Manuka Honey

Hi
I only just saw this so my answer may not be relevant now.
Manuka honey is quite expensive.Some years ago I had an operation and got an awful infection, I was told to take Manuka honey to help fight the infection.It can also be ut on wounds but obviously you would need correct advice on this before you did that.
You have to go for the strongest, I got mine from Holland AND barret as at that time they had several different strengths, obviously the higher the concentration, the more you pay.
I was taking a tablespoon full each day and it did help in my recovery, even though I cannot stand the taste of honey !
I don't know if that helps.

I had a post surgery infection which took 2 months of daily dressing changes by the district nurse wound specialist ; she had to push a long strip of antiseptic soaked dressing inside the hole in a place I couldn't see to do it myself. As it slowly healed from inside it no longer needed lots of packing, just a squirt-in of anti septic; and she suggested we change it to manuka honey . I was discombobulated; to normalise it she unfortunately told me she was also using live maggots to clean out diabetic leg ulcers and they were great. Not for me of course. But that turned me right off her newfangled notions so I refused the manuka honey.

30 years later my greyhound suffered a very deep bite wound that refused to be closed surgically, and this time it was me cleaning and packing it (twice a day for 6 months) and , on vet recommendation, using manuka honey. From a prescription tube of sterile medical manuka honey, so easy to apply. (If only I'd known before! nothing like my yuk imagining of nurse spooning it in from a jar).

Slow but it worked. So for six months Dog wore H's teeshirts, a clean one daily, to keep flies and dog off the open wound and honey. H is slim but Dog was slimmer, so his teeshirts were " custom fitted" with a safety pin. (After a while I notice H was wearing a teeshirt with pin holes in it, and realised that man and dog were sharing their wardrobe).

Anyway, I'd now recommend prescription surgical quality manuka honey as a wound dressing.

My Dd had a caesarean op for her last baby and developed a nasty infection. I can’t remember who told us to apply manuka honey but I put it on the wound with the nurses approval. Worked like magic.

Interesting 👍

Any ‘pure’ honey would do. It has long established antiseptic properties and is actually used clinically.

It has to be a bona fide pure unadulterated honey. A great many cheap commercial brands are apparently padded out with sugar syrup. Obviously this causes it to lose its potency.

www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/fake-honey-brands-safe-how-to-spot-b2646976.html

Manuka honey is effective but not as unique as it is said to be. And is wickedly expensive…

You’ll have to come to Australia or New Zealand - it is reasonably priced here though not super cheap. Aldi sells it but how pure their version is I wouldn’t know. They charge about $8 a jar, around £4 and say it is all from the Manuka bushes. There are quite a lot of those bushes here in SE Australia, especially near the beaches.I think it is actually originally from NZealand.

I was a nursing assistant in the 1960s. Deep bedsores were treated with honey soaked packs. I hadn't heard of Manuka in those days.

Manuka grows like a weed in NZ but I have tried growing it myself with less success.
Heather honey will be just as good for you and the best is to have the local, to you, honey.

Honey has two advantages. Firstly, exposed to moisture, it releases eases small amounts oh hydrogen peroxide, a known antiseptic. Secondly, the concentration of sugars stop bacterial growth.
Manuka (or slightly different Australian tea tree) pollen/oil has been used for centuries if not millennia by the Australian aborigines and Māori as an excellent antiseptic.

Whilst in New Zealand a few years ago, I developed a nasty blister on my heel which became infected. My cousin gave me an ancient half used tube of Manuka Honey and told me to apply it morning and night. Blister healed like magic.

Manuka “superiority” is merely an incredibly successful NZ marketing campaign. As others have said, any pure honey has the same properties. If you can get local honey, this is an added bonus.

My wife had a friend who had persistent leg ulcers, she got Mankuna Honey from NZ, they did eventually heal so it was worth the cost and trouble.
Whether any honey would do the same I have no idea, try it for a couple of weeks and see it the condition improves.

I haven't tried Manuka honey.
I've heard fantastic reports about it ,but it's expensive .
Does Holland and Barrett sell it ?

What about local honey ?
I agree with argymargy on this .

The only relief I get from my lingering chest infection is from honey and lemon drinks with added cloves and cinnamon .
My local bee nan has retired and I've found another source.

Approx 1700 tons of genuine manuka honey is a made in NZ each year compared to at least 5 X times that amount sold worldwide claiming to be manuka so there's A huge amount on sale which can't have same healing power as the genuine expensive honey. A friend takes their £3.99 manuka every day and swears by it - maybe a placebo effect? I dislike the taste of honey so my go to is aloe Vera. There are various strengths but to get the genuine article I cut a piece off an aloe plant and squeeze the gel out. It relieves my eczema and is a great healer for lots of things including sunburn. They are very easy to grow - here's mine.

I get raw honey from beekeepers in either of the two adjacent villages, confident that it hasn’t been diluted with sugar syrup, nor is it a blend of foreign honey. Manuka is no better, despite its inflated price.

I spilt boiling water and scalded the top of my foot. It was a deep burn, bleeding and oozing, but responded brilliantly with honey under a sterile dressing and healed quickly with no scar.

nanna8

You’ll have to come to Australia or New Zealand - it is reasonably priced here though not super cheap. Aldi sells it but how pure their version is I wouldn’t know. They charge about $8 a jar, around £4 and say it is all from the Manuka bushes. There are quite a lot of those bushes here in SE Australia, especially near the beaches.I think it is actually originally from NZealand.

The point of my post was that you don't actually have to use Manuka honey medicinally because any other pure, unadulterated, unprocessed, UK produced honey is just as good. And much cheaper.

Thank you for all this very helpful information. I am a huge believer in honey as a great healer, but always choose that local to me.

My father had a number of basal cell carcinomas removed from his back . A couple of them just would not heal . The nurse at our GP surgery changed the dressings weekly and applied Manuka Honey . Over a period of 3 to 4 weeks consistently the wounds healed .
Thankyou for reminding me about the powers of Manuka Honey .

she unfortunately told me she was also using live maggots to clean out diabetic leg ulcers and they were great. Not for me of course. But that turned me right off her newfangled notions

Maggots are an old-fangled notion. My grandmother, nursing the wounded of WWI, used them.

I fell last year and sustained a deep wound on my leg. It healed in what the surgery called record type. It was being dressed with plasters impregnated with a medical type of honey.

Ps the wound turned into an ulcer. A very deep hole.

BoadiceaJones

*she unfortunately told me she was also using live maggots to clean out diabetic leg ulcers and they were great. Not for me of course. But that turned me right off her newfangled notions*

Maggots are an old-fangled notion. My grandmother, nursing the wounded of WWI, used them.

‘Old fashioned’ doesn’t make them ‘wrong’. They are still used medically because they are proven to be effective.

www.swbh.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Using-maggots-to-help-heal-your-wound-ML5069.pdf

So are leeches!

What do leeches do?
I thought they were originally used as a method of blood letting, a definitely unscientific and out of date practice!
I shall have to ask my friend google

MaizieD

What do leeches do?
I thought they were originally used as a method of blood letting, a definitely unscientific and out of date practice!
I shall have to ask my friend google

The NHS use leeches.

www.uhcw.nhs.uk/download/clientfiles/files/Patient%20Information%20Leaflets/Trauma%20and%20Neuro%20services/Plastics/Leech%20therapy.pdf