Honey is an effective natural treatment for MRSA infection. Which honeys have the highest antibacterial power?
Not all honeys are born equal. Do you know which honeys have the highest antibacterial power? And which of these can kill MRSA – the super-bug that can harm us so badly and is so difficult to kill?
It has become more and more difficult to eradicate powerful infections. The microbes mutate faster than conventional medicine can keep up with. This is why the possibility of using herbs, honeybee products and other natural products for the treatment of infection is again seriously considered.
Honey, the sweet medicine, is composed of 80% sugars, mainly fructose and glucose, and minor amounts of oligosaccharides, but there are also other compounds, in combinations that makes them perfectly work in synergy: enzymes, peptides, free amino acids, vitamins, organic acids, flavonoids, phenolic acids and other phytochemicals and minerals. Honey is an easily digestible and high energetic food product. While all honeys have common factors that contribute to their antimicrobial power, some of them are more potent than others, some act against some bacteria ans some against others.
What is MRSA? A gram-positive bacteria, also called “a super-bug”, resistant to antibiotics. Staph skin infections start off as a small, red bump that resembles a spider bite — these infections can progress quickly, turning into swollen, painful abscesses, which doctors need to surgically drain. MRSA = methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus, MSSA = methicillin sensitive Staphylococcus aureus Staphylococcus is one of the five most common causes of infections after injury or surgery. It affects around 500,000 patients in American hospitals annually.It can be transmitted easily through air droplets or aerosol. It can also infect the bloodstream (causing sepsis), lungs (causing peumonia) or urinary truct (causing urinary tract infections). It is common among people with weak immune system, which live in hospitals, nursing homes or other health care centers, a condition known as hospital-acquired MRSA (HA-MRSA). But it can also be found in perfectly healthy persons, known as community-associated MRSA (CA-MRSA) found in team athletes, military recruits, in prisons or in kindergartens.
Plenty of healthy people carry staph without being infected by it. One third of everybody has staph bacteria in their noses. These bacteria naturally live in the nose and on the skin and generally don’t cause any harm. A MRSA infection occurs when the bacteria manage to enter the body through a cut or a break in the skin. Drugs? MRSA is a fast adapting bacteria and now it is resistant to all β-lactam antibiotics, methicillin, amoxicillin, penicillin, oxacillin, and many other common antibiotics. Currently the drugs of choice for treatment of MRSA infections are glycopeptides, mainly vancomycin. Unfortunately, staphylococci also develop resistance to this group of antibiotics, too, and the vancomycin-resistant S. aureus (VRSA) strains is constantly growing. Which is why the attention of the research is now focused on natural products such as honey, propolis and essential oils, as MRSA is sensitive to them and does not adapt.
What kills MRSA? What is the best honey for this? Not all honeys act the same. There are honeys that do not possess any antimicrobial activity against certain bacteria. Here are the ones that do have powerful antibacterial activity against MRSA, according to studies. Remember that MSSA (antibiotic‐sensitive) and MRSA (antibiotic-resistant) strains showed similar sensitivity to honey.
Ulmo honey from Chile Lab tests showed that Ulmo 90 honey had greater antibacterial activity against all MRSA isolates tested than manuka honey UMF25+ (Orla Sherlock et al., 2010). More on ulmo honey.
Kelulut honey (made by Trigona carbonaria stingless bee) also has a high antibacterial power against S. aureus. Agar inhibition assay showed kelulut honey to possess high total antibacterial activity against S. aureus with 26.49 equivalent phenol concentrations (EPC) and non-peroxide activity of 25.74 EPC. (read more about kelulut honey). Manuka honey – Manuka Honey UMF +20 has a bactericidal effect on both methicillin resistant and sensitive S. aureus. There are lots of studies proving its high antibacterial power. (Jing Lu, 2014) More here. If you take this honey for internal problems, you can have it in a very hot tea! Don’t worry about the heat destroying the good qualities of honey. Manuka honey’s health benefits are not affected by heat.
Berringa honey – aka the super manuka honey from Australia. With even a higher MGO concentration, this honey proved high antibacterial activity against MRSA (Sultanbawa Y et al., 2015). See Berringa honey article.
Sidr honey aka ziziphus honey from Iran – high antibacterial effect showed in vivo, on rabbits (Nagiat T Hwisa et al,, 2013). Although this honey was not able to produce complete inhibition of bacterial growth during 120 h incubation, antibacterial activity was increased with additional concentration of honey and the microbial count showed about 3-7.5 log reduction after 120 h in most cases. (Maryam Ekhtelat et al., 2016). Also see sidr honey benefits Malaleuca (aka gelam) honey from Malaysia (Gelam honey was recorded as the most potent honey (among the Malaysian honeys) against S. aureus, in which a dilution of only 5% (w/v) was required to inhibit and kill them at 6.25% (w/v). (Mohd Izwan Zainol et al, 2013) What is gelam honey?
Longan honey from Thailand It was found that MRSA isolate 49 and S. aureus were completely inhibited by the 50% (v/v) longan honey (source No. 1) at 8 and 20 hours of treatment, respectively. (Kanyaluck Jantakee et al., 2015)
Buckwheat honey (Finland) At a concentration of 60% buckwheat honey, the MRSA survival was 11%. Katrina Brudzynski et al., 2012) Stingless honey (made by Melipona scutellaris stingless bee) – A study from 2016 showed that “Honey of Melipona scutellaris was effective in the management of infected wounds, by significant bacterial growth inhibition (MRSA), enhancement of cytokine expression, and positively influenced the wound repair.” Medihoney has high efficiency in elimination of bacterial biofilm (Patricia Merckoll et al., 2008) Other honeys that have antibacterial activity against MRSA, although not that powerful, heather and willow herb honeys (antimicrobial activity at 60% concentration with bacterial survival 22% and 24% respectively) Sources : HEALTHY with HONEY.com
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