Just a spoonful of honey

I was surprised and pleased to see a write-up in Parenting magazine about the value of using honey to treat "cold symptoms".  See a short blurb of the information they shared here.

Our family has been treating coughs with honey for two or three years now, thanks to a helpful idea from one of our pharmacy friends.  I remember my dad giving me a mix of lemon and honey for a sore throat as a child.  Does anyone else remember being given special honey teas or the like?

A spoonful of honey helps our kids before bed (or in the middle of the night - yippee) when they have a cough or a tickle.  Plus, they like it (suprise).  I'm afraid the kids have started asking for honey even when they are not sick at all.

A lot of folks in this area buy into the idea of using local honey for preventing seasonal allergies, as well.  Our allergist gives no credence to this idea, but we've been trying it anyway.  Never hurts to try and we're supporting our local beekeepers!

~ Katrina

Editor's note: Honey has been used for medicinal purposes for about a gazillion years.  Ancient Egyptians used it for a variety of things including binding wounds.  As you've likely noticed, honey doesn't spoil or require refrigeration; the reason being that several bacterial species/genera can't grow/proliferate in honey.  So we've "discovered" that honey is a good antibacterial treatment (sarcasm implied because well, you know, it's a really old idea that we are claiming to have discovered, but has been known since dirt was new).  It's good to know anyway.

--- Christian