Honey to nourish yin energy and strengthen the spleen in TCM

Honey's ability to heal wounds and treat infections is quite notable. It also is known for its antioxidant, antibiotic and antiviral capabilities. Honey is 18 to 20 percent water and is comprised of the monosaccharides glucose and fructose and vitamins A, B-complex, C, D, E, K and beta-carotene, as well as plenty of minerals and enzymes. Raw, unprocessed honey has the most medicinal and nutritional value. (The fructose in raw honey does not, in any way, have the same negative effect as fructose from corn syrup.) It is also a very important and valuable component of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

In TCM, Honey is known as Feng Mi and has the ability to nourish yin energy and strengthen the spleen. Apart from its widely recognized nutritional value, honey is also the Chinese people's favorite as a "neutral" food with medicinal properties.

In the "Compendium of Materia Medica," the TCM classic by pharmacist Li Shizhen in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), "Honey can help dispel pathogenic heat, clear away toxins, relieve pain and combat dehydration." Li Shizhen showed that eating honey regularly resulted in clear sight and rosy cheeks. He also wrote that eating honey every morning can help prevent constipation and it is a good choice for those who suffer chronic coughing.

TCM also shows that due to honey's affinity for the stomach and spleen it can greatly enhance the effect of many of the super-tonics such as He Shou Wu
and Ci Wu Jia known as Siberian Ginseng. You will often see liquid extracts of these herbs combined with honey sold in small bottles at many Chinese herb stores.

One of the most remarkable combinations is taking Shilajit with honey.

Shilajit already contains 87 minerals and is naturally backed with fulvic acid for absorption into the tissue. However when raw honey is added to the mix, it is said to multiply the amount of minerals that the body truly utilizes by a factor of three!

In a study of 104 patients with first-degree burns, researchers in Maharashtra, India, compared honey's effectiveness to gauze soaked in silver sulfadiazine (the conventional treatment). After seven days, 91 percent of honey-treated burns were infection-free compared with 7 percent of those treated with SS. After 15 days, 87 percent of honey-treated burns were healed compared with 10 percent of the SS-treated burns. The raw wildflower honey formed a flexible protective barrier which prevented infection, absorbed pus, and reduced pain, irritation and odor.

Researchers in Sanaa, Yemen, treated 50 patients with wound infections following cesarean section or hysterectomy twice daily with either raw wildflower honey or a standard antiseptic solution of alcohol and iodine (AI). The 26 treated with honey were infection-free after six days compared with 15 days for the 24 treated with AI. Eighty-four percent of honey patients healed cleanly compared with 50 percent of all patients. Honey treatment reduced the average postoperative scar width by nearly two-thirds and hospitalization duration by half.

Raw honey is applied directly to the skin of an open wound in liberal amounts as often as needed. Bacteria cannot live, so infections always reverse. Best of all, scarring is basically avoided or unbelievably reduced. Wherever honey is applied it helps transform damaged skin into healthy new skin within a week. Long live our wonderful bees!