Honey, I killed the superbug | Hacker News Reader

Honey, I killed the superbug

theaustralian.news.com.au

I can't find any mention of this in medical news sources; it sounds interesting, but the fact that it's being reported primarily by general interest media leaves me a bit skeptical.

Here's the source (I think): http://www.springerlink.com/content/7607jn7q1817018p/?p=0a8e...

Developing discussion and anecdotes: http://www.imminst.org/forum/Honey-I-killed-the-superbug-t30...

That's because it's not new: putting honey on wounds has been a household cure for centuries. Reports like this one pop up every once in a while. Actual effectiveness and usefulness are nothing compared to perceived properties.

I've read many things about the usage of honey to treat wounds, the most impressive that I'm aware of is its use to treat necrotic tissue. They can use it on some of the largest wounds because the honey is naturally antiseptic and allows a prolonged open wound to not catch infection, and they use laboratory bred maggots that are completely sterile and insert them into the wound. The whole thing is then bandaged up and the maggots will clean the wound of dead tissue better than any surgeon could and for much, much cheaper. After about a week the maggots should have removed all the dead tissue and your body can completely heal the wound, sometimes with very little scar tissue proportionate to the wound. I believe one of the most common uses is on motorbike fall-off accidents due to people losing huge chunks of their leg and stuff.

It's an extremely impressive treatment and exceptionally cheap and successful compared to the alternatives.

A year or two ago, there was some reporting on its effectiveness (presumably backed by a study, but I no longer recall) in limiting further peripheral tissue damage and the need for amputation, in diabetics suffering from that problem. Applied topically; not ingested.

Get raw honey. The processed kind loses these properties.

You can tell the quality, just turn over a jar you'll see a water bubble float up. The faster it rises the lower the quality. The raw type has none of that, just the good stuff.

Humans have been eating honey for the longest time. It's probably the best sweetener.

Good advice in picking a good raw honey, and I agree that honey is a great choice for a sweetener. BTW, farmers markets and local produce stands are great places to find good raw honey cheap.

For convenience, it's at Whole Foods Market too. But I'm unsure of the quality.

I agree about artificial sweeteners, they can cause problems. They seems to trigger psychological effects that cause overeating [1]. The super sweet taste might signal, binge. Humans never ate highly concentrated super sweet foods. Fruit was seasonal. But even the fruit we eat today has been bred for sweetness for centuries.

[1] http://www.purdue.edu/UNS/html4ever/2004/040629.Swithers.res...

Honey is hygroscopic. It sucks the water out of bacteria and kills them. But anything hygroscopic does that, honey is not special in that way.

The article seems to conflate antibiotics (which kill bacteria living inside you) with topical treatments (which kill bacteria on you). You can't replace antibiotics with this.

As far as I know all honey does this, not just Manuka honey.

To some degree, but the more voracious kind is based on honey made by bees feasting on Australian Tea Tree .. which is, itself, a pretty wonderful source of all kinds of protective substances.

<-- grew up in Australia, was constantly healing my scrapes and bumps with Tea Tree oils and Manuka honey .. glad its all finally getting some science.

My family used to do similarly, even though "modern" medicines like neosporin were popular then, but IIRC bark and sap from the Manuka tree is supposed to be good, too.

+1 for raw honey being better, but it's pretty hard to get it in big cities (without paying ridiculous prices!).

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