Ulcers And Healing With Honey

Honey And Ulcers by Jane Thurnell-Read

Honey is good to eat, and it has been used to counteract hay fever, but it also can work well with leg ulcers. Here's some research.

A recent case study reported by J. J. Eddy MD, in the Journal of Family Practice (2005 54: 533-536) recounted how a 79-year old man with diabetic foot ulcers had been treated conventionally and unsuccessfully for 14 months both at home and in hospital and had lost several toes. The ulcers were very large and were infected with two types of antibiotic resistant bacteria (MRSA and VRE).

The hospital wanted to amputate his foot but he refused. Once home he decided to try using honey - ordinary supermarket honey was smeared on the ulcer and then it was wrapped up. After two weeks improvement was visible, and within a year the ulcers had healed.

Another study in 2004 (CE Dunford and R Hanano, Journal of Wound Care, 2004 13: 1-7) looked at 40 patients who had venous ulcers (caused by problems in the veins of the legs). All of the subjects had failed to respond to 12 weeks of compression bandaging (the normal medical treatment). Medihoney was used over the next 12 weeks, and 20 of the patients reported much less pain, and the average ulcer area decreased by half (from 8 to 4 sq cms).

Honey has antibiotic qualities so it is likely this at least is part of the reason for its success. It would be interesting to see if it really needs to be honey. This research reminded me that many years ago I met a naturopath who was packing leg ulcers with white sugar - he said it was the only good use for white sugar! From what he told me he was having remarkable results, as the bacteria did not like the high-sugar-content environment.

Unfortunately none of this research seems to have really been taken up by the medical profession at large. Conventional treatment has limited success with ulcers so this is particularly sad. (But see the comments I received after I wrote this piece.)

Being a vegetarian I'm not keen on animal studies, but this one is of interest in this connection.