Why does local honey cure allergies

You may still be inclined to give local honey a shot, especially if your allergy symptoms are particularly irritating. However, raw local honey is not filtered and processed the same way as the honey on grocery store shelves.

This means it could be full of impurities, like:. Ingesting any of these substances could potentially make you sick. There is also a chance of developing an allergic reaction to either the pollen or the other impurities. You could even go into anaphylactic shock if the honey contains bee venom and you are deathly allergic to bee stings.

While honey may not alleviate your allergies, there is evidence to suggest that it can suppress coughs. Grocery store honey works fine for this purpose. For some people, no amount of honey or over-the-counter allergy medicine will work.

We provide allergy testing, allergy shots, rush immunotherapy and allergy drops to bring our patients relief. Posted in: Allergy Treatment. The first article is cited often as being outdated or old and therefore given no credence, which is foolish. Otherwise most of what's available is purely anecdotal with little factual evidence supporting the claim.

Surprisingly, some websites purport the benefit but contradict their own anecdotal evidence. Remember that bees are in the business of collecting a flower's nectar, not pollen to produce honey. Therefore very little pollen is deposited in honey. Also, the pollen they handle is produced by flowers that require cross pollination by insects unlike the majority of allergy triggering tree, grass and weed plants that do not require insects to carry pollen for fertilization.

They don't need the bees. Forty AR patients were divided equally into a case group and a control group. All the subjects received a daily dose of 10 mg of loratadine for 4 weeks. The control group ingested the same dose of honey-flavored corn syrup as placebo. AR symptoms were scored at the start, week 4, and week 8 of the study. There were no significant differences between the mean total symptom score of the case and the control groups at the start of the study.

At week 4, both groups showed progressive improvement in the symptoms; at week 8, only the case group showed a continuous improvement in the symptom score. Only the group that ingested honey showed a significant improvement in individual AR symptoms. The improvement persisted for a month after the cessation of the treatment. Honey ingestion at a high dose improves the overall and individual symptoms of AR, and it could serve as a complementary therapy for AR. Honey is a common supplement widely believed to alleviate symptoms of allergic rhinitis AR.

Yet, evidence for this phenomenon is scarce. To our knowledge, only 2 previous studies have investigated the effect of ingestion of honey on symptoms of AR, and they have reported contradictory results. In many cultures and religions in Asia, honey has been utilized for healing purposes since ancient times.

We studied the complementary effect of ingestion of honey on AR, in addition to standard medication, in a randomized clinical setting. The study was conducted in a multiracial tropical Asian population. In contrast to the previous published reports, this study utilized a different study methodology and different sets of study criteria, with much higher dosages of ingested honey.

The reason for the higher dosages was because positive health effects of honey are only reportedly achieved if it is consumed at higher doses of 50 to 80 g per intake. Subjects were recruited from an otolaryngology clinic in 2 tertiary referral centres in the East coast of Peninsular Malaysia.

The data were collected over a 1-year period. The inclusion criteria comprised subjects aged above 18 years, a diagnosis of AR using clinical history and positive skin prick test, and a willingness to consume a considerable amount of honey daily for the study period.

Subjects with known hypersensitivity to honey; a history of asthma, diabetes, or other chronic medical illnesses that require constant medical attention; a history of allergy desensitization for the past 5 years; and pregnancy were excluded from the study.

The following 5 common allergens in the local community were used for the skin prick test: Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus house dust mite , Felis domesticus domestic cat , Mucor mucedo fungi , wheat flour, and peanut.

Histamine as a positive control and normal saline as a negative control were also included. The technique of the skin test followed previously described steps. The subjects with a negative skin prick test to any of the allergens were further excluded from the study. The subjects were randomly divided into 2 equal sized groups by a random number generator. All subjects were treated with a second-generation antihistamine loratidine, 10 mg once daily from the beginning of the study until 4 weeks.

The case group was given honey and the control group received honey-flavored corn syrup as placebo. The type of honey used in this study was Tualang honey, a raw, unprocessed, multifloral honey harvested from beehives of the giant honey bee Apis dorsata built on the branches of giant trees named Tualang in the Malaysian rainforest.

The corn syrup had the texture, color, and taste similar to the honey used. All subjects received the honey and the placebo in the same container, in a double-blinded manner, whereby neither the research assistants nor the subjects knew what they were receiving.

All subjects were instructed not to take any other honey or its products during the course of the study. Compliance was assessed by giving the subjects a diary in 4 stamped envelopes to record the dosage taken and possible side effects experienced in a week.

The subjects were supposed to post the envelopes together with the diary each week. The research assistants followed up with the participants through a telephone call when the envelopes were not received each week.

The initial symptom scores were recorded at the start of the study and repeated at day 28 week 4 and day 56 week 8. Seven symptoms were assessed in the symptom score: nasal blockage, rhinorrhea, hyposmia, nasal, eye and palatal itchiness, and sneezing. The scoring was done by asking the patient to evaluate the severity of individual symptoms using a 7-point visual analog scale, published by The Joint Task Force on Practice Parameters on Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology.

Symptoms of AR, a positive family history of AR, asthma history, and ARIA classification were recorded in binary dichotomous format present or absent of outcomes. AR symptoms were assumed to be present when the subject reported a score of at least 3 mild, easily tolerable symptoms in the AR symptom score.

The case and the control groups were compared with respect to the frequency of the dichotomous data using a chi-square analysis. The mean and the standard deviation were calculated for the total symptom score at the start of the study, week 4, and week 8 for the case and the control groups.

Multiple comparison procedures using the repeated measures ANOVA and independent t test were used to determine the significance of differences in the total symptoms score and in the individual symptoms score between the case and the control groups at the start, week 4 and week 8 of the study. The study protocol was approved by the Research and Ethics Committee of the hospitals where the study took place.

Forty AR patients were recruited in this study and were divided randomly and equally into a case and a control group. The age group of the subjects in the entire study group ranged from 20 to 50 years, with a mean age of The mean age of the control group was One example rumored to help with seasonal allergies is local honey.

Local honey is raw, unprocessed honey made close to where you live. This honey is rumored to help allergies, but scientists and doctors are skeptical. The idea behind honey treating allergies is similar to that of a person getting allergy shots. When a person eats local honey, they are thought to be ingesting local pollen. Over time, a person may become less sensitive to this pollen. As a result, they may experience fewer seasonal allergy symptoms.

But the amounts of pollen from the environment and plants are thought to be very small and varied. This differs from allergy shots that purposefully desensitize a person to pollen at standard measurements. One study examined the effect of pasteurized honey on allergy symptoms compared to local honey. The results showed that neither group who ate honey experienced relief from seasonal allergies. These studies have conflicting results and small sample sizes.

This makes it hard to determine if local honey could reliably help a person reduce their seasonal allergy symptoms. Larger-scale studies are needed to confirm or recommend a certain amount of honey. Plus, there are no guarantees how much pollen may be in a serving of local honey.