Honey Remedy Could Save Limbs

I knew honey has antibacterial properties, but I must admit I find this both remarkable and surprising (and great news, indeed).

Most tantalizingly, honey seems capable of combating the growing scourge of drug-resistant wound infections, including group A streptococcus -- the infamous flesh-eating bug -- and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, which in its most severe forms also destroys flesh. These have become alarmingly more common in recent years, with MRSA alone now responsible for half of all skin infections treated in U.S. emergency rooms. So-called superbugs cause thousands of deaths and disfigurements every year, and public health officials are alarmed.

As an aside I was telling a friend who is quite skeptical about natural medicine about this and how some in the field of alternative medicine would tout this as proof of either god watching over humans or a benevolent nature here to serve us. She laughed out loud and was quick to point out that the vast majority of natural substances are either useless or harmful to humans. I, of course, agreed. It is human trial, error, and ingenuity that revealed the presence of substances beneficial to us despite having evolved for reasons that had nothing to do with us. How much longer have bees been making honey than humans have existed? I think it is on the order of millions of years.