Five Tips To Finding Genuine
Active Manuka Honey

It will be no surprise to anyone who reads the papers or watches the news that there is a huge increase of  popularity in the areas of complementary and alternative medicines. More and more people are becoming wary of doctors prescribing drugs that may tackle the symptoms but not the root cause.

It is slowly dawning one people that the “old-fashioned remedies” of their ancestors were not a bunch of old wives tales but instead treatments that were used for thousands of years based on observation and results.

Now, I’m not going to advocate that traditional remedies will cure everything but it would be extremely foolish for us to ignore them. Unless a pharmaceutical company can see a source for profits in harvesting plants and herbs, they will instead aggressively market their own patented brands.

To be fair, if you owned such a company, you would probably do the same. However, as the giant companies are ignoring the natural remedies, it’s up to us to do our own research.

Fortunately, with the internet, it is so much easier to track down in minutes information that only a few years ago would have taken weeks or months to accumulate.

And One Of These Natural Remedies is Manuka Honey

Ongoing research shows it helps with stomach ulcers and other digestive disorders, healing wounds, and leg ulcers. I’m constantly hearing of success stories from all over. Dr. Peter Molan, of the University of Waikato in New Zealand has done a lot of research and found that swallowing half a teaspoon of Manuka honey on an empty stomach will eliminate the bacteria H. pylori, which is the cause of the majority of stomach ulcers.

 In order to gain additional clinical evidence, there are currently trials underway by University of Auckland on Manuka honey’s use for leg ulcers and open wounds. and in Wales, the University of Wales Institute Cardiff is doing research on its effectiveness in helping fight MRSA.

Researchers at Liverpool’s Aintree Hospital  and Cardiff’s University of Wales Institute,  found, in separate studies that manuka honey could help to fight MRSA, the superbug which kills 5,000 British patients each year.

The Christie Hospital in Manchester uses bandages soaked in Manuka honey to treat mouth cancer patients. It lessens their chances of contacting MRSA and helps reduce inflammation following surgery. Manchester’s Royal Infirmary Hospital regularly uses it for dressing wounds.

So what is it that makes active manuka honey special? Well first there are two types of Manuka honey, active and non-active. The one you want is ACTIVE Manuka Honey. Active manuka contains what we know as the Unique Manuka Factor, usually referred to as UMF.

It is the UMF (and as yet researchers aren’t sure exactly what it is) that has the special  antibacterial and antibiotic properties.

The Manuka Honey Association has five guidelines that you should keep in mind when buying the best quality active Manuka Honey with UMF

Genuine UMF Manuka Honey conforms with all of the following five criteria:

1. The name UMF is clearly stated on the front label.

2. It comes in jars and is packed and labelled in New Zealand.

3. The New Zealand company is licensed to use the name UMF.

4.The UMF licensee’s name is on the front label.

5. It has a rating of UMF10 or higher..

Regardless of whether you are purchasing from your local health store (the good ones stock it) or online, do keep the above guidelines in mind and enjoy the benefits of this gift of nature.