Honey To Treat Sinusitis

Honey may help bring relief to chronic sinusitis sufferers, new Canadian research suggests.

The natural germ fighters in honey attack the bacteria that cause the discomforting disorder.

“Honey has been used in traditional medicine as a natural anti-microbial dressing for infected wounds for hundreds of years,” noted study co-author Dr. Joseph G. Marsan, from the University of Ottawa.

The objectives of the study were to evaluate the activity of honey on so-called “biofilms,” which are responsible for numerous chronic infections. Bacteria like Staph aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa have a method of shielding themselves from the activity of anti-microbials by living in substances called biofilms, which cannot be penetrated by even the most powerful anti-microbials.

When scientistis applied honey to biofilms made up of the bacteria that cause sinusitis, they found that honey was more effective in killing these bacteria than antibiotics commonly used against them.

Their study showed that certain honeys, namely the Manuka honey from New Zealand and the Sidr honey from Yemen, have a powerful killing action on these bacterial biofilms that is far superior to the most powerful anti-microbials used in medicine today.

The Canadian findings echo research published last year in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, by a team at Penn State College of Medicine. That group found that honey worked better than commercial cough medicines containing dextromethorphan (DM) in easing children’s cough.

Source: MSN Health & Fitness, 24 September 2008

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