A little bit of grated ginger along with a spoon full of Honey can cure a sore throat- We have been hearing this for a very long time now. In fact, in Asia, there are households where cough and cold mean honey, and nothing else could ever par the standards of it.
In a very recent analysis of the competency of Honey in improving the Upper Respiratory Tract infections, researchers agreed on the effects of Honey in helping improve cough and cold than other things considered. But there are specific questions left unanswered, which requires another round of observation and evaluation.
Cough and cold are seasonal, which takes time to be cured. In south Asian countries, people rely more on home remedies than spending another penny for prescription and doctor. Honey is the king of all these remedies. But let’s take a look as to how much Honey is beneficial in terms of curing the disease or become the reason for its elevation instead.
What does the Research Say?
The current situation where either COVID or Viral is affecting individuals widely, UTIs have become a common source of sickness where it leads to the initiation of prescribed antibiotics by the patient. However, the experts have claimed that since the disease is viral, the antibiotics might not help essentially.
It’s either the Upper Respiratory Tract Infection or Rhinovirus affecting the majority of the people when its that season of the year since antibiotics don’t affect the way it should WHO has shown their concern over this matter, stating the apparent signs of global health risks.
One of the reasons the pandemic is affecting more people is even though the common cold isn’t a fatal disease. Still, the virus affecting the body at this period resists antibiotics. As per the studies, the must-requirement of an alternative solution to this permanent problem to eradicate the turning of non-fatal disease to a fatal one.
What Can Honey Do?
According to an article published in Medical News Today, an analysis was done based on the studies which consider Honey as an excellent source to improve common cough, cold, and URTIs. It was a meta-analysis conducted by the team of BMJ to understand the effectiveness of Honey as a natural remedy to cure seasonal flu and infections. It stated,
The Relevant selected studies that involved humans of any age and in any setting. All of the included studies compared honey with at least one other intervention: no treatment, usual care, or a placebo. The authors defined URTIs as acute infections of the respiratory tract, including acute cough, colds, and influenza-like illness, but excluding bronchitis or other infections of the lower respiratory tract.
Although the results of this analysis were positive, which reflected how beneficial Honey is but at the same time against which it was compared differed majorly in every situation- the usual care, no treatment, or maybe the matched Placebo
In this Research, Honey proved to be better than other psychological or therapeutic effects. However, results remain incomplete to ascertain the exact efficacy compare to an antibiotic, which overall has been resisted and causes an increase in seasonal flu rates.
According to the team of researchers, it was concluded that the studies that were there in hand for analysis served to be biased in more than one type. So the methodology wasn’t a problem, but the studies used were.
Limitations to Conclude
The analysis, as mentioned earlier, also discovered a few other pointers under the category of limitations in all the prior studies, which seem to state the involvement and survey on participants who were children. This probably makes it evident that the resulting factors might not seem the same for adults.
Honey, as a good source of curing cough, cold, and URTIs, still is not able to procure enough proves to make it an excellent natural alternative to prescribed medicine. All the surveys conducted in the past never involved a pure form of Honey but some form of syrups in which Honey was one of the ingredients which makes it an inferior form of Placebo.
All the things considered, it still seems like a more appropriate and accurate form of analysis is required, which confirms Honey as an absolute remedy to season flu, until then nothing can be indeed said of Honey concerning flu or URTIs.
