Who Needs Neosporin®?

One of the nice things about keeping an on-line journal and sharing things about my hobby (beekeeping) is that sharp-eyed readers periodically forward articles about bees that they think might be of interest to me (they're usually right).

This morning I awoke to find that a long-time treppenwitz reader out in Ohio had sent me a couple of articles from 'The Economist' relating to bees.  The timing couldn't have been better since I had a long meeting scheduled for this morning (which had almost nothing to do with me) and I was desperate for some reading material.

One of the articles was a nice little wrap-up of the latest to do with the mysterious disappearance of a huge portion of the world's bee population last winter.  Not much there I didn't already know, but still... nice to stay up-to-date with that sort of thing.

The other article was so fascinating that I felt like I should share the salient points here.

Long story short, the article (entitled 'A Sticky Solution') discusses the fact that honey is proving to be quite effective in fighting antibiotic-resistant 'super bugs' such as those found in many hospitals today.

When I first began keeping bees, several of the books I read mentioned in passing that before the age of antibiotic cremes and antiseptic sprays/ointments, honey had been used for millenia as a very effective wound dressing.  In fact, there is evidence that Roman soldiers used honey as a battle dressing to fight off infection and assist with healing. 

However, in all of the bee-culture books where such things were mentioned, this type of factoid was relegated to the status of folk wisdom and no real medical reason was ever given why honey should work as a wound dressing.

The Economist article steps in and fills in the gaps quite nicely with the following explanation:

"Research in Australia and New Zealand suggests that honey heals because it attacks bacteria in several different ways at once. Because honey is composed of saturated sugars, it sucks up water, depriving bacteria of the liquid they need to survive and multiply. As bees make honey they secrete glucoseoxidase, an enzyme that releases the bleach hydrogen peroxide when it comes into contact with wound liquids. The low-level but frequent release of this chemical ensures regular anti-bacterial washes of the wound."

Look, I'm, not going to turn my back on anti-biotic for serious stuff such a systemic infections... and I'm sure the medical community isn't about to do so either.  But I have to say that from here on in, when anyone in the family gets a cut or scrape, I may just reach for the honey jar rather than that tube of Neosporin® in the medicine cabinet.

UPDATE:  Everyone's favorite blogging anesthesiologist (the proprietor of Book of Joe) was kind enough to send me another link to even more compelling information about honey's medicinal applications as a wound/burn dressing.  Thanks Joe!