Healing with Honey

May 13, 2002

What Is Honey?
Your throat feels scratchy. Swallowing hurts, and it's an effort to raise your voice above a whisper. You could suck on a cough drop or down some cough syrup, or you could choose to drink a cup of hot tea laced with honey.

Many professional singers and announcers reach for the honey jar to soothe the symptoms of an irritated or sore throat. But did you ever think of applying honey to a burn or a scrape? Scientists are discovering that the bee's number one commodity could be good medicine for us.

Honey is the combination of nectar — secretions from the flowers of some plants — and other sweet plant deposits that are gathered and modified by honeybees. Bees store honey in honeycombs and then use it for food in winter. A natural sweetener because of its high glucose and fructose content, honey is widely used in candies, cereals, and baked goods.

There are more than 300 types of honey, varying in flavor and colors (from pale yellow to dark amber), depending on the type of blossoms visited by the honeybee. Some common honeys are alfalfa, orange blossom, clover, buckwheat, and tupelo. Honey is produced in nearly every state in the country, but the top-producing states are California, Florida, North Dakota, and South Dakota.

Here is some data on the number of metric tons of honey produced by the top three honey-producing states:

State 2000 2001

California 30,800,000 27,625,000

North Dakota 33,350,000 26,880,000

Florida 24,360,000 22,000,000

Total (all U.S.) 221,005,000 185,926,000

What percentage of the total amount did each of these states produce in 2000 and 2001?

By what percentage did the total U.S. honey production decrease in 2001?

For help with these percentage problems, try this Destination Math tutorial. You'll need to be a Riverdeep subscriber to use it — or you can get a free-trial subscription.

The National Honey Board's site includes production statistics, research updates, and information for beekeepers.

This helpful chart lists the characteristics of some of the major varieties of honey.

Download the "Story of Honey," which traces the route from the bee to the jar, from the National Honey Board. (Requires Adobe® Acrobat® Reader.)

An Effective Healer
The ancient Egyptians used honey as an embalming material and treated cuts and burns with it. The Greek physician Hippocrates cured skin disorders with honey, and the Romans cleaned wounds with it. Even as recently as World War I, doctors treated wounds with honey. With the advent of antibiotics, honey fell out of use for its healing properties, but scientific research is now rediscovering honey's natural healing power.

Because of its high sugar, low protein composition, honey acts as a natural "antimicrobial" that limits the growth of bacteria by cutting off the supply of water and nitrogen. When honey is applied to a wound, it is diluted with fluids from the damaged tissue and combines with an enzyme added by the bee to form hydrogen peroxide, the same disinfectant found in pharmacies. The naturally occurring hydrogen peroxide promotes healing and reduces scarring as it is slowly released into the wound.

Honey 1, Superbugs 0: Researchers in New Zealand found that honey actually killed a number of highly contagious antibiotic-resistant viruses ("superbugs") such as multiple-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE). The team showed that "honey killed 100 different strains of methicillin-resistant MRSA..." While this looks promising for scientists, health care, and hospital workers, the New Zealand team has not yet identified the powerful antimicrobial agent they believe to be in honey.

Visit the scientists conducting this research at the University of Waikato's Honey Research Unit in New Zealand.

Non-Stick Coating: Several studies show honey's effectiveness as a treatment for burns and other skin disorders. In a study of burn patients, doctors in India treated 52 patients with honey and 52 with silver sufadiazine, a standard burn-treatment compound. Of those treated with honey, 87% improved within 15 days compared with 10% treated with the silver sufadiazine. In Australia, honey has had the status of medicine since 1999 — medicinal honey is available in pharmacies as a wound dressing. Honey used for medicinal purposes has not been pasteurized or heated, unlike most commercial honey.

Read "Doctors turning sweet on healing with honey," a CNN article that describes honey's healing qualities.

"Bee Bandages" describes some of the research with medicinal honey taking place at Sydney University in Australia.

Life in the Colonies
While they may be an annoyance, remember that honeybees are the only insects that provide food we eat! Think about the responsibilities of a honeybee:

The queen is the largest and only sexually developed female in the colony. Her purpose: to mate with the drones (males) and to lay eggs. In the course of her two-year life span, a queen bee may lay as many as 3,000 eggs a day.

Males bees are called drones. These stingerless bees do not collect pollen or make honey. Their purpose: to mate with the queen. Anywhere between 500 and 1,000 drones live in a colony.

Small, sexually underdeveloped females are worker bees. True to their name, they form the backbone of the colony. They guard the entrance to the hive, feed the queen and larvae, collect nectar, and produce the material that makes up the honeycomb. One colony may have as many as 50,000 to 60,000 workers. Their average life expectancy: about 28 to 35 days.

Check out our article, "To Bee or Not to Bee," for more information about bee life.

Not for Everyone
Honey is a sweet treat, but it should not be given to infants and children under the age of one. Spores that may cause infant botulism, a rare disorder of the nervous system, are sometimes found in honey.

These spores (also found in soil, dust, and uncooked foods) do not pose a health risk to adults and older children, but the immature digestive tracts of infants and young babies sometimes permit the growth of the spores, which can lead to illness.

Energy Boost
Last year, scientists at the University of Tennessee shared details of a study they conducted with competitive cyclists. They found that honey was as effective as pure glucose in providing athletes with the extra energy they need to perform better.

Find out more about using honey as an energy booster from Honey.com.

Cleaning up the Body: In a study published last month, University of Illinois researchers say that honey may act as a dietary antioxidant. In other words, chemicals found in honey could help rid the blood of toxins or harmful substances. This would make using it as a sweetener more beneficial than using sugar.

The Bee Line
The industrious bee produces more than just honey. Apitherapy refers to the "healing use of the products of the hive." Some of these products may also have therapeutic qualities, although none have been scientifically proven. Some of the more commercial hive products are royal jelly, bee venom therapy, and propolis.

Royal jelly: The queen's diet consists exclusively of royal jelly. This creamy substance, secreted by nurse bees (groups of worker bees dedicated to the care of the queen), aids the queen's growth and enhances her fertility level and longevity. The compound is 12-13% protein, 12%-15% carbohydrates, 5-6% lipids. Rich in vitamins and minerals, royal jelly includes the B vitamin pantothenic acid, which is thought to reduce stress. Gamma globulin, an amino acid that helps the immune system fight infection and disease, is also present in royal jelly. Some people believe royal jelly strengthens the immune system, improves skin tone, and increases energy. It is also believed to have anti-viral and antibacterial qualities.

Bee venom therapy: Currently, bee venom therapy is approved in the United States only for desensitization of persons with allergic reactions to bee venom. Supporters of this therapy claim it reduces inflammation in the body using natural anti-inflammatory agents, such as melittin and adolapin, found in the venom. They contend that bee venom can be used to treat systemic inflammations, such as arthritis and asthma, injuries such as tendonitis, and may even minimize some of the symptoms of multiple sclerosis.

More Links
Read the fascinating story of a Boston attorney who became captivated by bees — he now keeps 300,000 of them — in the Boston Globe story, "Honey of a Hobby."

A recent study found that young male elephants secrete a special substance that makes them smell like honey. Find out more in "Sweet Smell of Youth," an article from ABC News.

Propolis: Bees collect this sticky resin from certain flowers and trees, add salivary secretions to it, and use it to build, reinforce, and seal parts of the hive. It is also placed at the hive's entrance so that bees returning to the hive brush up against it as a way of "disinfecting" themselves before reentering the hive. In fact, propolis is sometimes called "nature's penicillin" or "nature's antibiotic." Proponents claim it rejuvenates the body's immune system by disabling viruses and fighting infections. Some advocate it for treating a variety of health problems ranging from headaches, sore throats, and colds to more serious illnesses such as tuberculosis and Parkinson's disease.

You can learn more about apitherapy at The American Apitherapy Society (AAS) site. The AAS is a nonprofit organization that promotes the use of hive products to the medical community and others. It publishes a newsletter (an online version is available), maintains a library, and conducts workshops.


		Percentages Get help with the percentage problems in this story from Destination Math.

		To Bee or Not to Bee Learn more about nature's furry, striped pollinator, the bee, in this recent Riverdeep article.

		Critters on the Menu Some insects — like termites and grasshoppers — are edible. Sample some bug cuisine with this archive article.

		The Importance of Insects For your teacher: Insects play an eminent role in the ecosystem. Investigate with your students using this "Teaching the News" article.