Honey is a better treatment for upper respiratory tract infections than conventional medication, says a study carried out by a team of three researchers at Oxford University. The paper published described the study to be a result of multiple clinical trials for testing of treatments for upper respiratory tract infections, and observations from the data.
Meanwhile, over the past many years, the medical community is alarmed due to resistance developed by bacteria against antibacterial agents. Over-prescription of such remedies is coming in the way, say some studies. For example, antibacterial prescriptions for maladies that are not likely to help is of particular concern. Such prescriptions are given simply due to demand from patients. Upper respiratory tract infection is one such malady that is mostly caused by viruses, not bacteria. For such reasons, researchers have been looking for other treatments for these infections, and use of honey has begun to standout.
Honey used as Therapy for colds and coughs, says anectodal evidence
Honey can be used to treat colds generally, and coughs in particular – says anectodal evidence, and people have been using the therapy for thousands of years.
For the study, researchers observed results of multiple clinical trials for testing the effectiveness of a number of therapies against upper respiratory tract infection. In total, the team studied data obtained from 14 clinical trials involving 1,761 patients.
On combining data obtained from all trials, the researchers found that the trials included examination of practically all traditional remedies such as over-the-counter sinus and cold medicines as well as antibiotics and honey. Honey proved to be the best therapy among all therapies that were tested, found the researchers.
Furthermore, the trials revealed honey helped in two ways: reducing the amount of coughing severity and reduction in average duration of the infection.