Manuka Honey for Antibiotic Resistant Bugs

15 August 2006

Manuka Honey for Antibiotic Resistant Bugs

A Manchester Hospital is trialling Manuka honey in mouth and throat cancer patients susceptible to antibiotic resistant infections.

Cancer patients at Christie Hospital are being given Manuka honey to test whether manuka honey will reduce the rate of infection from antibiotic resistant bugs like the nasty Golden Staph (MRSA), prevalent in patients with reduced resistance through illness or following surgery.

Manuka Honey “first defence” for Infection

Manuka honey from a white-flowered wild New Zealand shrub is becoming one of the most clinically tested honeys in the world, as its remarkable antibacterial properties are being used to solve digestive problems from troublesome bacteria like the stomach ulcer causing helicobacter pylorii as well as anti biotic resistant infections.

Calls for Manuka honey to be the first line of defence against serious infections are supported by research which shows the honey "attacks" bacteria from several different angles making it difficult for the bacteria to develop resistance.
Along with Australian jelly bush honey, Manuka belongs to the Leptospermum honeys investigated by Dr Shona Blair at Sydney University for their unusual antibacterial activity which kills pathogenic bacteria and promotes wound healing.

Manuka Honey Attacks E.Coli

The Sydney study showed Manuka and jellybush honey were effective against many different drug resistant clinical isolates, including the notorious Golden Staff bacteria via several different mechanisms.

Dr Blair’s work stressed the E. coli organism with honey and the genes it used to cope with the attack were identified using microarrays. Microarrays are a relatively new tool in molecular biology that allows us to study the behaviour of thousands of genes at once.

After E. coli was treated with Leptospermum honey it reacted in a unique way. Some of the genes E. coli turned on were the same as those it uses to deal with stresses such as exposure to acid, salt, or heat. However, the entire gene expression pattern after exposure to Leptospermum honey was unique when compared to any other known response

Manuka Also Promotes Wound Healing

Honey not only possesses significant antibacterial activity, it has also been shown to actively promote healing, regardless of the infection status of the wound.

This study found that honey, but not sugar, directly stimulates human cells that are important in the immune response and in wound healing. Although further investigations are needed this stimulation begins to explain some of honeys therapeutic benefits.

Importance of UMF Factor

Not all Manuka honey is strongly antibacterial in action. To distinguish the “actively” antibacterial from the rest, New Zealand honey researchers developed the UMF (Unique Manuka Factor) test to guarantee honey carrying UMF labelling is strongly effective against bacteria.

You need Active Manuka at UMF 10+ or higher for good results against bacterial infections.

Order your Active Manuka NOW!

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