Honey to not get a stomach virus or flu

[bwallace23350]

I am currently living through a stomach virus epidemic at my son's daycare and the flu shot does not appear to be more than 10% effective this year. Will a regular does of raw honey with my green tea help to keep such illnesses away?

[Michael Bush]

I grew up with the idea of the "stomach flu" but I don't think there is such a thing.  It's the norovirus or gastroenteritis  that gets mislabeled as "stomach flu" or "24 hour flu".  The only way I know of to avoid it is careful hygiene or enough immunity from getting it.  As far as actual influenza, that is a respiratory infection.  Sometimes the fever etc. can cause some nausea, but that's not the primary symptom or cause and it seldom causes it in adults.  Raw honey has been shown to boost your immune system, so it is probably somewhat helpful but it's only really helpful to your general health.  It's not a 100% preventative for anything or even a high percentage preventative.  As far as preventing flu the most effective thing in my experience is a hot sweat/steam bath/sauna on a regular basis.  It is also helpful in getting over flu or colds much quicker.  Garlic and vitamin C seem to help as far as preventative or getting over it.  But they don't seem to help that much.  It's not that big of a difference in my experience.

[bwallace23350]

Thanks. I will keep up the honey anyway. I eat large quantities of fruit and veggies so I am probably getting enough of the vitamin c

[Dallasbeek]

MB, maybe the reason garlic is a good preventative is it makes people with the fmlu keep their distance so they're not infecting you.  Just a thought   

[Michael Bush]

>MB, maybe the reason garlic is a good preventative is it makes people with the fmlu keep their distance so they're not infecting you.  Just a thought 

You are not the first to suggest that.  But garlic has been shown to boost the immune system and have anti viral as well as anti bacterial effects.

[Acebird]

Stop with the freaking sterilizing everything and let your kids eat dirt.  If you want an immune booster I recommend RM-10 (Garden of Eden).  Honey has antibacterial qualities not virus.  So I recommend eating dirt.  Now I am not suggesting you go in your back yard and dig up a spoon full of dirt and give it to your child.  I am suggesting you stop sterilizing the dirt they come in contact on a regular basis.  A little at a time.

I love garlic.  can't get enough.  Garlic is like the pill you put in your septic tank.

[Dallasbeek]

Stop with the freaking sterilizing everything and let your kids eat dirt.  If you want an immune booster I recommend RM-10 (Garden of Eden).  Honey has antibacterial qualities not virus.  So I recommend eating dirt.  Now I am not suggesting you go in your back yard and dig up a spoon full of dirt and give it to your child.  I am suggesting you stop sterilizing the dirt they come in contact on a regular basis.  A little at a time.

I love garlic.  can't get enough.  Garlic is like the pill you put in your septic tank.

Yeah, I grew up eating lots of "dirt" and have never had much problem with my stomach.  Same goes for food allergies.  Nobody had life-threatening reactions to peanuts or peanut butter until moms started limiting their kids' diets to pop-tarts and organic whatsits.  Now some airlines can't hand out peanuts without somebody claiming that peanuts in row 3 will cause them horrible anxiety in row 29.

As for garlic, I was pulling Michael's chain.  We go through at least a bulb of garlic a week in our kitchen because we like it so much.  Add ginger to your list, too. Great stuff.

Studies support your position that moms' (and dads') protecting their kids from the world around them ends up leaving them without the antibodies to protect them from the things they are guarding against.  That's poorly worded, I guess, but I hope you get the idea without my having to write a book to say it.

[cao]

Will a regular does of raw honey with my green tea help to keep such illnesses away?

Probably not, but it ain't gonna hurt. 

[BeeMaster2]

I take a spoonful of raw honey, right away, anytime I get a sore throat or sniffles. Keep it in your mouth as long as you can. It seems to stop it in its tracks within 30 minutes. I will have to do it about every 12 hours until the symptoms stop showing back up, usually 3 days. The only time it did not work was when I ran out of honey and bought 2 gallons of honey from another Beek. It had no effect on the sore throats and I ended up with a full blown cold. I asked the seller what temp he took his honey to and he said 130 degrees. I used the rest of the honey for preserves.
Jim

[Acebird]

2 gallons... that is a lot of preserves.

[BeeMaster2]

2 gallons... that is a lot of preserves.

We had already used about a third of it. My wife, Judy, made a lot of blueberry preserves.
Jim

[bwallace23350]

Stop with the freaking sterilizing everything and let your kids eat dirt.  If you want an immune booster I recommend RM-10 (Garden of Eden).  Honey has antibacterial qualities not virus.  So I recommend eating dirt.  Now I am not suggesting you go in your back yard and dig up a spoon full of dirt and give it to your child.  I am suggesting you stop sterilizing the dirt they come in contact on a regular basis.  A little at a time.

I love garlic.  can't get enough.  Garlic is like the pill you put in your septic tank.

I really don't sterilize anything and I am just happy when I can get him inside even during a snow. All he wants to do is be outside and for me to walk through the woods with him. He also has lots of contact with pets. I bathe him every night and will wash his hands down if they are just gross but that is about it. My goal was to boost the immune system with honey and foods and such. On the bright side neither I nor him caught anything.

[Van, Arkansas, USA]

{All he wants to do is be outside and for me to walk through the woods with him.}

Now that is probably the most inspiring sentence I have ever read on Beemaster.  A classic beautiful statement about a kid and his dad: relative to health and honey.  What more can you ask for, thanks for sharing Wallace.
Blessings

[BeeMaster2]

Last night I had a sudden flue like attack at about 10:00. I went to the kitchen and took a swig of honey from a bear jar. I only got a little bit before I started getting dizzy. I rushed to bed hoping I got enough. Around 1:00 AM I woke up feeling better and went and got a bigger swig. I'm now feeling like I'm back to normal.
"Honey, nectar from god." (Sorry I only believe in one god.)
Jim

[Kathyp]

Honey won't protect you from a virus.  Pretty sure nothing protects from Norovirus!!  It's Gods punishment for something 

There are things that boost the immune system.  Ginger, garlic, Tumeric, black seed oil, to name a few. 

Where Honey might make a difference is if you ingest something bacterial like salmonella.  The problem is that by the time you know you have ingested it, it's in your system, you are sick and too late for the honey.

It's one of those things that won't hurt, might help, might as well try it.

[Van, Arkansas, USA]

Virus is not a punishment: phage (bacterium virion) are needed to assure life by transmission of DNA that can code for resistant or disease ( natural immunity to HIV) to everything from radiation (Chernobyl fireman immune to radiation) to pesticides.  BTW virus is not a living organism.

This is getting beyond the scope of Beemaster, so I will have to reframe from further detail.
Blessings

[Kathyp]

Virus is not a punishment:

You know I was joking, right?   

[Van, Arkansas, USA]

Oh, thank you Kathyp.  Now I know.  All good things to you.
Blessings

[little john]

BTW virus is not a living organism.

Debatable - very, very debatable.  Depends entirely upon your definitions of 'life' and what exactly constitutes an 'organism'.  Which is relevant - I would have thought - to beekeeping, where many thousands of (what we would normally view as being) individual organisms, in practice function as one.  Indeed, are required to function as one in order to survive.  On their own, each bee would perish - i.e. cease to be living - and yet we (biologists) would have no difficulty in describing each honey bee as being a discrete 'living organism'.

I'd say it all depends on who is wielding the Knife of Phaedrus.
LJ

[Michael Bush]

This book:
https://smile.amazon.com/Honey-Revolution-Restoring-Health-Generations/dp/0979216214/ref=pd_sim_14_4?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0979216214&pd_rd_r=EJ1HC97JA84W6HQ7ZCYX&pd_rd_w=vV7ML&pd_rd_wg=Rue5g&psc=1&refRID=EJ1HC97JA84W6HQ7ZCYX

Has references to many scientific studies on the health benefits of honey.  Improving your immune system, of course, helps with any virus or bacterial attacks.

[little john]

On the subject of immunity in general - I find that although most people are familiar with the Circulatory System and the Nervous System, they frequently have scant knowledge of the Reticulo-Endothelial System (aka Mononuclear Phagocyte System)

Oodles of relevant info on the web, so I won't bother giving any links.  A bit of light reading awaits perhaps, to offer an alternative during the forthcoming festive period ?

LJ

[Van, Arkansas, USA]

{Debatable - very, very debatable.}

Well, Buddy Lil John, I?ll defend my statement.  Virus are a part of beekeeping so I compliant with Beemaster.

Virus has no respiration, they don?t breathe, they don?t eat nor have any means for digestion.  They don?t breed.  Virus can be crystallized like sugars or a rock.  They have zero metabolism, that why they don?t eat.

Summation: virus, they don?t; eat, breed, nor breathe and have the same metabolism of a rock, zero.  A virus is just a piece of DNA encapsulated in a protein enevelope containing maybe 2-3 enzymes.  The virion. (Singular virus) attaches  to a human cell, with a single enzyme bores through (lytic) the cell and inserts the viral DNA.  That is, an empty shell is left on the human cell surface.

The viral DNA is deadly, this DNA instructs the human cell to stop every thing and make more virus to the point the human cell burst so full of virus.  The released virus lands on another cell and the process repeats until our immunity, a white blood cell, finds and detects the virus on the surface of the human cell in which the white blood destroys the infected cell along with the virus load.

It is all in the DNA of the virus: a special, very demanding code that renders a human cell helpless, actually making slave of our cells and directing the human cell on a susicidal mission.  Our cells are tricked by the viral DNA code.

All cells in our body are instructed by their DNA, this DNA is mostly sugar and I marvel at the complexity in which man/woman kind are just beginning to understand.  Somehow, DNA has the ability to pass on knowledge, to suckle for example.  I am amazed at how a sugar can contain such precise information as to completely form a creature.
Blessings

[bwallace23350]

{All he wants to do is be outside and for me to walk through the woods with him.}

Now that is probably the most inspiring sentence I have ever read on Beemaster.  A classic beautiful statement about a kid and his dad: relative to health and honey.  What more can you ask for, thanks for sharing Wallace.
Blessings

Thanks. He is a special little guy and I feel blessed to be his dad. I am also really glad he is showing an interest in the outdoors and not tv and screens.

[little john]

Hi Van - hope all is well with you.

Viruses can breed - they can replicate like wildfire, and even mutate in the process.  Sure, they need a host in order to do this - but should that automatically disqualify them ?  The following is what Scientific American has to say on the subject (which I think sums-up the situation rather well) :

For about 100 years, the scientific community has repeatedly changed its collective mind over what viruses are. First seen as poisons, then as life-forms, then biological chemicals, viruses today are thought of as being in a gray area between living and nonliving: they cannot replicate on their own but can do so in truly living cells and can also affect the behavior of their hosts profoundly. The categorization of viruses as nonliving during much of the modern era of biological science has had an unintended consequence: it has led most researchers to ignore viruses in the study of evolution. Finally, however, scientists are beginning to appreciate viruses as fundamental players in the history of life.

So - I would say that to describe viruses as being 'non-living' in an absolute way is a mistake.  I were to be pressed to find a suitable label for viruses, then I'd probably describe them as being 'proto' life-forms.

LJ

[Van, Arkansas, USA]

Yes, Buddy, Lil John, all is well, Blessings your way.

Virius don?t breed.  To me I define breeding as purposeful, DELIBERATE introduction or exchange of DNA between organisms.  Bacteria conjugate, yes Sir, that is, connect to each other and exchange DNA.  With Virus,,,  there is a throw of the dice, no deliberate exchange, but randomly acquiring pieces of DNA in the hosts cytoplasm that happen by chance are included in encapsulation process.  The debate of virus:  living versus non-living will continue my friend for a long time.  It?s a no brainer to me, but I concur with your ?proto? living assessment.
Blessings

[Oldbeavo]

The pre-biotic effect of honey will help keep your gut bugs in balance, maybe if your gut is healthy then the effect of the virus may be less

[fatshark]

BTW virus is not a living organism.

Well ... it evolves and it demonstrably has genetic material based on RNA or DNA ... but no metabolic activity.

And before you say that's the difference between living and not living ... what about a bacterial spore? Exactly the same applies.

Viruses also 'deliberately' exchange their genetic material in the processes of recombination and reassortment. Viruses that do not do this are at an evolutionary disadvantage. They clearly 'breed'.

Best way to avoid 'flu-like viral infections is a) was your hands frequently and b) don't, don't, don't rub your eyes.