Miracle of Manuka Honey
Proven Effective on Even Some Superbugs – And May Help Fight COVID

Holly Deyo
April 22, 2019, updated July 4, 2021
standeyo.com

One product Stan and I would not be without is medical-grade Manuka Honey. We first became acquainted with it while living in Australia over 2 decades ago. For centuries people recognized its healing properties, but it gradually was overtaken in popularity by antibiotics and other wildflower alternatives. Now that many bacteria are conventional-treatment resistant, the pendulum is swinging in the other direction.

In 1980, noted New Zealand biochemist, Dr. Peter Molan proved Manuka Honey's antibacterial properties. The Maori who are native to New Zealand were long aware of its value and its an integral part of their traditional medicine. 'Manuka' is actually a Maori term indicating a honey only comes from New Zealand, much like real champagne comes from a certain region in France.


Medical Grade Paste & Gel Manuka Honey

Both Antibacterial Wound Gel and Paste perform healing miracles as well as being effective against MRSA, MSSA, VRE and other antibiotic-resistant bacteria like Staph, E.coli, H.pylori and Clostridium difficile. Not trying to be gross, but if a scab or healing skin has any signs of redness around it, applying Medihoney takes care of it. It 'eats through' the scab or unhealthy skin and debrides it. No, it doesn't hurt, you don't even feel it, and you end up with no infection – just healthy pink skin. It works well for diabetic foot and leg ulcers, as well as treating bed sores and pressure wounds, 1^st and 2^nd degree burns, plus surgical and donor sites.

About 8 years ago, Stan had his gallbladder removed laparoscopically and it left just a small hole. We thought it'd be healed in a week or two. Instead, it did nothing until it turned an angry red. This was a nasty surprise because Stan showers daily and is scrupulous about hygiene keeping any wounds or cuts absolutely sterile and bandaged. So he opened a new tube of Medihoney paste, applied it generously to his abdomen and slapped a band-aid over it. By the second day, the infection had completely cleared and the surgical 'hole' healed quickly.

When purchasing, make sure the product contains Manuka Honey (Leptospermum species) from New Zealand. Look for a "UMF" seal on the box, which indicates it contains enough Manuka to kill bacteria. If the UMF marker is absent, look for the amount of Manuka honey the product contains. Ours has 80%, sometimes printed as 800mg/g, which is excellent. The tube says right under the MEDIHONEY name "contains 80% Active Leptospermum honey."

Use the paste to fill a 'hole' like with Stan's gallbladder surgery or if a large area needs to be treated especially if wound liquid is coming out of the injury. For anything thing else, use either the gel of paste.

NOTE: Manuka honey products are not to be used on 3^rd degree burns or given to children 1 year old and younger.

Once home in America we used to have to import ours from New Zealand, but you can buy it here from Integra (formerly Derma Sciences) direct or get their Medihoney gel or paste from Amazon.

TIP: Since Medihoney degrades more rapidly once the seal is broken, it would be clever to purchase 2 smaller tubes than one large one.


Manuka Honey May Help Prevent COVID-19

According to this article, Manuka Honey may "help inhibit the entry of the COVID-19 virus into the host cell and its replication as well as modulate the inflammatory cascade." It's also echoed in this paper from the National Center for Biotechnology Information: Prospects Of Honey In Fighting Against Covid-19: Pharmacological Insights And Therapeutic Promises, saying "Several studies have proved its potential healing capability against numerous chronic diseases/conditions, including diabetes, hypertension, autophagy dysfunction, bacterial and fungal infections. More importantly, honey showed its virucidal effect on several enveloped viruses such as HIV, influenza virus, herpes simplex, and varicella zoster virus.

"Honey can be beneficial for patients with COVID-19 caused by an enveloped virus SARS-CoV-2 through simultaneously boosting the host immune system, improving comorbid conditions and antiviral activities. Moreover, a clinical trial of honey on COVID-19 patients has been undergoing. In this review, we summarized the potential benefits of honey and its ingredients in the context of antimicrobial activities, numerous chronic diseases, and host immune system and thereby tried to establish a relationship with honey for the treatment of COVID-19."


So Many Raw Manuka Products, How to Choose

Literally hundreds of raw Manuka Honey products are offered on Amazon, but only some are worth your money.

New Zealand requires strict government testing so their labels accurately reflect the amount of genuine Manuka Honey a products contains. Unfortunately the same can't be said of products manufactured in the U.S.

Rigorous government testing and labelling rules apply in New Zealand, and not all honey products marketed in the USA meet those standards. More than a few honey labels show ‘marketing ratings’, which can make it confusing.

The most important factor when appraising the effectiveness of Manuka Honey is the honey’s concentration of Manuka, which is measured by UMF or by MGO, methylglyoxal concentration. Without a UMF or MGO rating it's hard to know whether a honey is genuine Manuka, or a lower-grade blend.

We've used the honey bestseller list from Amazon’s Grocery department to identify their most popular New Zealand Manukas. The list shows their UMF and MG/MGO Manuka Honey ratings starting with the highest. The price guide shown is what Amazon listed during the week this article was written.

If you're new to this topic, here are some terms you'll run across:

The List

This chart of Amazon's top-selling New Zealand Manuka Honeys will help you choose the right one. Links are given for each so you can read more about each product. UMF ratings actually go as low as 5, which is for consumption like honey on toast having only scant medicinal properties, if any. The higher the UMF rating, the mightier its healing properties and so goes the price.

For preventing bacterial growth and killing bacteria, you'll need a medical-grade UMF rating of 15+ or higher. Products with levels below 15 are generally used for a sweetener, skin moisturizer, soothing bug bites and an anti-aging facial.

This article was started on April 15, 2019 and in the following 4 days prices had changed, up or down, on 5 products. You might also find periodically that one brand or size may be temporarily unavailable. Pricing listed below is current as of July 4, 2021 and rounded to the nearest dollar. You may be able to locate these products elsewhere and this should give you a guideline of what to expect.