Honey the Healer

A few months ago, honey finally made its way into my home first aid kit. I'd heard of its healing benefits for quite a while, but had never really looked into it too seriously.

Here in New Zealand we have Manuka honey which is known as a top quality medical-grade honey that has antibacterial, antiviral, antiseptic and anti-inflammatory properties.

Manuka honey comes in different grades (rated on how Active it is) and it is kind of tricky knowing that what you think you are buying is the real-deal, but I have been fortunate to find one that does a good job. It's not cheap, but then a little goes a long way. Lower than 10% Activity is good for general health use, but higher than 10% (I have 15-20%) is the one to use for wounds, bacterial and viral conditions. This is the first aid one to get and save it for when it's really required.

Already in the few months that I've owned my little pot of it I've had several uses for it.

I've used it to speed up the healing process of wounds that had the potential for turning nasty (Danielle received a deep stab-wound from some broken glass in a local playground that slid in sideways into her knee). First up the honey drew our the build up of fluid and blood deep down in the wound that had blown up, yet was trapped. This was an almost immediate reaction where the ooze (sorry about the goopy word) was drawn from the wound. The honey then kept the wound soft, clean and stopped it from drying out (which is when scarring and tearing occur - so covered wound care is the best rather than letting it dry out to heal). It helped the dead skin remove easily and for the new skin to regenerate underneath. I applied the honey to the wound twice a day over about 3 days until the wound had completely sealed over without scabbing.

I have used it when Nathan had a sore throat, and after one drink with lemon juice the sore throat was gone.

I have used it on myself recently when I had sore, dry, skin on my face. For some reason my eyelids, forehead and cheeks had gone particularly dry and felt almost sunburnt and had done for several months. I decided to wash my face using the honey and after 2 uses (I used it only at night-time before bed) my skin was back to feeling soft and no longer dry, flakey or sore. To use, I wet my face, applied about 1/4 teaspoon of honey (you need ensure that the teaspoon is clean and dry so as to not ruin the honey), rubbed around and it surprisingly disperses easily and not in the least sticky. I then rinsed it off lightly using only water and no rubbing (I wanted to retain some of the honey as a moisturiser over night) and patted dry.

Lovin' that honey!