UK & Ireland Research Further Supports Manuka Honey's Use In Woundcare
16/02/2009

News piece provided by http://www.newzealandhoneyshop.co.uk/

Two recent research studies, one UK based and one Irish based, have given further support to the benefits of using medical grade honey to aid healing of wounds.

They are significant for moving beyond the anecdotal evidence and subjecting a natural remedy to more 'conventional' scrutiny. The UK study was recently published in the Journal of Advanced Nursing (volume 65, issue 3) and involved a randomised clinical trial with a sample of 105 patients. Its aim was to compare the healing rates of wounds between using conventional treatments and medical grade honey.

They found that the healing rate at 12 weeks was better in the patients treated with honey, and that the group treated with honey had a shorter median time to healing compared to those given conventional treatments.

Concluding: ”These results support the proposition that there are clinical benefits from using honey in wound care, but further research is needed”.

An abstract of the published paper can be found here:

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/121676394/abstract

The Irish study was published last year in the Journal of Clinical Nursing (volume 18, issue 3) and used a randomized controlled trial looking at medical grade manuka honey versus hydrogel in the healing of venous ulcers. They used Woundcare 18+ (more commonly labeled ManukaCare 18+ in Europe), and concluded that “The WoundCare 18+ group had increased incidence of healing, effective desloughing and a lower incidence of infection than the control”. Also confirming “that Manuka honey may be considered by clinicians for use in sloughy venous ulcers”.

An abstract from this paper can be found here:

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/121387363/abstract

Both studies are important for their use of randomized trials to further build on the existing research supporting medical grade manuka honey. Plus it is positive to see a wider geographical spread of supporting research, in these cases done on the opposite side of the world to where the product comes from (New Zealand). They also show a positive way forward for natural based medicines to gain wider acceptance by being used in more rigorous, scientifically based trials. The authors of both studies accept the need for further research.

It should be noted that for external wound use medical grade manuka honey should be used, such as the ManukaCare UMF® 18+ mentioned above. This is due to it being subjected to a higher degree of filtration, and being sterilized, compared to other manuka honey.

http://www.newzealandhoneyshop.co.uk

Facebook

MySpace

Digg It

Del.icio.us

Reddit

StubmleUpon

Newsvine