Intro to Medicinal Uses of Honey

 

Honey has been used by humans since the first time that caveman tasted it. Can you imagine the wonderment they felt at the flavor exploding across their tongues and then the energy ZING they had afterward? Medicinal uses of honey are also well documented, as is the long shelf life (almost indefinitely!). Other then the usual sore throat  tea remedy that pretty much everyone knows about, we went scouring the internet for other ways honey is used for medical applications! Some of them I already knew about such as applying a dab of honey to a mosquito bite will make the itch go away and keep it from swelling as large, but there are others out there that are new to me!

Wound Care

According to an article written for the National Center of Biotechnology, honey has antibiotic qualities and because  of its, “…high viscosity, [it] helps to provide a protective barrier to prevent infection.” Thus, it is being used again in modern medicine as a treatment for many other ailments of the skin. Besides mosquito bites mentioned above, it is also used for sores, bee stings, burns, and scrapes. Keep in mind, we are talking about RAW honey here! I rather find it sad that we are ‘going back’ to the use of traditional medicines when they shouldn’t have been tossed aside in the first place! I am not against progress but to so blindly toss something aside that has proven time and again to work without crazy chemicals is just illogical. Ok, rant over. 😉

Sinus/Chest Congestion and Allergy Relief

This is the ailment most people employ when it comes to the medicinal uses of honey. Sore throat, congestion, sinus pressure, etc. The honey is in a warm drink, generally, and that helps to speed the nutrients and energy through your body. The heat eases the congestion and helps to loosen it up, the energy the honey provides helps to boost you up, and the nutrients are easily absorbed by your body to help replace what is lost. I heard a story once about a woman who would put honey in the water container she kept on the wood stove in winter. Anyone who knows anything about using wood heat as a primary source of warmth understands that it will really dry your sinuses and skin out. One of the ways the old pioneers would help combat that was to always have a kettle or pot of water on the stove to put moisture back in the air. By adding honey, it was beleived that you would get the benefits of it when you inhaled the steam and moisture. Whether or not that is true, I can only guess at, but it would seem plausible as adding mints and other herbs to water and inhaling the steam has been a proven method of getting congestion relief for a long, long time.

 Research for yourself and discover the many other medicinal uses of honey! 

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