Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: DayValleyDahlias on June 02, 2007, 06:02:05 PM

Title: Honey Helps Heal Wounds
Post by: DayValleyDahlias on June 02, 2007, 06:02:05 PM
While I have often heard about this, there is an articlein the ABJ June 2007 covering a product called "MediHoney"...exellent article covering a physician's use of this particular honey in an acute care setting in Germany...There are very impressive before and after photos, along with a discription as to the mechanism by which honey can heal wounds...I am going to take a copy to our hospital's wound care center to see if some of the MD's and Podiatrists will give it a try!

I saw the stuff for sale on eBay...from Australia
Title: Re: Honey Helps Heal Wounds
Post by: MrILoveTheAnts on June 02, 2007, 07:26:31 PM
Oh yes, while going to a Beeginners course with my dad I picked up a mettle cup meant for wax candle molding. It wasn't hot then but later on I didn't think it would be blazing hot, though it was sitting in boiling water. I was 11 years old at the time and didn't think it would be hot. My hand was bleeding after I dropped it on the floor and immediately one of the guys there put honey on it. I remember it made me stop crying and stopped the bleeding. I don't even have a scar from it. Honey is good stuff.
Title: Re: Honey Helps Heal Wounds
Post by: DayValleyDahlias on June 02, 2007, 07:50:15 PM
Cool story Mr Ants ;)
Title: Re: Honey Helps Heal Wounds
Post by: mick on June 02, 2007, 08:11:31 PM
Thatd be Manuka honey, raw, unboiled and unprocessed. We used to use it on pressure sores when all else failed. It contains antinbacterial and antiinflammatory properties.

It sells for about 5 bucks for a 1/4lb jar down here.

Some people just use ordinary raw honey but Manuka is considered the best. It comes from Tea Trees. Tea Tree oil is a very good antifungal treatment and also contains antibacterial properties.
Title: Re: Honey Helps Heal Wounds
Post by: DayValleyDahlias on June 02, 2007, 09:52:06 PM
Yup, that would be the Leptospermum spp manuka or jellybush...

I always have tea tree oil on hand, great stuff for sure!
Title: Re: Honey Helps Heal Wounds
Post by: trapperbob on June 03, 2007, 03:24:52 AM
 Bryan hospital here in lincoln uses honey on burn patients to keep infection away and limit scarring. It seems to dry up the burns. And I have used it on sever cuts that I have had and they do not get infected. I also have used it on infected cuts and the infection has went away in a very short time. There is a time and place for antibiotics but honey seems to definetly have its place give it a try and you will never use neosporine again because the honey works better.
Title: Re: Honey Helps Heal Wounds
Post by: JP on June 03, 2007, 07:43:43 AM
If you put honey on someone who is cranky, it instantly makes them a sweeter person, Bahhahhhaha! :-D
Title: Re: Honey Helps Heal Wounds
Post by: buzzbee on June 03, 2007, 07:57:44 AM
I burned my arm on the tractor exhaust a couple years ago. It rolled up a pretty big piece of skin.
I pulled off a piece of aloe vera and mixed the juices with some honey to cover the wound.
Looking now I can't even find the spot that the flesh came off!
Title: Re: Honey Helps Heal Wounds
Post by: Cindi on June 03, 2007, 09:23:34 AM
Honey is indeed a miracle beyond itself.  I have accounts of honey healing that would make your head swim.

On my bathroom counter I keep a little vile of honey that I put several small pieces of propolis in.  It has been on the counter since last summer.  It is still in a liquid form.  I have still about 7 gallons on honey hanging around from last year.  Still not granulated.  I attribute this state to the flowers that the bees foraged on all summer until frost kill at my place.

For example:
borage officinalis
phacelia tanacetifolia
bachelor's buttons
California poppy
anise hyssop
cosmos

Of course this list goes on, but these were the main foragers that kept them busy.

Anyways, back the the little jar of honey/propolis.  The propolis started out last summer as tiny pieces.  Over the course of the year the propolis must somehow have absorbed much of the moisture properties of the honey and is bigger, fatter blobs now.

Every time I require a bandaid and other that live in my home (and that is very frequently for me), some of this propolis/honey is placed on the bandaid firstly.  The healing is nothing short of miracles, from tiny little cuts to very large abrasions, cuts and so on. 

It is cool now, everyone, before they put a bandaid on, calls Doctor Cindi to help to apply the medicine to their bandaid (or sometimes they do it themselves).

Believe this one or not.  My husband had a huge pimple in the middle of his back. Thank goodness he couldn't reach it, (he loves to squish his gross pimples when he gets one, that bugs the crap out of me and I give him hell each time he does that).  I told him to let me do an experiment with the honey bandaid.  He complied.  Instead of him contorting his body trying to squeeze this stupid pimple, I kept the honey bandaid on it for about 3 days.  The horrible junk from the pimple that came off on the bandaid every day was nothing short of wierd.  After about 3 days this pimple was absolutely gone.  Sorry, that was probably a terribly gross story, but had to be told.

I am horrible with knives in the kitchen.  When I think about it, I wonder why I have any fingers left  :roll:

I cut my finger quite badly a few months ago, it maybe should have had stiches, but I have gone that route before and the stitches fell off anyways.  So, once the bleeding had slowed down enough, I applied the honey/propolis to the wound and dressed it each day for a couple of days.  Like Ken was saying about his burn from the tractor, there is narry a mark to show that the finger had even a single laceration.

These accounts could go on and on in my life.  But just let it be said, I will never be without a little jar of honey/propolis in my medicine chest.  Have a wonderful day, great life, love this live you're livin'.  Cindi

P.S.  Right, I think too that honey has properties that cause some kind of pain relief too.
Title: Re: Honey Helps Heal Wounds
Post by: trapperbob on June 03, 2007, 11:52:23 AM
 I think your right about the pain relief when I've gotten burned it seemed to take the pain out as well as help heal the burn. 
Title: Re: Honey Helps Heal Wounds
Post by: Caryw on June 03, 2007, 12:54:04 PM
I'm a veterinarian -- we've been using honey for years to help large non-healing wounds (like the 'road rash' caused when hit by a car).  Fights infection GREAT and is very inexpensive vs. the skin-replacer therapies in human med.  Problem, of course, is that dogs like honey...
Title: Re: Honey Helps Heal Wounds
Post by: DayValleyDahlias on June 03, 2007, 10:58:15 PM
Oh my Cary , there's a picture...you would have to use the Elizabethan Collar then???  A veterinarian :-*..bless you...
Title: Re: Honey Helps Heal Wounds
Post by: Caryw on June 04, 2007, 01:14:56 AM
So if I use some of the honey I harvest for this, can I write off  expenses for my (not so cheap to start up) new hobby??  Any CPAs in the room??
Title: Re: Honey Helps Heal Wounds
Post by: Cindi on June 04, 2007, 09:50:46 AM
CaryW.  I see you are in the PNW, Seattle is about a 5 hour drive from my place, I am 45 km northeast of Vancouver.  Nice to see people closer to me than most other friends in the forum.  Have a wonderful day, great life, love that life you're livin'.  Cindi