Honey - the "Come-Back Kid" - Honey as Medicine - Honey as Food

The Honey Bee and her products have amazing health benefits.  Honey's antibacterial properties were known and used by ancient civilizations such as the Chinese, Egyptians, and the Greeks.  Apitheropy, the medical use of honeybees and their products, was practiced regularly until World War II.  With the discovery of modern antibiotics honey was taken out of the medicine cabinet and relegated to the the kitchen pantry.  Today however, honey has made a medical come back and is in the gleaming high-tech spotlight.  It has even been awarded  the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's seal of approval!  You can't get more respectable than that!


Medical supply labs are actually packaging honey soaked bandages for wound and burn application. For details see:  MSNBC Report 

Now that viruses have adapted to many of our twentieth century antibiotics  science is looking back to some of the old tried and true remedies that have enjoyed historical success.   Recent research has shown that components of honey even diluted 50 times kills the newly antibiotic resistant  "Golden Staph (staphylococcus aureus) bacteria".   


Some astounding healing properties of honey when consumed or applied topically are : 

• Effective antibacterial-producing hydrogen peroxide on wounds
• Anti-inflammatory
• Speeds healing by promoting new tissue growth
• Minimizes scaring and keloid formation
• Moisturizes
• Draws lymph and dirt out of a wound
• Replenishes energy
• Enhances stamina
• Aids in absorption of nutrients
• Improves the immune system
• Promotes sleep
• Coats and sooths sore throats

Apitherapy - is the term for the medical use of product made by honeybees which includes bee venom, honey, propolis ,royal jelly, bee's wax etc.  It includes treating infectious wounds, replenishing energy, chronic pain relief, tissue rejuvenation, and alleviating symptoms of major diseases among other things.


Honey was the base or was included as an ingredient in many natural remedies. Have you heard of the old time cure for sore throats, colds and the flu -  the "Hottie-Tottie"?  It is fresh squeezed lemon juice, mixed with a teaspoon of honey and a shot of whiskey.  Stir it up, drink it down, then straight to bed under a quilt with socks on and a warm hot water bottle.  Owwee!  Sounds like natural Ny-quil.


I have heard some people say they have tried honey cures and they didn't work.  Yep, that is right - honey cures don't work now-a-days.  The reason is that most honey that you buy in the grocery store is cooked, processed and imported from overseas - mostly Chile.  High temperature along with UV light and microwaves kill the enzyme activity in honey.  Light and heat particularly effect the Glucose Oxidase (GOX) enzyme as well as honey's Gluconic Acid  which produce the antibacterial properties of honey.  


So when you try to do it Grandma's tried and true way - do it her way - with real unpasteurized, raw local honey.


Now you can throw out that Neosporine and Nyquil and eat or smear on that raw organic local honey instead.  Now if these go out of date in your medicine cabinet you don't have to waste money and throw them out.  Just eat them instead.  Right honey?

The Flu - What Cures Me?!

Ever since my immune system was compromised by an incompetent Florida dentist nine years ago I have annually contracted a serious bout of influenza between the end of Christmas and the fist couple of weeks of January. Not a good way to start the New Year to say the least.  It always develops into bronchitis and takes weeks to get over and down time in bed.  I now avoid antibiotics (which made no difference  when I did take them - other than bad side effects) and I believe the flu shot does more harm than good beside the fact that the chemists guess as to what type of hundreds of strains of influenza to target.


Last year I tried a cough syrup/immune builder called Sambuca it is a syrup made of elderberry, vitamin C, Zinc and other good stuff.  It was pretty good.  I could tell a difference and it seemed to shorten the time I had the flu.  It cost around $17.00 for a small bottle.


This year I hit the mother-load simply, natural, stinky, garlic cloves! I was in bed feeling terrible - head pounding, coughing, congested, fever, sore throat - the whole deal - when my dear husband suggested I take a clove of garlic.  To appease him (he brought it to me on a plate) and feeling so bad that at least it couldn't hurt, I took it.  I actually cut it in half and only took half of it.  Within hours I unexpectedly felt better.  I began to take one half to one clove with every meal.  The next day I was 50% better.  I got up, did some light exercise (because my back was hurting from being in bed for so long) and took a shower.  The next day my symptoms were reduced to a mild cold - then gone.  Wow!  Nothing has ever worked so dramatically in the midst of the full blown flu before!  I may not smell great but I feel great and the vampires are leaving me alone.

Don’t Blow it! You will just get an Ear Infection

Ear Aches are common among little kids because of the shape of their faces.  When a child is young their eustatation tubes are fairly parallel.  When little kids are told to blow their nose – that is pretty much blowing infection into their ears. As they get older their face gets longer and the tubes angle down so they suffer with less ear aches.   Instead of blowing little noses just gently wipe.

With winter upon us and we retreat into closer quarters there is more sharing of colds and flu bugs.  One great way to alleviate sinus congestions is to use a neti Pot

When we were kids we were told to sniff warm salt water to clear a sinus infection.  Have you ever tried that?  It really stings and it feels like you are drowning too.  It was a mess, it hurt, and never did much good.  But the neti pot is different.

What is a neti pot?  A neti looks like a ceramic small tea pot with a long spout.  Yes this is gross but it works.  A solution of (1/4 tsp) pharmaceutical grade salt and pure warm water is made for the pot.  Then you bend over the sink with your forehead below your chin and pour the warm saline water through one nostril.  Wait, it takes a few seconds because your sinuses are all behind your forehead and behind your eyes but in about 8 seconds the saline water pours out your other nostril washing all the nasty and bad bugs with it.  The saline water helps fight infection, and dries out that runny nose.

My daughter’s doctor (we know doctors are usually pill perscribers) said that if folks would neti pot as soon as they were exposed to a bug then we wouldn’t catch colds or the flu.  I know it sounds weird – it did to me at first – but it really works.  

Oh Hail! Take Your Vitamines!

Two days ago it was 80°. This morning it is hailing!

Can dramatic fluctuations in weather make you more susceptible to illness?

Despite generations of mothers insisting that we bundle up, and fill up on chicken soup and hot tea, scientists are running outside barefoot without their coats on.

Once again Scientists are back-talking the Old Wives Club and bucking generations of conventional wisdom. Science reports: “Colds and flu are caused by viruses and when bad weather arrives, people merely stay inside and are more likely to spread germs to one another”. Well, this Old Wife has never observed work or school dismissing for good weather so we can disperse and not sneeze on one another.

They also say, "Viruses spread more easily through dry air. When it is cold outside, the air is drier both outdoors and inside (where people have their heaters on) which may make it easier for germs to pass from one person to another.” Yadah, Yadah, Yadah! The old wives club’s imperial data suggests just the opposite – dramatic shifts in weather as well as damp cold weather makes us more susceptible to sickness.

So until Mr. Smarty Pants is going to make you homemade chicken soup, wipe your nose, and tuck you in, mom says put on your scarf, keep warm and dry and take an extra vitamin C!