Try Honey To Ease These Ailments!
Could this sweet natural treat be the cure for what ails you, including easing your seasonal allergies? Find out!
For many millennia, humans have been ingesting honey just as much for its flavor as for its medicine. Modern medicine is now catching up and research is surfacing that the ancient Greeks, Egyptians, and many of our other ancestral cultures were on to something golden and brilliant. Perhaps the saying should be, “A spoonful of honey keeps the doctor away!”
Honey as Medicine
For over 4,000 years honey has been one of the most important medicines in Ayurveda, both internally and externally. Egyptians used it topically as a way to heal wounds. Greeks ate it because they thought it made them live longer. It’s all true, but here’s some science to back it up.
When bees produce honey they add enzymes to it that makes it slightly acidic and essentially turns it into hydrogen peroxide. During the regurgitation process much of the water evaporates and this in combination with the enzyme process creates an environment where bad bacteria cannot grow, hence its anti-fungal and antibacterial properties. Honey is full of healthy microbes that do not create a stable environment for bad bacteria. It is also full of antioxidants.
Because of these factors, honey is proven to benefit numerous aliments. Are you ready? Take notes!
The Healthy Benefits of Honey
- Reduces seasonal allergies because it helps your system adjust to local pollen (see note on local, raw honey, below)
- Fights off free radicals that can lead to cancer and heart disease because of all the antioxidants
- Proven to help prevent and sooth acid reflux
- Use it topically to help heal wounds and burns
- Helpful in re-hydration because it contains many electrolytes
- Use it as a probiotic to help keep healthy amounts of good bacteria in your body which helps boost your immune system
- Contributes to maintaining healthy skin
- Fights eczema, canker sores
- Helps boost energy because it is full of carbohydrates
- Reduces morning sickness
- Soothes sore throats
- Slows down hair loss
- Reduces bladder infections
- Slows down arthritis
- Helps with upset stomachs
- Reduces bad breath
- Helps keep cholesterol levels balanced
There are so many other benefits especially when you combine honey with other medicinal substances, such as apple cider vinegar, goat’s milk, or lemon. The list goes on and on.
When It Comes To Honey, Raw and Local is Better
Raw, local honey not only supports your local farmers, but it also contains allergens and pollens from the area in which you live. Some suggest taking a spoonful of honey or two a day leading up to allergy season in order to gradually introduce allergens to the body and give it time to adjust. Honey from far away will not fight allergies as well as local honey. Much commercial honey doesn’t even have pollen in it because it is ultra-filtered, so it will have no effect on fighting allergies.
When honey is raw it contains more healing properties. It has more antioxidants, more minerals, more vitamins, more bacteria-fighting microbes, and more electrolytes. Raw honey is not heated like commercial honey, so less is lost and more is gained. Of course, be sure you get to know your local beekeeper so you are knowledgeable about their practices and can make an informed decision. Raw and local honey can be found at farmers’ markets, farm stands, select grocery stores, and more.
Last but not least, honey is a great preservative. You can make many medicinal tinctures. For those who don’t know, a tincture is a medicine made by extracting the healing properties of plants in either alcohol or honey.
More Honey Home Remedies:
- For obesity, high blood pressure, and/or high cholesterol: drink a cup of hot water with a teaspoon of honey and 5 to 10 drops of apple cider vinegar early in the morning daily. (Ayurvedic texts say honey scrapes fat and cholesterol from the body’s tissues.)
- To heal oral ulcers: apply 1 teaspoon honey and a pinch of turmeric to canker sores, mouth ulcers, or sores on the tongue. This mixture will generate saliva and draw out toxins; spit it out to speed the healing process. For internal ulcers, mix a cup of warm milk with a teaspoon of honey twice daily.
- To heal a wound: dress it daily with sterilized gauze brushed with honey; dispose at night.
- For the common cold: mix 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon with 1 teaspoon honey and eat two or three times a day.
- To clear your sinuses: take a mixture of 1 teaspoon each of fresh ginger juice and honey two or three times a day.
- For nausea, vomiting, and/or indigestion: mix one part lemon juice with one part honey. Dip your index finger into this mixture and lick it slowly twice daily.
- For anxiety: drink 1 cup of orange juice with 1 teaspoon of honey and a pinch of nutmeg powder twice daily.
- For mild fever: make a tea of 1 teaspoon of holy basil (tulsi) and 1 cup of hot water. Add 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper powder and 1 teaspoon of honey. Take two or three times a day.
- To stop hiccups: mix 1 teaspoon honey and 1 teaspoon castor oil in a container. Dip your index finger into the mixture and lick it. Repeat every 10 minutes until your hiccups stop.
So thank you bees and thank you, local beekeepers, for keeping us sweet and healthy!
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Denise Dill
Denise Dill is a co-op livin', garden diggin', homegrown cookin' fool who creates soups of song out of local ingredients. She's currently working as a baker and soup maker while she completes culinary school. In the past, she worked as an urban gardener and community cooking educator. She has also toured the country as a folk musician, opening for such acts as Pamela Means and Hamell on Trial.
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Denise Dill#molongui-disabled-link
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Denise Dill#molongui-disabled-link
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Denise Dill#molongui-disabled-link
I am wondering how at can use honey to reduce anxiety due to PTSD and pain from fybromyalgia which interferes with both appetite and sleep hygiene.I ended up with the PTSD and fybromyalgia from a car accident that’s disabled me.I saw the remedy for anxiety but it contains orange juice,anything citrus has always given me wicked heartburn.Any suggestions are welcome.
ineed to find some raw unfiltered honey
Around the Middletown NY area
‘@Lynda Mitchell, I have always kept mine room temp, never in the fridge.
Honey only has to contain 51% actual honey to be labeled “pure” honey (the other 49% is typically corn syrup). Also, a lot of honey is coming from China. It’s best to find a local harvester.
read honey labels. not all commercial honey has corn syrup in it, those that do are legally required in the united states to carrythe labeling “honey spread” or “honey blend”. that being said, as i travel over the road extensively with my career, i enjoy different local honey types. florida palmetto honey is what currently sweetens my chai tea.
Does honey have to be refrigerated?
No. There has been honey found in trees and old barns that is still good to eat . Honey is a great way to have a sugar substitute that will keep many years if stored well.
I suffer from diverticulitis and was just thinking today about the healing properties of honey and wondered if it could help me. Then I saw this article! Any of you have this same problem as me…and if so does honey help?
“For chronic fever…” call your doctor. Chronic fever can be the sign of a serious illness!
Pat Croley, only the enzymes are destroyed by heat, not the antibacterial properties. We have a honey business and we sell raw as well as pasteurized honey. We do not filter any of our honey, so all the pollens, etc are still present.
I have heard forever that when you heat honey the antibacterial properties are killed. Therefore when I put it in hot tea it does nothing but sweeten the tea…….hot water would be the same. However when you eat it on toast, crackers, out of a spoon cold it helps a lot. Please tell me if I am wrong.
My grandson has a cough from allergy problems…A teasp. honey calms this cough and he is able to fall asleep…
My daughter takes a tbsp of our local raw honey everyday to help ease her allergies. It does seem to make a difference.
the store bought honey is refined and all the goodness removed, you can buy raw local honey from local farmers markets or google local bee keepers as they may well sell you direct, thats where we buy ours from direct from the local bee keeper
Local honey can be bought at your local supermarkets. The container of honey should say on the label that it is from local bee hives. It is best to use local honey because the bees are making honey from local flowers and thus helps fight bacteria that is associated with your area!!
When buying honey; How do you know that you are getting the real stuff??
Read an article that a UK company is making honey to be used in Surgery….to prevent the spread of the MRSA bacteria which is resistant antibiotics. Also, I read the Egyptians used it on their teeth. Research shows that tooth decay is caused by bacteria. I take 3 or 4 teaspoons a day…..letting it set on my teeth for a bit before swallowing.
A teaspoon of honey and few drops of lemon it’s real good for your throat ! Lows coughing a lot !!!
Great info. This and the vegetarian story has convinced me the FA has some good writers
well worth reading. Thanks, Varaha
MiamiFL
I have honey bees that have built a hive in my attic. How can I tell when the honey is ready?
i raised 2 fine boys on honey. i put a tsp of honey in their bottle of milk.
Johnnie McClain – you should never give honey to infants. Honey can carry a small amount of botulism, which is safe for adults, but can be lethal for infants.
So,what about the store bought honey?will,it help with some of theses things and won’t hot water,lemon jusice and about 4 table spoons of honey help a sore throght and also help your inmune system and a cold?.thanks:for all the uses of honey.
Yes, local honey is so good, with medicinal properties. Avoid store-bought honey as it is made with high fructose corn syrup.
I have never heard a few of these! Thanks, I will put them in my memory bank to try out!