Modern medicine has advanced human health in many different ways, but there’s still very much a place for nature-based remedies that have been used for thousands of years.
When it comes to wound care, honey can be one of the very best treatments, as it both cleans and protects the body while it heals.
In ancient times, the Egyptians, Assyrians, Chinese, Greeks and Romans used honey both for treating wounds and diseases of the gut - they definitely knew their stuff.
We’ll take a closer look at this amazing ingredient, what it does and why we use it in our wound care dressings and skin relief range.
The composition of honey
First things first, all types of honey are made from flower nectar collected by bees, which is then broken down into simple sugars and stored inside a honeycomb.
The design of the honeycomb, combined with the constant fanning of the bees' wings, causes evaporation, creating the sweet liquid we know as honey.
It’s a blend of around 40% fructose, 30% glucose, 17% water, and a combination of sugars, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals. The colour and flavour of the honey is determined by the nectar bees collect.
Table honey v medical grade honey
It’s not recommended practice to use the types of honey you spread on toast or stir in drinks for wounds.
There’s a good reason for this. Honey has natural antibacterial properties that can help fight infection in wounds, but the different types have varying levels of potency, depending on the amount of hydrogen peroxide they contain.
Manuka honey v bacteria in wounds
However, Manuka honey, produced from the nectar of manuka flowers (Leptospermum) from a tea tree that originated in New Zealand, has been shown to be able to inhibit around 60 bacterial species, including salmonella and Escherichia coli.
Some studies suggested it was also capable of fighting so-called superbug bacteria such as methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA-15) and vancomycin-resistant Enterococci when honey is used in a dressing.
Alternative medicine
It’s worth saying here that the use of medicinal or Manuka honey is considered to be “alternative” medicine as studies have been unable as yet to provide enough evidence that its antibacterial activity has healing properties beyond conventional dressings.
So, were the ancient Egyptians, Assyrians, Chinese, Greeks and Romans wrong? Let’s dig a little deeper.
Manuka honey - a wound healing alternative to antibiotics?
Manuka honey in particular contains methylglyoxal or MGO: a small, water-soluble molecule that has impressive antibacterial, immunostimulatory and anti-inflammatory properties that are effective when applied in a wound healing dressing.
The World Health Organization, alongside several peer-reviewed studies, have been sounding the alarm for many years amid growing evidence of the overuse of antibiotics globally, which has led to rising numbers of antibiotic-resistant strains of illness.
Brands such as Gelam, Tualang, and MediHoney - which has been sterilised by gamma irradiation - share the same robust antimicrobial properties as manuka honey, and could prove to be a useful weapon in treating several wound types.
So, what does a honey dressing actually do for wounds?
Research has shown that honey, when used in a dressing to treat wounds, can help reduce inflammation, pain and promote quality healing:
Preparing a wound bed
A honey dressing can help with the removal of necrotic tissue while limiting bacterial infection in healing infected surgical wounds.
Managing wound exudate or pus
When used in a dressing, honey’s anti-inflammatory properties help boost fluid movement into soft tissue, and bring exudate to the surface. Because it helps minimise inflammation, pain and bruising are also reduced, alongside scarring.
Autolytic debridement or removal of wound tissues
A honey dressing helps draw lymph from deeper tissues and constantly cleans the wound bed, speeding up the removal of dead tissue in chronic wounds and any matter that could slow down or prevent healing.
Limits bad smells during wound healing
Because an absorbent dressing coated with honey provides bacterial cells with an alternative source of energy with glucose, wounds such as leg ulcers don’t smell offensive while they heal.
Wrinkly skin or maceration
A honey dressing reduces the risk of maceration during wound healing, and prevents the skin around traumatic wounds from becoming or staying too wet.
Limiting bacterial production
We said earlier that evidence suggests a biologic wound dressing impregnated with honey is effective against a range of multi-resistant bacteria, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, vancomycin-resistant Enterococci, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
Preventing the production of biofilms
Recent studies have shown honey is good at preventing biofilms from being allowed to develop, with active manuka honey particularly good at halting Pseudomonas biofilms, allowing a wound to heal faster.
Cross-contamination
Evidence suggests the natural thickness of honey in a dressing prevents cross-contamination of infected wounds.
A range of wound healing and other properties
Its robust antibacterial effect means a honey dressing is good for healing abscesses, pilonidal sinuses, and can reduce infection in pressure ulcers, venous ulcers, diabetic ulcers and tropical ulcers - to name but a few.
If all of that wasn’t impressive enough, honey’s anti-inflammatory properties also help to boost production of epithelium - the tissue beneath the epidermis, or skin - covering the body’s internal and external surfaces.
It is also a useful skin care treatment for people with burns, acne and eczema, and can be a good treatment for other health conditions, such as reducing acid reflux and cholesterol.
Using a honey dressing in treating surgical wounds
If you have never used a honey dressing before in treating surgical, burns or other wounds, we recommend that you speak to healthcare professionals such as a doctor or wound-care nurse before getting started.
They will ensure you use the right product, such as our wound dressing, which contains Leptospermum honey with MGO 550+, and will advise on the right way to apply the honey dressing to the wound site.
Here are some general tips for using a honey dressing in wound care:
● Make sure you wash your hands thoroughly before applying any honey or dressing pads to the wound bed.
● If you are using Manuka honey as a topical treatment for a deep abscess, for example, apply the honey directly to the dressing, rather than the wound to reduce mess and maximise the antibacterial effect, then place the dressing onto the wound surface.
● If you are using dressings impregnated with honey in wound care, they can be applied directly to the wound, and a secondary absorbent dressing placed on top.
● To prevent any honey from leaking out of the wound bed, make sure to use an air and water-tight trauma secondary dressing.
● Replace the wound dressing regularly as it will become saturated with fluid, but when the honey starts to work, fewer secondary dressing changes will be needed as the healing process takes over.
Potential side-effects of using a honey dressing on wounds
As with any treatment, whether conventional or alternative, there can be side effects and plenty of people around the world are allergic to honey.
If you experience any of the following symptoms, remove all traces of the honey dressing from your wound, replace any absorbent secondary dressing and consult a doctor:
● extreme swelling
● nausea/vomiting
● dizziness
● stinging or burning after topical application
● Breathing problems
Do not use honey as a treatment until given the all-clear to do so by a medical professional.
Check for the UMF mark
Make sure any products used to treat wounds clearly display the Unique Manuka Factor (UMF) mark, ensuring the honey has been produced by beekeepers, producers and exporters that are licenced by the UMF Honey Association.
Alternatively, you can order our quality wound care honey based products.
Contact us for wound dressings
If you want to reduce the chance of infection and pain levels from an ulcer caused by diabetes or a surgical wound, our calcium alginate dressings can help.
They contain Leptospermum honey, and are part of our range of skin relief and medical nutrition products aimed at helping people recover quickly and get back to being fighting fit.
We ship our honey dressings all over the world. If you want to place an order or want more details, use this contact form and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.
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