How should I buy manuka honey? What is UMF or MGO? Or NPA? Are you confused? 🙂 There are 3 ways of grading manuka honey, all of them trying to reflect the quality of honey, by measuring its antibacterial properties: UMF, MGO and A (Active). There are two types of antibacterial activity in honey. 1. Hydrogen peroxide activity. It is found in all honeys, including manuka honey. This activity is triggered by an enzyme found in honey, glocose oxidase. It was initially added by the… Read More
We ask this question because manuka honey contains MGO. So, is manuka honey safe? What is MGO anyway? MGO comes from Methylglyoxal and is a substance belonging to dicarbonyl group (a group of toxic substances). Manuka honey contains very high levels of this substance (over 1,000 ppm), hence the concern regarding its safety. How toxic is MGO? MGO is the main precursor to Advanced Glycation End products (AGEs)(wikipedia link). These are harmful compounds that can affect nearly every type of cell and molecule in the… Read More
What is “Persistent post-infectious cough”? Also known as PPC, it is the most annoying cough that remains after a common cold or an upper respiratory tract infection, for more than three weeks. This cough is expected to last for only one or two weeks, but persists for more than 3 weeks and up to many months. PPC is reported to 11–25% of all cases of chronic cough. What are the symptoms? Persistent tickling or irritating sensation in the throat which leads to paroxysms of coughing.… Read More
What is organic honey? What is raw honey? What’s the difference between them? These are frequent, yet justified questions. I asked them myself and here is what I have found about organic honey and why it is that expensive. There is set of standards and conditions that must be fulfilled in order to certify honey as “organic”. They consider: – honey bees foraging area The hives should be placed near clean water, on an area of 4 miles radius of natural organic… Read More
As soon as they are 1 year old. Not sooner. I have often heard this phrase: When can kids have honey? Why should it be a difference? It’s a natural product, it should be the same. Only that infants are not exactly little people, they are becoming people. Because honey is a natural product, and it’s not sterilized, it can have spores of a bacterium called Clostridium botulinum. Not all honey has these spores, but they can be there. This… Read More
Anybody with a dog wondered at some point how to treat a dog’s wound. It is quite challenging to treat a sick dog at home. This happens a lot, either because the vet is too far away or because the meds are too expensive. Or, another bad scenario: they don’t work! I know of so many cases of wounds that didn’t heal, no matter how famous or expensive the drugs were. Something happened, the wound got infected, a nasty super-bug interfered… Read More
