Honey can help heal wounds.

Everybody knows that honey goes great on toast or a glazed ham to add a little sweetness to your meal. While its food uses are infinite, most people are unaware of honey’s wound care capabilities, a trait that can help an infected wound properly heal in orderly fashion. From burn wounds, bacterial infections to pressure ulcers, honey is an everyday household product that can provide numerous healing benefits. Here are a few tips on how to properly administer honey to help treat a wound.

Manuka honey

It is important to understand that you cannot go around squeezing regular store bought honey on every wound or infection you encounter. Instead, try using manuka honey, which on top of serving as a healthier edible substitute for regular honey, also possess numerous therapeutic qualities. Manuka honey was approved by the U.S. Federal Drug Administration in 2007 as a recommended option for wound treatment.

One of the biggest antiseptic features manuka honey has is its ability to release hydrogen peroxide that is essential for helping eliminate bacterial activity. The pollen collected from the manuka bush and transformed into honey has been known to effectively treat serious infections, ranging from skin rashes, boils to scalded skin. Remember do not attempt to use regular raw honey as an option for wound care. The high-fructose corn syrup that is abundant in raw honey is actually more likely to help spread infection rather than prevent it.

Properly using honey to heal

Simply squirting some manuka honey over the infected area and rubbing it in won’t exactly do the trick. First you need to roughly measure what the extent of the wound area exactly is and make sure to apply an appropriate amount while spreading the honey over the wound evenly. It is even more effective to rub honey all over a wound dressing then carefully wrap it around the infection. If you are looking for a less messy alternative, there are pre-packaged wound dressings that already contain honey inside them. For deeper wounds, honey should be smeared over the area before administering the dressing, to properly allow the honey to work its way into the infection.

Evidence of healing

Numerous scientific studies have been conducted to observe the wound healing properties honey can possess. Researchers from the University of Auckland, New Zealand, have discovered how honey was able to effectively reduce the healing times of burn wounds. Using data from 19 clinical trials dealing with 2,554 patients with untreated wounds, the doctors were able to prove that honey helped the wounds heal quicker than normal gauze and film dressings that commonly used to treat burns.

Another study published in the International Journal of Lower Extremity Wounds involved researchers discovering a wide variety of treatment qualities found in honey that are almost unparalleled to other forms of treatment. After conducting 22 trials involving 2,062 patients who were subjected with honey as a wound dressing, the following properties were found:

Infections were not only cleared, but wounds were protected from spreading bacteria

Honey was able to control and eliminate strong odors from wounds

Permanent scarring was dramatically reduced

Honey promoted anti-inflammatory activity

These are just a few examples of the healing wonders of honey. For more information or how to successfully use honey as a remedy for wound treatment, speak to your clinician.

Advanced Tissue is the nation’s leader in delivering specialized wound care supplies to patients, delivering to both homes and long-term care facilities.