5 Reasons Honey Should Be in Your Medicine Chest

1. Help Heal Wounds and Burns

For minor cuts, scratches, and burns, honey can be applied topically to help speed healing. Honey acts as a broad-spectrum antibacterial agent and is known to lower prostaglandin levels while elevating nitric oxide end products, processes that help explain honey's wound-healing powers.

Honey's unique formulation, including its acidity, hydrogen peroxide content, osmotic effect, and antioxidants, is responsible for a number of beneficial processes that stimulate and promote wound healing, such as:

Enhanced tissue growth
Increased epithelialization
Reduced scar formation
Stimulation of immunity

Honey is so potent that, in a study of critically ill children with pressure injuries, the use of a Manuka honey dressing or gel reduced wound-healing time compared with standard care. In fact, the children treated with honey were 1.9 times more likely to have their wounds completely healed than those who received only standard care.

2. Soothe Coughs and Upper Respiratory Tract Infections

Honey is regarded as highly beneficial for soothing irritating coughs in the ancient Indian medical system known as Ayurveda. Hippocrates also used honey for coughs. Modern research supports this use, with honey found to relieve cough symptoms more effectively than no treatment, placebo, or the antihistamine diphenhydramine. It also reduces cough duration more effectively than the asthma medication salbutamol.

A systematic review and meta-analysis also found that honey was superior to usual care in improving symptoms of upper respiratory tract infections, including reduced cough frequency and severity. Among children with upper respiratory tract infections, honey was as effective as the over-the-counter cough medication dextromethorphan and superior to no treatment for nighttime cough relief.

Furthermore, parents rated honey more favorably than cough syrup, leading researchers to conclude that "Honey may be a preferable treatment for the cough and sleep difficulty associated with childhood upper respiratory tract infection."

Even the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises, "Use honey to relieve cough for adults and children at least 1 year of age or older." Note that children under 1 year of age shouldn't consume honey because it can carry Clostridium botulinum bacteria.

3. Support Oral Health

Unlike sugar, which is detrimental to oral health, honey has multiple pharmacological properties that support good oral health.

4. Relieve Hemorrhoid Symptoms

Honey's antibacterial and wound-healing properties make it a useful natural remedy for hemorrhoid relief. In a pilot study, a mixture of honey, olive oil, and beeswax (at a ratio of 1:1:1) significantly reduced bleeding and itching in patients with hemorrhoids.

The mixture also reduced pain, bleeding, and itching in patients with anal fissures and was previously found to be effective for diaper rash, psoriasis, eczema, and fungal infections of the skin.

5. Heal Dandruff and Seborrheic Dermatitis

Applying honey to the scalp may help treat dandruff and seborrheic dermatitis, a form of eczema that causes scaly, greasy patches and redness, often on the scalp.

Applying a daily mixture of 90% honey and 10% water to scalp lesions, rubbing it in for two to three minutes, and letting it sit for three hours before rinsing relieved itching and scaling after one week of treatment. After two weeks, skin lesions had also healed, and a subjective improvement in hair loss was

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