I first read about using honey on cuts after getting a cold. I had heard about using honey for allergies so I was curious as to whether it would lessen the severity of a cough.While it did provide some short term relief, the honey didn’t really end up helping very much for that. Still, I remembered using honey a few months later when I ended up with an infected cut on the bottom of my foot.
It was a stupid infection really. While in Bali for a friend’s wedding, I cut my foot on a rock when I was walking down a pathway at night. I cleaned it up and bandaged it initially, but then didn’t really give it too much thought. It was where my big toe met my foot so there wasn’t too much pain and so it was easy to forget about. I continued to walk around and live my normal life.
Then when I got back home to San Diego a few days later, my foot was still a little sore, but still not really a priority. I had just kind of figured the cut would heal up eventually, but it was only after it had been a month that I realized that it had gotten rather serious. It was a Wednesday night and reggae night at this local bar so I went with a friend. We were hanging out and dancing and by the end of the night, I could barely stand up. There were these shooting pains that were going up from the bottom of my foot and halfway up my leg.
When I got home, I went into the bathroom and drained the cut. I’ll spare you the description, but needless to say it was gross and painful. The pain diminished quite a bit after draining it, but I was still worried. I figured it was time to try out some honey to see if it was as good as I had read about. I put a bandage on with some raw honey and went to bed trying to avoid getting too much honey on the sheets. I was just hoping that I wouldn’t be asking my roommate to drive me to the emergency room in the middle of the night.
When I woke up the next morning, the pain from the cut and the infection was virtually gone. The cut felt the best it had since I had initially cut it. For the first time in a month, I could tell that it would mostly close up within another day or so. The next night I did another overnight honey treatment and by that following morning I knew that I didn’t need to worry about it. I was definitely amazed.
Obviously, I am sure that most people have had infected cuts before and typically after draining them they do get better. Still, I’ve also had infected cuts that I had to drain multiple times. But using honey, I can honestly say that I’ve never had a cut get that much better that quickly. I definitely recommend giving it a try even if it is a little messy.
There is a lot of information out there on the internet. You can learn a lot about how honey can create low levels of hydrogen peroxide which gives it its antibacterial properties. The FDA actually approved a honey based wound dressing a few years back and I’ve read they may be approving some honey based gels as well. There is a honey from New Zealand called Manuka honey which is generally recommended, but I am not sure how much research there is to support using that versus other types of more local honey. I’ve never tried the Manuka honey as it is quite expensive.
A few other things to note. Honey should be kept in the dark. The healing qualities supposedly break down in the light. Also, heated honey breaks down its healing qualities so if you are using honey for other uses such as treating a sore throat, it doesn’t do you any good to mix it into your hot tea. You’re better off just taking a spoonful of honey.
Anyways, it’s probably overkill to use honey on every cut you get unless you are really prone to getting infections. Still, for those moments when you have a particularly nasty cut, it’s definitely worth the stickiness.
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