People have used honey for thousands of years for wound healing. While we now have other very effective wound-healing options, honey may still be good for healing certain wounds.
Honey has antibacterial properties and a unique pH balance that promotes oxygen and healing compounds to a wound.
Before you reach into your cabinet, know that wound-care professionals use medical-grade honey for healing chronic wounds and other injuries.
Read on for more information on the right and wrong times to use honey for wound healing.
Is honey effective for healing?
Honey is a sugary, syrupy substance that has been shown to have bioactive components that can help heal wounds.
According to a literature review published in the journal Wounds, honey offers the following benefits in healing wounds:
●Acidic PH promotes healing. Honey has an acidic pH of between 3.2 and 4.5. When applied to wounds, the acidic pH encourages the blood to release oxygen, which is important to wound healing. An acidic pH also reduces the presence of substances called proteases that impair the wound healing process.
●Sugar has an osmotic effect. The sugar naturally present in honey has the effect of drawing water out of damaged tissues (known as an osmotic effect). This reduces swelling and encourages the flow of lymph to heal the wound. Sugar also draws water out of bacterial cells, which can help keep them from multiplying.
●Antibacterial effect. Honey has been shown to have an antibacterial effect on bacteria commonly present in wounds, such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant Enterococci (VRE). Part of this resistance may be through its osmotic effects.
Most medical professionals use a specific type of honey on wounds called Manuka honey. This honey comes from Manuka trees. Manuka honey is unique in that it contains the compound methylglyoxal. This compound is cytotoxic (kills bacteria) and is a small molecule that may pass more easily into the skin and bacteria.
Honey and types of wounds
Wound healing professionals have used honey to treat the following wound types:
○ boils
○ burns
○ nonhealing wounds and ulcers
○ pilonidal sinus
○ venous and diabetic foot ulcers
Researchers have conducted a variety of studies regarding the effectiveness of honey as a treatment for a variety of wounds. The Cochrane ReviewTrusted Source published a large-scale literature review of 26 such clinical trials, which encompassed 3,011 participants total.
The researchers concluded that honey appears to help heal partial thickness burns and infected post-operative wounds better than many conventional treatments. However, there weren’t enough large-scale, high-quality studies to conclusively make recommendations for other wound types.
How do you apply honey for wounds?
If you have a wound or burn that won’t heal, it’s important to check with a doctor before using honey on the wound. Ask the doctor if honey is a possibility for treatment.
For severe wounds, it’s best a doctor or wound-care nurse shows you how to apply the honey the first time. This is because the amount of honey and the way the dressing is applied can impact how effective the wound-healing will be.
