10 Surprising Benefits of Manuka Honey

Hey guys, Dr. Josh Axe here. Welcome to Ancient Medicine Today. Today, I'm going to be talking about my favorite pantry item, Manuka honey. You know, Manuka honey has been used as medicine for hundreds of years. Also, it's been used as food, so we'll talk about the many benefits here. And I actually think this is one of the best sweeteners.

If you want to satisfy your sweet tooth yet not cause Candida to overgrow in your body, this is the best sweetener ever. In nature, and Manuka honey itself is actually created by bees in New Zealand, okay? Very, very popular honey that comes out of New Zealand.

It tends to be a little bit more spendy, but I will tell you that because of all of the incredible benefits, it can oftentimes be worth the price you pay for Manuka honey. Here are some nutrition facts and some things you got to remember about honey. One of the questions I get a lot is, well, I thought honey has sugar and sugar is bad for me. You have to remember that sugar is not a villain.

Sugar isolated, sugar consumed in too high amounts is a villain to your body. It causes chronic inflammation, causes yeast and bad bacteria overgrowth. So it's all about getting sugar in its real food form in small amounts throughout your day. For instance, here's a great example. You know, blueberries are an incredible antioxidant-rich food that contains sugar.

But because it has antioxidants and enzymes and nutrients and some fiber, It doesn't affect your body in a negative way. It's typically just good for you. Same goes with Manuka honey. You know, Manuka honey typically contains over 200 types of microbes. It has different antiseptic properties. It's loaded with enzymes. It has some B vitamins and other things I'll share with you right now.

As you can see here, Manuka honey actually contains amino acids, so the building blocks of proteins. Contains B vitamins, calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, Zinc, and 4 times that of normal flower honey of many of these nutrients, especially in terms of its antibacterial agents.

So you can see here, Manuka honey is probably the most nutrient-dense of all types of honey you could ever consume. And here's some natural treatments that might surprise you about Manuka honey or some conditions it helps. Number 1 is SIBO, that's small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. Low stomach acid and acid reflux.

Now, there are studies showing that specifically the things that are found in manuka honey actually can keep ulcers at bay and actually kill H. pylori bacteria, bad bacteria that causes stomach ulcers. And also, I would say of all the sweeteners you could consume with SIBO, this is probably the least damaging to the body. So SIBO, low stomach acid, acid reflux.

Manuka honey is a great natural remedy. Now, when consuming manuka honey, I typically just recommend a single teaspoon at a time or a loaded teaspoon and that's it, okay?

You don't want to do several tablespoons or a 4th of a cup or loads and loads of honey, but about a loaded teaspoon whether it's mixed in tea or part of a dessert or I'll tell you just a great dessert, hey, mix a little manuka honey, a teaspoon with a tablespoon of almond butter and it is a delicious, It's so good. I think you'll love it. So SIBO, one great natural treatment is doing Manuka honey.

Number 2 is acne and eczema. You know, acne, my favorite natural treatment for acne is mixing Manuka honey and tea tree oil or Manuka honey and Manuka essential oil, mixing those together, rubbing it on the face, letting it sit for 2 minutes, and then washing it off. Actually, Manuka honey has Actually fights Staph aureus, a certain type of bacteria that is the root cause of acne.

I mean, it also can help balance out the overall— your overall amount of oil your skin produces and helps with sebaceous glands and things like that. So again, it's a great acne fighter. Also, it's great for eczema. You know, if somebody has eczema, I recommend mixing geranium oil with manuka oil or with geranium oil with manuka honey. Right.

Rubbing it on the area, letting it sit there for a time as well, maybe an hour or 2, and then washing it off. It's a great thing to do there. Or you can mix a little Manuka honey in with something like a shea butter, beeswax, and olive oil, and actually rub it in the area and just leave it on there permanently.

But Manuka honey is often found in different types of wound treatments or wound ointments that are good for treating wounds. Number 3. It is great for staph infections. I mentioned Staph aureus, which is a bacteria that can often cause acne. Well, staph infections are especially infections on your skin.

Now, one of the things they would do in New Zealand as well as Australia is they do a natural remedy where they mix things like tea tree oil or eucalyptus oil. They mix that in with Manuka honey and put it on an area to treat burns and wounds and cuts, specifically staph infections. And you'll see our next one here, burns, wounds, and ulcers.

Again, it is one of the most powerful natural remedies in the world for acting as a natural antiseptic and keeping things from getting infected there as well. So again, burns, wounds, and ulcers, great reason to use Manuka honey there. Number 5, tooth decay and gingivitis.

It is the sugar that doesn't cause tooth decay really, or one of the foods that has high amounts of sugar That doesn't cause tooth decay because of the very unique compounds that are found in Manuka honey. Now, when you buy Manuka honey, typically there's a grade on there. It'll say anywhere from 10+ to 12+ to 16 to 24+ to even up there of 30+.

You know, when I'm consuming this as a food, I tend to do it in between the 10 and 16+. Sometimes I've done as much as 24+. So the 24+ is typically used even more as medicine or just a maximum of a teaspoon at a time. Okay. But again, Manuka honey can be great for eating, fighting tooth decay and gingivitis, which could make it your go-to natural sweetener. IBS and IBD.

You know, one of the big causes of stomach ulcers or ulcers that can actually line your intestinal wall and contribute to things like IBS and inflammatory bowel disease are these ulcers. An ulcer is almost like a burn. Imagine you have a big burn on your skin or a burn. And just touching it, doing things, it aggravates it. Well, ulcers, you can get those in your stomach.

You can also get those in your colon and your intestines. And specifically, Manuka honey has been shown to be fantastic for naturally helping calm those ulcers. And again, H. pylori and certain types of bad bacteria are what cause stomach ulcers. Manuka honey, those compounds kill off the bacteria that cause stomach ulcers, allowing it to fully heal, removing that interference.

Number 7, sore throats and immunity. Again, when you have a sore throat and you have that virus or bacteria that's in your throat lining and in your chest and even into your upper neck area, you want something that can sit there for a while.

What I love is doing a remedy of lemon essential oil mixed with Manuka honey and just sort of swallowing that and letting it kind of sit in your throat, doing it every hour or so, getting a little bit of Manuka honey with lemon oil. Sometimes I'll mix some ginger essential oil in there as well. It's ginger, lemon, and honey, or maybe some cinnamon powder or oil.

But doing those oils together, really, really good for sore throats and naturally supporting your immune system by balancing out the good bacteria in your gut microbiome. Number 8, allergies and sinusitis. Now, we've all heard that consuming honey can actually help fight allergies. Now, Manuka honey does it in a different way than raw local honey.

Now, raw local honey is something you definitely want to do for allergies, but you want to be taking it year-round, okay? What happens is if you get raw local honey and you're consuming it year-round, your body's being exposed to that type of pollen. And you're building up a natural immunity over time.

Now, right when you get allergies for the first time they come on, doing raw local honey isn't as beneficial as Manuka honey. Manuka honey is the most beneficial to take the day of or if you're in the middle of fighting something. So again, year-round or building up your immunity year-round, especially to local— your local immunity. The best thing to do is raw local honey.

When you're sick in the middle of it, Manuka honey is one of the best to do because it will actually help kill off any bad bacteria in your body that's there as well. So great for allergies and sinusitis. Great for beauty treatment and a natural health booster.

So especially for scarring, one of the natural treatments for scars is doing certain types of oils like tallow or emu oil, and then other oils that reduce scarring such as helichrysum oil. And mixing those with manuka honey and letting them sit there on a scar.

Again, if you ever have a cut and you are worried that it's going to turn into a scar, what I would do is take a mixture of manuka honey, helichrysum essential oil, okay, pretty large amounts, and maybe even a little bit of— well, start with that, just the honey and essential oils, and then once it's fully formed, then I would put on some other things to keep it hydrated like a tallow, which is a beef fat, or an emu oil, things like that to keep it really hydrated along with the essential oils afterwards.

But again, it's great especially to heal cuts. And if you ever get a cut or burn, I would do Manuka honey mixed with lavender essential oil immediately. And listen, if you burn your hand, You immediately want to put something on it.

You rinse it under cold water and within that first minute, you immediately want to douse it with lavender oil and then with Manuka honey and keep it on it for the next 24 hours. And number 10, improve sleep. By the way, if you're enjoying this live training right now, take a minute, help me spread the word that Manuka oil is part of nature's medicine cabinet.

Punch that share button, click that like button. Millions of people today are using unhealthy sweeteners without real benefits. Manuka honey tastes amazing, it's honey, and it can be used as medicine as it has been for hundreds of years now. It's also great for improving sleep.

Some of those scents in manuka oil, which is also why there's actually a manuka honey, there's also a manuka essential oil, but it's very invigorating and uplifting. It's actually been shown to or used historically to naturally fight anxiety and depression. There as well, so, and to calm the body, it actually improves sleep.

Doing a mixture of Manuka honey or a Manuka oil mixed with lavender, chamomile, and ylang-ylang is a great blend to support a healthy night's sleep. So look at all of these incredible benefits of Manuka essential oil. It actually is good for SIBO and acid reflux, great for acne and eczema, great for your sinuses and allergies. Great for treating burns and wounds and ulcers.

It has sugar in it but still helps fight tooth decay and gingivitis. It's good for IBS and inflammatory bowel disease. Can help soothe a sore throat, fight allergies, be used for beauty treatments, and relax the body and improve sleep. As you can see, Manuka oil, it should be an absolute must in everybody's at-home medicine cabinet and food cabinet and pantry. For that matter as well.

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