Tag Archives: honey

Sweet! Health Benefits of Raw Honey

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The Many Health Benefits of Raw Honey

23rd July 2012

By Jordan & Kyla Miller

Contributing Writers for Wake Up World

Some people refer to it as “liquid gold”, but most of us understand it as honey. The substance we are specifically referring to is raw honey – honey in its purest form; honey that has not been filtered, strained or heated above 115 degrees Fahrenheit.

Many of the commercial varieties we find lined in our conventional grocery store shelves have been so processed that many (if not all) of the beneficial enzymes, nutrients and antioxidants have been completely destroyed. Used for nearly 2500 years, this substance contains many important nutritional components for our body and mind. In order to reap the benefits of honey, we must only consume honey that is raw or unpasteurized. Honey is becoming increasingly recognized not for its amazing taste, but rather its medicinal properties. Its application dates back many years; used in many of the traditional medicines of the world, including Ayurveda.

Today, honey is slowly being integrated into modern medicine as science studies are beginning to see that honey is an excellent topical application for healing wounds. Honey is valued and loved worldwide not only because of its taste, but because of the health benefits it provides us. Lets delve deeper into the amazing health benefits honey has to offer.

Key Nutrients

Honey is loaded with many essential vitamins and minerals. Vitamins such as B1, B2, B3, B5, B6 as well as vitamin C are found in honey. It also contains minerals like magnesium, potassium, calcium, sodium chlorine, calcium, copper, iron, manganese, sulphur, zinc and phosphate.

Main Health Benefits

Energy Boost

Carbohydrates in the form of glucose and fructose supply the body and mind with energy which can boost endurance, and reduce muscle fatigue. Many athletes use this wonderful food for an instant as well as a sustained energy source to lift them through their training. In sports and endurance, honey can provide 17 grams of carbohydrates per tablespoon, and can be an inexpensive alternative to commercial sports gels.

Excellent Source of Antioxidants

Honey not only has a full spectrum of vitamins and minerals, but it also contains the flavonoid pinocembrin which is unique to honey. Pinostrobin supports and promotes healthy enzyme activity.

Supports Good Bacteria

Honey supports Bifidobacteria – present in the gastrointestinal tract – which is essential for efficient digestion and good health. Honey contains pre/pro biotics that help the growth and activity of Bifidobacteria because it is an alkaline-forming food, and is similar to ingredients found in fruits. It doesn’t ferment in the stomach and it can be used to counteract indigestion.

Antibacterial and Anti-fungal Properties

Based on these properties honey can treat allergies by promoting a strong immune system, and has powerful anti-microbial and anti-inflammatory properties that makes it an excellent option to treat wounds with. It has antibacterial properties due to its acidic nature and enzymically produced hydrogen peroxide. Constant use of honey strengthens the white blood corpuscles to fight bacterial and viral diseases.

Slows Aging

Part of the aging process is related to the slow depletion of enzymes in the body. Raw honey is one of the few foods to help slow the depletion of enzymes through the ingestion of amylase. Amylase is the enzyme that breaks down sugars and carbohydrates. It can restore damaged skin to give a softer, younger look.

Other Benefits

  • Honey is a great aid in relieving morning sickness;
  • Honey is good for sore throats, laryngitis and pharyngitis;
  • Raw honey can be used as a medication for issues related to male impotence and female infertility;
  • A salve made of honey can be applied to eczema, canker sores or bleeding gums.
  • Calcium absorption and hemoglobin count can be increased by raw honey to prevent anemia.
  • Raw honey may also lower total cholesterol while increasing HDL(good) cholesterol.
  • Honey acts as a sedative and is very useful in bed wetting disorders.
  • Can help treat minor acne by attacking the bacteria that cause outbreaks while moisturizing the skin to aid in rejuvenation.

Precaution

Honey may contain Clostridium botulinum spores and toxins that can cause infant botulism. As such, it is recommended that children under the age of one should not consume honey because their intestinal tract is not mature enough to inhibit the growth of Clostridium botulinum.

Healers from around the world have used honey for centuries for many healing procedures. When shopping for raw honey it is of greatest benefit to buy local and organic. This will support local farmers who practice organic farming where the honey is harvested with care. The amazing health benefits have been known by healers for centuries. According to PubMed, there have been over 4,357 medical studies on healing effects of honey; moreover, 1,194 of these studies relating to honey as a treatment, and 132 of these studies were relating to the antioxidants in honey.

from:    http://wakeup-world.com/2012/07/23/the-health-benefits-of-raw-honey/

Four Foods That Benefit Your Health & Sunlight

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Five Food-Medicines That Could Quite Possibly Save Your Life

2nd June 2012

By Sayer Ji

Contributing Writer for Wake Up World

Though Mother Nature’s formulas are proprietary, she does not grant patents.

Some of the most powerful medicines on the planet are masquerading around as foods and spices. While they do not lend themselves to being patented, nor will multi-billion dollar human clinical trials ever be funded to prove them efficacious, they have been used since time immemorial to both nourish our bodies, and to prevent and treat disease. So valued were these in ancient times that they were worth their weight in gold, and entire civilizations either rose to great power or collapsed as a result of their relationship to them.

What is even more amazing is that many of these “plant allies” are found growing in our backyards, and often sitting there in our refrigerators and spice racks, neglected and under appreciated.  In fact, many of us use these daily unaware that this is why we don’t get sick as often as those who do not incorporate them into their diet. Let’s look at a few examples….

1) Garlic – with the increasing prevalence of multi-drug resistant bacteria and the failure of the conventional, drug-based model to develop effective solutions against them (nor accepting responsibility for creating them), spices have regained their once universal reign as broad spectrum infection-fighters with sometimes life-saving power. Garlic, in fact, has several hundred therapeutic properties, confirmed by a growing body of scientific research, which you can view directly on GreenMedInfo.com.[i]  One quick example of garlic’s power, is in killing multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), which the mainstream media has termed the “white plague,” roiling the masses with a fear of drug-resistant (but not plant-extract resistant) they are made to believe they are defenseless against.  Last year an article was published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal showing that garlic was capable of inhibiting a wide range of multiple drug resistant tuberculosis strains.[ii] The authors concluded “The use of garlic against MDR-TB may be of great importance regarding public health.”  Garlic’s anti-infective properties do not end with MDR-TB, as it has been demonstrated to inhibit the following pathogens as well

  • Amoeba Entamoeba histolytica (parasite)
  • Cholera
  • Clostridium
  • Cytomegalovirus
  • Dermatophytoses (a type of topical fungal infection)
  • Haemophilus Influenzae
  • Helicobacter Pylori
  • Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1
  • Herpes Simplex Virus Type 2
  • Klebsiella
  • Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus A. (MRSA)
  • Parainfluenza Virus
  • Peridontal Infection
  • Pneumococcal Infections
  • Pseudomonas aeruginosa
  • Streptococcus Mutans
  • Streptococcus Infections: Group A
  • Streptococcus Infections: Group B
  • Streptococcus pyrogenes
  • Thrush (oral fungal infection)

This amazing list underscores how important it is to keep a supply of garlic close by!

2.)  Honey – bees produce a wide range of therapeutic substances beyond honey, e.g. propolis, bee venom, royal jelly, beeswax, bee pollen, etc., but this sweet, sticky stuff that we all love to dip our paw into occasionally, is the most well-known and most copiously consumed of them all – and for good reason, it tastes great!  But did you know that this sweet treat is one of nature’s most powerful healing agents, as well? Here is just a smattering of some of honey’s more scientifically researched health benefits and/or applications:

  • Aspirin-Induced Gastrointestinal Toxicity  (honey  coats the delicate linings of the stomach, preventing aspirin-induced lesions and bleeding)
  • Bacterial Infections
  • Burns
  • Candida infection (despite the fact that honey contains sugar, it demonstrates anti-fungal properties)
  • Conjunctivitis
  • Dental plaque (a recent study showed that Manuka honey was a viable alternative to chemical mouthwash in dissolving dental plaque)[iii]
  • Dermatitis
  • Diabetic Ulcer
  • Herpes-related ulcers
  • MRSA (especially for Manuka honey)

There are many more uses for honey than covered here. Needless to say, replacing synthetic sweeteners or highly processed sugars or high fructose corn syrup with a moderate amount of honey may be a great preventative health step to take.

3) Apples – an apple a day does in fact keep the doctor away, especially cancer specialists it would seem.  For instance, one of the most well-established health benefits of consuming apples is to reduce the risk of colorectal cancer. The more apples you consume, the less likely you are to develop this potentially fatal disease. To view the 5 studies that reference this relationship, go to the GreenmedInfo.com apple research page where you will also find 50 other health benefits of apple or apple byproducts (e.g. apple vinegar) consumption which include:

  • Aging, Reduce Rate
  • Allergies
  • Allopecia (Hair Loss)
  • Diarrhea
  • Insulin Resistance
  • Liver Cancer
  • Radiation Induced Illness
  • Staphylococcol Infection

4) Sunlight – this one may throw some of you off, but sunlight possesses both energy and information with real, metabolic value and is therefore a source of usable energy for the body – and so, in a very real sense it can be considered a form of food that we consume through our skin by way of its built in, melanin-based “solar panels.”  Not only does adequate sunlight exposure result in the production of vitamin D, a hormone-like substance that regulates over 2,000 genes in the human body — and as a result prevents or ameliorates hundreds of vitamin D deficiency associated health conditions – but sunlight exposure itself has a unique set of health benefits not reducible to simply vitamin D production alone.  One of the more interesting studies performed on sunlight exposure, based on data gathered from over 100 countries and published earlier this year in the journal Anticancer Research, showed that there was “a strong inverse correlations with solar UVB for 15 types of cancer,” with weaker, though still significant evidence for the protective role of sunlight in 9 other cancers. Here are some additional benefits of sunlight exposure:

  • Alzheimer’s Disease
  • Depression
  • Dopamine Deficiency
  • Dermatitis
  • Influenza
  • Multiple Sclerosis
  • Psoriasis

5) Turmeric  – quite possibly the world’s most important herb. Named “Kanchani,” or literally “Golden Goddess,” in the ancient Indian healing tradition, its healing properties have been deeply appreciated, if not revered for countless centuries. Turmeric has been scientifically documented to have over 500 applications in disease prevention and treatment. It also has been shown to modulate over 150 distinct biological and genetic/epigenetic pathways of value in health, demonstrating a complexity as well as gentleness that no drug on the planet has ever been shown to possess.

As there are too many health conditions that turmeric may benefit to list, we are listing the top 10 as determined by the GreenMedInfo algorithm which calculates both the evidence quantity (number of articles) and evidence quality (human study valued higher than animal, and so on). Also, the number in parentheses denotes the number of studies on the database demonstrating the beneficial relationship.

  • Oxidative Stress (160)
  • Inflammation (51)
  • DNA Damage (48)
  • Lipid Peroxidation (34)
  • Colorectal Cancer (24)
  • Breast Cancer (60)
  • Colon Cancer (52)
  • Chemically-Induced Liver Damage (34)
  • Alzheimer’s Disease (34)
  • Tumors (23)

from:   http://wakeup-world.com/2012/07/02/five-food-medicines-that-could-quite-possibly-save-your-life/

 

Treating Wounds with Honey

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Honey Could Be Effective at Treating and Preventing Wound Infections

ScienceDaily (Jan. 31, 2012) — Manuka honey could help clear chronic wound infections and even prevent them from developing in the first place, according to a new study published in Microbiology.The findings provide further evidence for the clinical use of manuka honey to treat bacterial infections in the face of growing antibiotic resistance.

Streptococcus pyogenes is a normal skin bacterium that is frequently associated with chronic (non-healing) wounds. Bacteria that infect wounds can clump together forming ‘biofilms’, which form a barrier to drugs and promotes chronic infection. Researchers at Cardiff Metropolitan University have shown that manuka honey can not only destroy fully-formed S. pyogenes biofilms in vitro but also prevent the bacteria initially binding to components of wound tissue.

Honey has long been acknowledged for its antimicrobial properties. Traditional remedies containing honey were used in the topical treatment of wounds by diverse ancient civilisations. Manuka honey is derived from nectar collected by honey bees foraging on the manuka tree found growing in New Zealand and parts of Australia. It is included in modern licensed wound-care products around the world. Manuka honey has been reported to inhibit more than 80 species of bacteria, yet the antimicrobial properties of honey have not yet been fully exploited by modern medicine as its mechanisms of action are not fully understood.

Wounds that are infected with S. pyogenes often fail to respond to treatment. This is largely due to the development of biofilms which may be difficult for antibiotics to penetrate — in addition to problems of antibiotic resistance. The results of the study showed that very small concentrations of honey prevented the start of biofilm development and that treating established biofilms grown in Petri dishes with honey for 2 hours killed up to 85% of bacteria within them.

The Cardiff team are working towards providing molecular explanations for the antibacterial action of honey. The latest study reveals that honey can disrupt the interaction between S. pyogenes and the human protein fibronectin, which is displayed on the surface of damaged cells. “Molecules on the surface of the bacteria latch onto human fibronectin, anchoring the bacteria to the cell. This allows infection to proceed and biofilms to develop,” explained Dr Sarah Maddocks who led the study. “We found that honey reduced the expression of these bacterial surface proteins, inhibiting binding to human fibronectin, therefore making biofilm formation less likely. This is a feasible mechanism by which manuka honey minimizes the initiation of acute wound infections and also the establishment of chronic infections.

Ongoing work in Dr Maddocks’ lab is investigating other wound-associated bacteria including Pseudomonas aeruginosa and meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Manuka honey has also been shown to be effective at killing these bacteria. “There is an urgent need to find innovative and effective ways of controlling wound infections that are unlikely to contribute to increased antimicrobial resistance. No instances of honey-resistant bacteria have been reported to date, or seem likely,” said Dr Maddocks. “Applying antibacterial agents directly to the skin to clear bacteria from wounds is cheaper than systemic antibiotics and may well complement antibiotic therapy in the future. This is significant as chronic wounds account for up to 4% of health care expenses in the developed world.

from:    http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120131205919.htm