging on the manuka tree in New Zealand and is included in modern licensed wound-care products around the world. However, the antimicrobial properties of honey have not been fully exploited by modern medicine as its mechanisms of action are not yet known.
Professor Cooper's group is helping to solve this problem by investigating at a molecular level the ways in which manuka honey inhibits wound-infecting bacteria. "Our findings with streptococci and pseudomonads suggest that manuka honey can hamper the attachment of bacteria to tissues which is an essential step in the initiation of acute infections. Inhibiting attachment also blocks the formation of biofilms, which can protect bacteria from antibiotics and allow them to cause persistent infections," explained Professor Cooper. "Other work in our lab has shown that honey can make MRSA more sensitive to antibiotics such as oxacillin -- effectively reversing antibiotic resistance. This indicates that existing antibiotics may be more effective against drug-resistant infections if used in combination with manuka honey."
This research may increase the clinical use of manuka honey as doctors are faced with the threat of diminishingly effective antimicrobial options. "We need innovative and effective ways of controlling wound infections that are unlikely to contribute to increased antimicrobial resistance. We have already demonstrated that manuka honey is not likely to select for honey-resistant bacteria," said Professor Cooper. At present, most antimicrobial interventions for patients are with systemic antibiotics. "The use of a topical agent to eradicate bacteria from wounds is potentially cheaper and may well improve antibiotic therapy in the future. This will help reduce the transmission of antibiotic-resistant bacteria from colonised wounds to susceptible patients."
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