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  • 2017-10-20 (xsd:date)
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  • Is Manuka Honey 'Better Than All Known Antibiotics?' (en)
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  • Despite celebrity endorsements from Gwyneth Paltrow and other actresses-turned-lifestyle brands, humans have used honey as a treatment for skin ailments and infections for thousands of years. Early practitioners may not have known why, but, later scientific discoveries elucidated one of the primary reasons behind honey’s success as an antiseptic — it naturally produces hydrogen peroxide when diluted, per a 2014 review paper: Since 1989, however, a growing body of work has suggested that one particular kind of honey called manuka honey, found in New Zealand and Australia and derived from bees that feed on the manuka bush (Leptospermum scoparium), appears to have additional antiseptic and antibiotic properties likely attributed to something beyond the hydrogen peroxide. Later research, beginning in 2008, determined that the main compound responsible for this increased antimicrobial activity is a chemical called methylglyoxal (MGO), a byproduct of the bee’s honey production. Some manuka honey contains up to 100 times more MGO than other honeys. It is against this backdrop of scientific research that viral news stories and specialty honey distributors frequently extol the virtues of manuka honey. Yet, exaggerations are frequent. In viral post from January 2017, the website Healthy Holistic Living made this claim of the honey: That story, as well as a similar post on the missed-bee-pun-opportunity website bewellhub.com from October 2017, highlights research from October 2010 and January 2015 (not exactly breaking science news) to suggest manuka honey has potential to avoid antibiotic resistance. They claim it could fight some strains of Staphylococcus aureus, which can develop marked resistance to antibiotics in the form of MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus: The older 2010 study, published in the European Journal of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases, is a preliminary, but not definitive, suggestion that treating wounds with honey does not result in honey-resistant bacteria, but this research was not performed on human test subjects, and was instead performed using the tightly controlled conditions of a petri dish: While it is accurate to suggest this study showed that manuka honey killed every bacteria or pathogen it was tested on, it would be inaccurate to suggest that evidence from two specific strains of bacteria and four heterogenous samples taken from wounds suggest broad superiority over antibiotics in all cases. In fact, much of the current research on manuka honey is focused on the possibility that, medically, it could be used in combination with other antibiotics, primarily for hard to fight infections like MRSA. The more recent 2015 study highlighted in the bewellhub.com post and published in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology, primarily addressed that issue looking at a variety of Staphylococcus infections: This study, like the one discussed before, was done using cultures, and was not performed on actual human subjects, as well. In a 2014 paper reviewing the available science for manuka honey as a topical treatment for infections, the authors suggest that there is certainly potential for manuka honey, but more human trials will need to be conducted to get a clearer picture and gain widespread acceptance: While there is growing evidence to suggest an important role for manuka honey for wound care and recalcitrant infections, the research is too preliminary and largely untested on humans to truly know its complete potential, and it is certainly too preliminary to suggest it is better than all known antibiotics. As such, we rank this claim as mostly false. (en)
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