"Topical Honey for Canker Sores"
We've known about painful aphthous ulcers—
canker sores—for thousands of years.
They are the most common lesion of the lining of our mouths,
named, perhaps, by Hippocrates himself.
Well, what did he prescribe for it?
Well, he was a big fan of honey,
for healing a bunch of sore body parts,
though beat-to-the-punch by a few millennia
by the ancient Egyptians on that score.
Also known by the ancient Chinese,
perhaps the oldest wound dressing known to humankind.
Well, how about a few thousand year update?
Evidently, honey has been successfully used
as a treatment for a number of types of wounds,
including chronic ulcers.
The evidence is apparently strongest for burns.
Yeah, but OK: compared to what?
Compared to a boiled potato peel?
I’m not making that up.
Apparently, honey works like twice as good
as boiled potato peel dressings,
perhaps because of an antibacterial effect,
whereas the potato peels only seem to
just kind of cover things up, like slapping on cadaver skin.
Ew!
Maybe, I’ll stick to the potatoes.
But, what else are you gonna do in a resource-poor country?
Here, we have antibiotics to fight infections;
so, quality-of-healing is often more defined
as the aesthetic look of the resulting scar.
So, plastic surgery patients had half
of their surgical scar covered with conventional dressings,
and the other half of the same scar
covered in a honey dressing.
And, the half of the scars covered in honey
healed about a third narrower than those covered conventionally,
suggesting an improvement in the healing process.
Ok. But, what about canker sores?
Here, they report 19 cases.
Started out with severe pain,
but evidently, one day after rubbing honey on the sore,
the pain was reduced drastically—
in fact, gone, in 92% of patients,
and in most cases, the ulcer was gone completely by day 3 or 4.
Ok. But, there was no control group.
Maybe they would have gotten better anyway;
maybe there was a placebo effect.
Yeah, modern medicine has neglected honey
as a therapeutic agent, because the science was poor,
essentially a series of published anecdotes.
But look, one could argue that there has never been
any significant side-effects associated with the topical application of honey;
so, what’s to lose?
I sympathize with that logic,
but would really like to see it put to the test.
But, there haven’t been any good studies, until… this one.
A randomized controlled trial: honey tested head-to-head
against a steroid gel, against canker sores.
There’s all sorts of things doctors can prescribe
for canker sores, topical agents like steroids
and antibiotics, systemic medications—even laser therapy.
But look, why not seek out the least toxic agent first?
May not be the most profitable,
but why not start with the safest?
So, they randomized folks with canker sores into one of three groups,
where they applied—with a Q-tip three times a day after meals—
either an over-the-counter soothing pain-relieving paste,
or a prescription steroid cream, or just plain commercial honey,
directly onto the canker sore.
Here’s what happened.
Here are the pain scores.
On the over-the-counter stuff, the pain was cut in half by day 4
and gone by day 8.
On the prescription steroids,
half by just 2 days and gone by 4.
What about the honey group?
Remember that series of cases that claimed total pain relief in one day?
Well, it was put to the test, and…
total pain relief within one day—that’s crazy.
Pain for a week, or just pain for a day—
and honey’s like 500 times cheaper.
What about ulcer size?
Mostly gone by 8 days, 7 days or… 3 days.
And, cut in half in just one day,
as opposed to 3 or 4 days.
Here’s a before and after.
Day 1: massive canker sore,
but dab a little honey on 3 times a day,
and day 1, 2, and gone, day 3.
So, a significant acceleration of healing and resolution of pain,
all without systemic side-effects—
or local side-effects for that matter,
whereas the topical antibiotics that are sometimes used
can have a variety of side-effects.
And, the nice thing about honey is that it doesn’t
lead to the development of antibiotic resistance.
Now, this was a single-blind study,
meaning the person evaluating the lesions
didn’t know which group someone was in,
but the patient surely knew,
as honey would have a very different taste and texture.
And evidently, the Prophet Mohammad was a big fan of honey,
and this study was done in Saudi Arabia.
So, it’s possible there was some bias,
but given the extraordinary results, one might want to give it a try.
Now, the benefits of honey may be due in part
to the phytonutrients from the flowers
the bee is making the honey from.
So, why not try the flowers directly?
A chamomile extract appeared to cut pain in half
within 10 minutes of application,
but they didn't follow them out in terms of healing.
But, a 2% lavender oil in glycerin solution—two drops 3 times a day—
also had an immediate effect on pain,
and, more importantly, seemed to accelerate healing,
wiping out the ulcers by day 4,
with pain diminishing in a day or 2,
compared to over a week in the placebo group.
However you choose to treat your canker sores,
if you keep getting them, you should see a medical professional
to make sure it’s not some sign of an underlying disease.
There’s a number of conditions that can manifest
with chronic canker sore-type lesions,
like inflammatory bowel disease
or acute necrotizing ulcerative gingivitis.
Uh, I think I’d rather have something like Sweet syndrome,
or even better MAGIC syndrome.
Who wouldn’t want to have magic syndrome?!
Anyone, I guess, who doesn’t want genital ulcers.
I think I’ll stay a muggle.