Daffodils are blooming. Spring is officially here. Some of you may have noticed the pollen in the air by the onset of any of the following symptoms: sneezing, itching watery puffy eyes, nasal congestion and discharge, headaches, itchy throat, dry cough, fatigue, and poor sleep.
In the spirit of Hippocrates who said, “Let food be your medicine, and medicine be your food”, a very effective, easy, and delicious solution to decrease and prevent seasonal allergies is to introduce local wild flower honey into your daily diet.
How it works
Ingesting small amounts of the airborne pollens that are also contained in the honey helps your body to build up resistance to the allergens. This is the same basic concept used in vaccines, but natural!
When to start
The best results occur when starting the treatment 1-2 months prior to when you typically get symptoms; however, honey can be used to reduce the severity of current symptoms.
Typical treatment
Take 2 teaspoons of honey 2-3 times daily
What type of honey should I use?
Look for locally harvested (try within a 50 mile radius of your house), un-pasteurized, un-filtered, 100% pure wild flower honey. This is not the honey found in the bear on the typical grocery store shelf. Commercial mass produced honey does not contain the medicinal effects because of the processing and high heating. Commercial bees are fed corn syrup, rather than their own honey, to increase honey yields; however, this decreases the health of the hive and the nutritive benefits.
How is honey made?
Honeybees start the process by collecting flower nectar and storing it in their honey stomach, which is different than their regular stomach. The honey stomach stores are full when the bee has visited 
anywhere from 100 to 1500 flowers. The bee then returns to the hive where the worker bee mixes it with enzymes in their saliva to produce honey. The honey is then deposited into the honeycombs of the hive walls. The bees fan the honeycombs with their wings to induce thickening and then it is sealed with a wax plug until it is eaten by the colony. A colony of bees eats anywhere from 120 to 200 pounds of honey each year.
The many healing properties of honey
Anti-viral, anti-bacterial, anti-fungal
Cancer fighting, anti-tumor
Contains probiotics
Antioxidant effects
Helps the liver control blood sugar
Increased insulin sensitivity
Improves cholesterol balance
Boosts immune system
Other medicinal uses
~Research and clinical experience suggest that honey is a more effective cough suppressant than over the counter cough medications. For your next cough or sore throat, try mixing a spoonful of honey with a squeeze of lemon instead of reaching for the cough medications.
~Heals wounds, skin ulcers, abscesses, and burns. It is reported that in WWI honey mixed 
with cod liver oil was used to dress war wounds. The healing properties of honey are due to the low water content, providing a poor growth medium for organisms, the hydrogen peroxide effect, giving it antiseptic properties, and high acidity of 3.2 to 4.5. Honey stimulates the whole immune system by providing glucose to the white blood cells. In fact, it is currently being used in wound gels for drug resistant infections (MRSA).
~Honey is a gentle, non-habit forming laxative and improves overall digestion.
~A small spoonful of honey each day, in addition to eating fruits and vegetables, may provide much needed antioxidants to counter the harmful effects of free radicals. Free radical damage has been linked to the following health concerns: premature aging, inflammatory disorders, cancer, arthritis, atherosclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease, and diabetes.
Where should you buy your honey?
Farmers markets, local health food stores, online, or from the beekeepers themselves
Honey facts
~The color and flavor of the honey depends on the types of flowers the nectar was collected from.
~Honey is one of the easiest foods to digest.
~Because of honeys’ unique ability to absorb air, it is used as a moistening agent in baking.
~Bees must visit around 2 million flowers to make 1 pound of honey.
~Honeybees pollinate around 80% of the fruits, vegetables, and seed crops in the US.
~Honey (55) has a lower glycemic index rate than table sugar (61). To look up the glycemic index of other foods visit the Glycemic Index Database.
~Honey is a very hardy substance! A jar of still edible thousands of year-old honey was uncovered in King Tut’s tomb.
This interesting video follows Vermont beekeepers as they take you through the honey making process.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9U0dK47YZ3U]
For more information on honey visit World’s Healthiest Foods.
To find a naturopathic doctor in your area visit: Find a ND
CONCLUSIONS: In a comparison of honey, DM, and no treatment, parents rated honey most favorably for symptomatic relief of their child’s nocturnal cough and sleep difficulty due to upper respiratory tract infection. Honey may be a preferable treatment for the cough and sleep difficulty associated with childhood upper respiratory tract infection.
WARNING
Infants under the age of 12 months should not be fed honey because of the rare but serious risk of botulism.
Recipes
Cinnamon Honey Butter
Mix ¼ lb unsalted organic butter at room temperature with 3 Tbl honey, 1/4tsp cinnamon, and 1/8 tsp salt.
Honey Vinaigrette
Whisk together 1/4c red wine vinegar, 2 Tbl Dijon mustard, and 1Tbl honey. Add ¼ tsp salt and ¼ tsp fresh ground black pepper. Whisk in 1/4 c olive oil, adding slowly.
