http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090603131431.htm

Is an article on Hydrogen peroxide and how it signals white blood cells to
come to a wound site. The trials were on Zebra Fish, so may or may not be
relevant to humans, but it certainly explains the success honey has in
healing wounds.

Honey has long been a wound treatment. The higher the glucose oxidaze
concentration of the honey, the more peroxide is produced. But, if these
studies are correct, you might not need high concentrations of peroxide,
since all that is needed is the signal. However, the peroxide also acts to
get rid of all but live tissue, so concentration may still be important.

It has long been my belief that the real healing property of honey was the
peroxide component which is caused by enzyme activity in "raw" honey. All
the other ballyhoo on some honey that has many more anti-bacterial
properties is just piling on to an already efficiently working system. I
used my own honey to treat the very massive wounds caused by hand surgery
(with the permission of my surgeon) and they healed faster and I have better
range of motion than most who had the same operation. My surgeon did write
it up for submission but I never followed up to see if he did.

Bill Truesdell
Bath, Maine

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