The best remedies are often the most simple ones, and honey is finally taking centre stage in science!
Commonly reached for when adults and children feel a cold or tickle in the through (though it is not recommended for babies under 1), honey has a long history of being reached for when our chest is a little tight and we have a cough or feel a bit under the weather, but recently a new study was published in the journal BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine that scientist at the University of Oxford have found that in some cases honey can be better than prescription based drugs and over the counter treatments for URTIs.
URTIs are upper respiratory tract infections, so they affect the nose, throat, voice box and bronchi (large air passages) and the study has found that in some cases antibiotics that are commonly prescribed do absolutely nothing, while honey can have a positive effect and some studies around the use of honey have shown that symptoms can last one to two days less than those who did not use honey as treatment.
But not all honey is created equally and whilst more studies need to be carried out it as certainly an exciting step to see nature being recognised as a viable alternative for some medical related scenarios.
Honey is an incredible feat of nature. From the way bees busy themselves and the delicate infrastructure they create to make honey, to the pollination and effects that bees and their honey making have on our planet. It truly is a wonderful and complex item, and it can last for thousands of years! (did you know that they found edible honey in the tombs of the pharos?) Whilst we need to be mindful of honey and how it is harvested, it plays an important role for bees and humans alike.