Why do doctors wrongly advice against honey in diabetes patients? מדוע רופאים בטעות יועצים נגד דבש ב

Why do doctors wrongly advice against honey in diabetes patients? מדוע רופאים בטעות יועצים נגד דבש בחולי סוכרת?

Honey… dwash and all the good things about it

HONEY…………….D'WASH and all the good things about it.

[Don't insult the bees!]

Honey is a very complex substance, even if it is composed mostly of simple sugars such as fructose and glucose.

It contains "additives" from the digestive system of the bee which are helping to preserve the honey for a long time.

The first thing one should know is that any heating of honey should be avoided [so absolutely no cooking and baking with honey!!]

In one of the oldest medical traditions [ayurveda from India] heated honey is considered to be harmful.

If you buy honey, make sure that it is pure unheated honey.

Honey can be put into tea etc if the tea is already has cooled down to a temperature that it is possible to drink it, without burning yourself.

Ayurveda stated thousand of years ago that honey [a certain amount] is not causing problems in patients with diabetes. Trusting this tradition I have prescribed honey-with a quiet feeling- for over 28 years to patients with diabetes.

This was absolutely non-sense in the eyes of modern western medicine, but it recently has been proven to be a fact.

Honey may even reduces blood sugar!!

Honey can be used with huge benefit in many medical conditions

Honey is good for the eyes and for the heart [it helps decrease homocysteine, an important marker of heart disease]

In a relatively short time, people with high cholesterol taking honey experienced modest reductions in cholesterol levels, and, perhaps more importantly, dramatic reductions in CRP.[also a possible marker of heart disease]

Thus, while there is a good deal of evidence that eating refined sugars such as sucrose and fructose may increase the risk of heart disease eatinghoney is not only safe, but may actually be good for the heart.

Honey can be tremendously beneficial to your digestive system , a type of sugar found in honey, increases the populations of bifidobacteria and lactobacillus, the "good bacteria" in our gut that are known as probiotics.

Good bacteria in the intestines can prevent and treat many serious conditions.

Honey is safe and effective to use on hard-to-heal wounds and has been used for centuries to aid in the healing of persistent wounds and burns.

Honey was found to be as effective as, or more effective than, silver sulfadiazine (SSD), one of the most common topical treatments for burns. Honey has even saved amputation of legs, when affected by severe complicated diabetic ulcers.

As such it is also very useful as well for treatment of decubitus ulcers in old age homes [wounds caused by lying on the same site for a long time]

At least one reason for this is simple to understand: it is rich in sugar, which allows it to draw infection and fluid from wounds by a process called osmosis. Bacteria cannot grow in honey because there isn't enough free water for them to use (it's bound to the sugars and enzymes in the honey)

Because its water activity is so low, honey will pick up water from the air when exposed. If the honey picks up enough water on its surface, it will eventually ferment, this is in fact why you should always keep the lid closed tightly.

You may believe it or not: a cup of regular tea with  good  [unheated] honey will prevent tooth-decay [asheshet]. Just as sugarcane does!! [not sugar]

Eating honey with a calcium rich meal appears to enhance calcium absorption [at least in rats]

A natural combination of honey, olive oil, and beeswax can provide significant benefit to people suffering from eczema or psoriasis.

If you wish to prepare this at home, ask me for instructions.

For nurses and doctors: honey may be used, better then anything else, for catherisation.

Mouth ulcers from chemotherapy can be benefit a lot from honey also from some extra zinc as tablets.]

The amount of honey which may be used per day can be without any problem: 2 tablespoons.

Only types who belong to the pitta type in ayurveda [ "hot" people [don't tolerate heat ,sun etc] may have to use honey more sparingly

Since I have been knowing a bit about Ayurveda some 30 years ago, I told my patients that they could use some honey with diabetes.

I trusted Ayurveda more than Western medicine , for sure where it concerns nutrition!

Below a short article about honey from the American Botanical Council.

I sent many years ago an article about honey [if you wish to search:

Honey is created when bees collect the nectar of flowers in their mouths, which is then mixed with enzymes found in the bees' saliva.¹ The bees take the honey back to the hive and deposit it into the walls. The flutter of the bees' wings causes air circulation which reduces the honey's moisture content and makes it ready for consumption. Honey was used historically both as food and medicine, as well as in religious rites. One of the earliest "references" to honey is a Neolithic petroglyph near Valencia, Spain depicting a man collecting honey.¹

The health benefits of honeyhoney's quality. It starts with the health of the plants from which the bees collect the pollen and concludes with the way in which the honey is processed. Raw honey, which has not been filtered or heated, contains some of the same resins found in propolis, a complex mixture of resins and other substances used to seal the bee hive and keep it safe from bacteria and other microorganisms.² Honey has been found to be safe and effective in treating children's coughs in upper respiratory infections (See HC 031323-476).³ Honey has long been considered an energy source, and it has been found to increase athletic performance, sustaining blood sugar levels after endurance training.⁴ Research has shown that honey, used topically, also has wound healing qualities and is a good treatment for burns, confirming a traditional use. Since honey is composed mainly of glucose and fructose, both of which attract water, honey may absorb water in the wound, causing drying so that the growth of bacteria and fungi is inhibited.⁵ Honey has been found to also be beneficial on the metabolic effects in type 1 diabetes.⁶

References

¹Davidson A. The Oxford Companion to Food. New York: Oxford University Press; 1999.

²George Mateljan Foundation. The world's healthiest foods: Honey. Available at http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=96. Accessed July 8, 2013.

³Cohen HA, Rozen J, Kristal H, et al. Effect of honey on nocturnal cough and sleep quality: A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study. Pediatrics. September 2012;130(3):465-471.

⁴Kreider RB, Earnest CP, Lundberg J, et al. Effects of ingesting protein with various forms of carbohydrate following resistance-exercise on substrate availability and markers of anabolism, catabolism, and immunity. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2007;4:18. doi:10.1186/1550-2783-4-18.

⁵Gupta SS, Singh O, Bhagel PS, Moses S, Shukla S, Mathur RK. Honey dressing versus silver sulfadiazene dressing for wound healing in burn patients: a retrospective study. J Cutan Aesthet Surg.2011;4(3):183-187.

⁶Abdulrhman MM, El-Hefnawy MH, Aly RH, et al. Metabolic effects of honey in type 1 diabetes mellitus: a randomized crossover pilot study. J Med Food. 2013;16(1):66-72.

Lori Glenn,  Managing Editor