Manuka Honey On Wounds and Burns: Things to Know
A quick visit to the history chronicles will confirm to you that honey enjoyed wide usage for many, many centuries as an effective remedy for wounds, burns, cuts, and even ulcers.
This was especially true in the ancient Egypt, traditional Chinese medicine, and in the Ayurvedic medicine.
More recent studies show that manuka honey has a significant wound and burns care properties.
In this post, I’ll explain to you everything you need to know about manuka honey and its hand in healing wounds and burns.
Let’s get into the details:
Why Use Manuka And Not Any Other Honey To Treat Wounds?
You might have heard that you cannot just use any honey you obtain from your local stores to treat wounds.
Why?
Because not all types of honey have the same healing capabilities as those in Manuka. It contains many therapeutic abilities and has even approved by US FDA (Federal Drug Administration) as the recommended method of wound treatment.
Evidence of Healing
As aforementioned, many clinical studies have been conducted to prove the wound healing nature of the manuka honey.
Here, I’ll discuss two top studies carried on this topic.
The first study was published in the “International Journal of Lower Extremity Wounds.”
Surprisingly, the researcher discovered multiple healing properties in Manuka honey not present in most of the modern forms of treatments.
In the study, 22 trials were carried out involving 2,062 patients who were treated with honey as the wound dressing. The following properties were discovered:
- Honey introduce an anti-inflammatory activity
- Permanent scars formation was dramatically reduced
- Honey easily controlled and even eliminated odors from the patients’ wounds
- Apart from clearing the infections, the honey also prevented the wounds from spreading the bacteria.
The other study was conducted by a researcher from the University Of Auckland, New Zealand.
Using data collected from up tom19 clinical trials (from 2,554 patients with untreated wounds), the doctors were able to show that honey helped treat the wounds faster, unlike the regular gauze and film dressings used for treating burns.
How Exactly Does Manuka Honey Treat Wounds and Burns?
One of the top reasons why manuka makes a great option for wound treatment is its ability to release hydrogen peroxide- an essential compound for eliminating the bacterial activities.
Numerous clinical evidence have shown that manuka carries superior antimicrobial properties. This is made possible by some properties in the honey composition that team up to give it such capabilities.
These include:
- High osmolality: That is, Manuka honey is a highly saturated solution of sugars that display strong interactions with water molecules. Lack of “free” water in manuka translates to inhibited growth of microorganisms
- Hydrogen Peroxide: We’ve already mentioned this one. When manuka gets diluted by the wound exudates, a glucose oxidase enzyme reaction occurs, resulting in hydrogen peroxide production. This is usually produced in small bits to offer the best dose of antibacterial activity.
- Antibacterial phytochemicals: even when the hydrogen peroxide activity has been removed, some honey still shows some antimicrobial activities. When it comes to Manuka, it has demonstrated the highest levels of the antibacterial phytochemicals.
NOTE: Not all manuka honey has the same antibacterial properties. The honey is usually tested for its antibacterial potency and rated in terms of UMF (Unique Manuka Factor). The higher the UMF ratings, the stronger the antibacterial properties of the given manuka honey.
How To Use Manuka Honey on Wounds
Squirting some manuka over your wound/burn and then rubbing it is what most people do and wait for the wound to heal.
But that doesn’t really do the trick.
The first thing you ought to do is getting some rough measurements of the wound area. With the measurements at hand, you can then prepare an appropriate amount of manuka honey.
Ensure you evenly spread it around the area for optimal results.
Alternatively, you can rub the manuka honey on some wound dressing and then wrap it around the infected area.
And if you want a less messy alternative, consider buying the pre-packaged wound dressings from your local pharmacy stores. These come with the honey already installed in them, so all you have to is carefully wrap it around your wound.
What if you’re suffering from deeper wounds?
In such cases, you’ll have to smear the honey over the affected area before you can administer the dressing. This will allow the honey to work its way into the infection properly.
Final Verdict
What could be a better way of using an affordable, natural healer than applying it on your wound, burn or cut? Truly, it heals your wound completely. It does this faster and better than most of the modern treatments out there.
This is based on the fact that Manuka honey contains high antimicrobial properties that team up with additional healing properties in the honey to effectively heal your wounds and burns.
If you’re still in doubt on the effectiveness of manuka honey on wounds and burns, many clinical studies have been conducted on the same topic. Nearly all of them publish positive results.
Follow our top tips above on how to treat your wound with manuka honey.
