Honey should be the perfect solution for cough relief, scientists insist

Whether it’s spread on toast, drizzled with porridge, or simply eaten with a spoon, many turn to honey to satisfy their sugar cravings.

Honey has long been praised for its antibacterial properties, with tales of old women swearing sweet to relieve a sore throat.

A review of 14 studies conducted by the University of Oxford now suggests that it should be the ideal solution for relieving upper respiratory symptoms, such as coughing.

Read more: Manuka honey: what are the health benefits?

Honey is ‘inexpensive, easy to access, and has limited risk’

Honey has long been used as a home remedy to treat coughs and colds. However, studies on its effectiveness have largely excluded adults.

In 2010, scientists at Shahid Sadoughi University in Israel gave 139 coughing children 2.5 ml of honey or the over-the-counter cough suppressants dextromethorphan and diphenhydramine.

Twenty-four hours later, those who received honey saw their “cough frequency score” drop much more than that of other youth.

To find out the benefits in adults, scientists at Oxford looked at 14 studies involving more than 1,700 participants.

The trials compared regular honey to “usual care,” such as antihistamines, expectorants – drugs that remove mucus, cough suppressants and pain relievers.

Read more: Honey dressings could prevent infections after surgery

The results – published in the BMJ Evidence Based Medicine – found that honey was more effective than usual care when it came to improving symptoms, especially the frequency and severity of the cough.

Two of the studies suggested that honey reduced symptoms for one to two days.

Scientists pointed out that only two of the 14 studies compared the nectar to a placebo, so more research is needed before any firm conclusions can be drawn.

Nonetheless, the team urged people to go for the natural alternative to cough suppressants.

“Honey is a layman remedy that is frequently used and well known to patients,” they wrote.

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“It is also inexpensive, easy to access and presents limited risks.”

Read more: Can Old Women’s Tales Really Help Fight Colds?

Scientists have also urged doctors to recommend honey as an alternative to antibiotics, which are often incorrectly prescribed for viral infections, although they are only effective against certain bacteria.

“Upper respiratory tract infections (URTI) are the most common reason for prescribing antibiotics,” they wrote.

“As the majority of URTIs are viral, prescribing antibiotics is both ineffective and inappropriate.”

Inappropriate prescriptions contribute to antibiotic resistance, which the World Health Organization has called “one of the greatest threats to global health.”

A lack of alternatives, combined with the desire to maintain a good doctor-patient relationship, means doctors may feel pressured to dispense antibiotics for viral infections, the scientists wrote.

The benefits of Manuka honey

Scientists have noted that the quality of honey varies. Only varieties of Manuka, for example, contain the unique antibacterial ingredient methylglyoxal.

In 2014, scientists at Nagasaki University in Japan discovered that Manuka honey inhibits the reproduction of an influenza virus in the laboratory.

Three years later, a team from the University of the Algarve noted that it was effective against the chickenpox virus when tested on cancer cells in human skin.

A more recent study also suggested that Manuka honey may prevent infections after surgery.

Scientists at Newcastle University have alternated eight “nanocoats” of medical-grade Manuka honey with polymers – a material made up of long repeating chains of molecules.

Manuka honey has a negative charge, while polymers are positive. Together, they created an “electrostatic nanocoating” that inhibited the growth of bacteria on surgical mesh.

While it may sound promising, the honey was medical grade and therefore removed all impurities. This makes it distinctly different from the products available in the supermarket.

Despite the benefits of honey, it’s important not to overdo it, as all varieties contain around 5g of sugar per teaspoon.

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