Is honey good for you? Can it speed recovery if you’re sick or injured?
10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.
Honey is often praised for a range of health benefits, from soothing a sore throat and helping you get to sleep to healing woulds and lowering risk factors for diabetes and heart disease.
Honey’s acidity has the potential to prevent bacterial growth, while its density and stickiness generates osmotic pressure (in the same way as quicksand) which restrain bacteria.
Other compounds in honey contribute anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects.
But do the claims about honey for specific health problems and injuries stack up to science? Let’s check what the evidence says.
First, what’s in honey?
Honey contains up to 20% water. The remaining 80% is made of simple sugars: monasaccharides that we rapidly digest. Fructose (32-28%) and glucose (26-31%) are the main ones, followed by small amounts of sucrose and others.
This can increase blood sugar levels to varying degrees. The glycemic index (GI) measures how fast blood sugars rise after eating or drinking. The GI of different Australian honeys ranges from 35 (low) to 72 (high), though most food labels don’t contain GI information.
Honey also has traces of vitamins (A, B1, B2, B6, C), minerals (potassium, magnesium, iron, zinc), amino acids (protein) and enzymes from plant, bee and insect secretions.
Nutrients vary depending on where the honeybees collected pollen, the time of honey harvest and how long it has been stored.
Can honey heal wounds?
A 2015 Cochrane review update assessed the effects of honey in treating acute burns, lacerations and chronic wounds, compared to topical treatments or other dressings.
It found high-quality evidence that honey dressings healed second-degree burns 4–5 days faster than conventional dressings. There was moderate-quality evidence that wounds infected after surgery healed faster with honey.
A 2020 review evaluated antimicrobial activity of Manuka and medical-grade honeys against a range of multi-drug resistant bacterial species. It found all honeys were effective against most species and could be considered for use in antibiotic-resistant infections.
Only sterilised medical-grade honey that has been processed to remove contaminants, and meets safety and antibacterial standards, should be used, with guidance from your doctor.
Does honey help adults sleep?
Research on the effects of honey on sleep is limited.
One trial compared sleep quality of 68 adults admitted to hospital. Half were given a mixture of milk (150mL) and honey (30g) twice a day, and half were not.
Those in the honey-mixture group said they slept better after day three. But these results could be biased, because participants were aware they were getting honey-milk and drinking it can be associated with feeling of comfort.
Can it soothe sore throats and coughs, or help kids sleep?
Five studies in children have compared honey mixtures to over-the-counter cough medicines or no medication. Each study linked honey to better sleep and less severe coughs in children.
But before you rush out to stock up on honey, there are major limitations related to the honey used. The quantity and type of honey given varies across the studies, with no certainty about which components are present. So the results need to be interpreted with caution.
Chemical analysis of some honey varieties found traces of the “feel-good” brain chemical serotonin and the hormone melatonin, which affects sleep and circadian rhythm. But the researchers concluded the small amounts detected were more likely to affect activity of the bees, rather than affecting human behaviour.
What about for diabetes, heart disease and cancer care?
For diabetes, a 2023 review of 48 clinical trials found honey had some positive effects on a range of risk factors, including glucose tolerance and wound healing. However, the honey dose and type weren’t standardised, so the researchers concluded that honey could be used in addition to, but not instead of, regular medications.
For heart disease, a 2022 analysis combining findings from trials evaluated the impact of honey on blood fats. It found no effect on several risk factors for heart disease: total cholesterol, triglycerides (another type of blood fat), low-density lipoprotein (LDL or bad) cholesterol or high-density lipoprotein (HDL or good) cholesterol.
However a 2025 meta-analysis of propolis (bee glue) did find significant reductions in triglycerides, LDL (bad) cholesterol, fasting blood sugars, insulin and systolic blood pressure (the top number on a reading). But given most propolis supplement trials have only lasted a few months and supplements are expensive, that money is likely better spent on healthy foods.
For cancer patients, a 2023 review found honey alleviated ulceration and inflammation in the mouth following chemotherapy or radiotherapy, and it reduced some of the toxic effects of chemotherapy.
Can it affect your mind?
Some honeys have psychotropic, or mind-altering effects. “Mad honey” comes from plant nectar of Rhododendron species and naturally contains grayanotoxins, which have pharmacological and toxic effects.
These include nausea, dizziness, low blood pressure, severe bradycardia (an abnormally slow heart rate), neurological complications and even life-threatening cardiac arrhythmia (irregular heart beat).
It’s illegal to import or sell “mad honey” in Australia but Nepal and Turkey have historically used it for medicinal and psychoactive properties.
Who shouldn’t have honey?
Although commercial honey is pasteurised, the process does not kill spores of the bacteria Clostridium botulinum. This is why babies under one year and immunocompromised people shouldn’t have honey.
Clare Collins, Laureate Professor in Nutrition and Dietetics, University of Newcastle
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Don’t Forget…
Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!
Learn to Age Gracefully
Join the 98k+ American women taking control of their health & aging with our 100% free (and fun!) daily emails:
-
Stop Checking Your Likes – by Susie Moore
10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.
You might think this one’s advice is summed up sufficiently by the title, that there’s no need for a book! But…
There’s a lot more to this than “stop comparing the worst out-takes of your life to someone else’s highlight reel”, and there’s a lot more to this than “just unplug”.
Instead, Susie Moore discusses the serious underlying real emotional considerations of the need for approval (and even just acceptance) by our community, as well the fear of missing out.
It’s not just about how social media is designed to hijack various parts of our brain, or how The Alogorithm™ is out to personally drag your soul through Hell for a few more clicks; it’s also about the human element that would exist even without that. Who remembers MySpace? No algorithm in those days, but oh the drama potential for those “top 8 friends” places. And if you think that kind of problem is just for young people 20 years ago, you have mercifully missed the drama that older generations can get into on Facebook.
Along with the litany of evil, though, Moore also gives practical advice on how to overcome those things, how to “see the world through comedy-colored glasses”, how to ask “what’s missing, really?”, and how to make your social media experience work for you, rather than it merely using you as fuel. ← link is to our own related article!
Bottom line: if social media sucks a lot of your time, there may be more to it than just “social media sucks in general”, and there are ways to meet your emotional needs without playing by corporations’ rules to do so.
Click here to check out Stop Checking Your Likes, and breathe easy!
Share This Post
-
Your Daily Dose Of B12 From Just 15g Of Pea Shoots!
10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.
…and other items from this week’s health news:
Efficient and inexpensive B12-bearing pea shoots
Because plants don’t create vitamin B12, and meat and dairy carry assorted health risks, what’s a person to do, who wants to be healthy?
Well, there is yeast, which has the best of both worlds, but maybe you don’t want nutritional yeast with every meal. There’s supplementation too, but wouldn’t it be nicer to get it from our diet?
Researchers (Dr. Bethany Eldridge et al.) have found an answer, having developed pea shoots that naturally contain high levels of vitamin B12 using indoor aeroponic farming.
How it works: much like how cows are supplemented with B12 that is then passed on to humans to eat them, they simply supplemented the pea plants, via their exposed roots in an aeroponics setting. Drawing nutrients up from the roots, the leaves accumulated enough B12 that a 15-gram serving of pea shoots provides more than the recommended daily allowance of vitamin B12.
The researchers estimate adding B12 through this method could increase the price of a bag of pea shoots by less than 1 penny, making it extremely inexpensive at scale:
Read in full: New aeroponic technology delivers essential Vitamin B12 through salad crops ← small error in the article; it says cyanocobalamin is the most bioavailable form of B12; it isn’t, that would be methylcobalamin or adenosylcobalamin. However, they did test the cyanocobalamine stored in the pea shoots and found that it was bioavailable, including after harvesting and storage. To be clear, the “most bioavailable” claim error was only in the pop-science article, not in the paper to which it links.
Related: Which B Vitamins? It Makes A Difference
Worse than “just” measles
Measles is bad enough already, to the point that it has a body count in the US in the past year, mostly unvaccinated children.
However, even if one recovers from an initial measles infection, there’s another problem that can strike later.
Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE) is a rare but usually fatal neurological disease caused by the measles virus persisting in the brain for years after the original infection. Early signs often include stumbling, personality changes, jerking movements, seizures, hallucinations, and gradual loss of speech and mobility as brain damage progresses. The disease usually worsens steadily, leading to severe disability such as paralysis or inability to swallow, and it is almost always fatal.
Again, children suffer most. Or rather, the adolescents that these children briefly survived to become. That’s because children who catch measles very young—especially before age 5 or during infancy—have the highest risk of later developing SSPE.
Due to declining vaccinations in the US and parts of Europe, clinicians have begun seeing cases again after decades when they were extremely rare, including a California child who died after contracting measles as an infant. Doctors expect many more SSPE cases to appear in years to come as the “delayed echo” of the recent waves of infections.
Some quick notes on treatment and prevention:
- Treatment: doctors currently have no cure for SSPE, and available therapies only slow the disease slightly rather than reversing brain damage.
- Prevention: the two-dose measles vaccine dramatically reduces infection risk—from about 90% to roughly 3% after exposure—making vaccination the most effective way to prevent SSPE entirely.
Read in full: Doctors warn of a deadly complication from measles outbreaks
Related: Vaccine Mythbusting
Save money, save your heart
What’s better, simple red meat, or plant-based meats?
Research (linked below) has answered this question and found that replacing red meat with processed plant-based meat substitutes significantly (and rapidly!) lowers levels of the cardiovascular-risk metabolite trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO).
The benefits at a glance:
- TMAO levels: the plant-based meat diet significantly lowered circulating TMAO levels compared with the red-meat diet by about 0.61 log units, showing that the metabolite can change within only a few days of dietary substitution.
- Cholesterol changes: during the plant-based phase, total cholesterol dropped by about 7 mg/dL and LDL cholesterol by about 6 mg/dL, although the trial was powered primarily to detect TMAO changes rather than lipid outcomes.
Were there any drawbacks? Yes, two:
- Participants gained an average of 0.6 kg during the plant-based phase, which researchers suggested may reflect fluid retention from the higher sodium content of processed plant-based patties. In practical terms, this means that…
- one can still have too much of a good thing, and while the swap is a mostly healthier one, it’s still important to watch the sodium levels, and
- if you are going to consume more sodium for some reason (most of us will have a saltier meal once in a while), it’s good to balance that with water and non-sodium electrolytes, especially potassium, which counterbalances sodium in the body’s homeostatic system.
- A few participants reported mild gastrointestinal symptoms, including abdominal discomfort and diarrhea, during the plant-based diet phase. Basically, since this was an interventional trial, this was a case of “people who aren’t used to eating plant-based don’t yet have a gut that’s accustomed to plant-based fiber levels“, and would not be relevant after a short period, when the gut adapts.
Read in full: Swapping red meat for plant-based meat rapidly lowers a key heart risk metabolite, trial finds
Related: Are plant-based burgers really bad for your heart? Here’s what’s behind the scary headlines
Take care!
Share This Post
-
Gum disease, decay, missing teeth: why people with mental illness have poorer oral health
10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.
People with poor mental health face many challenges. One that’s perhaps lesser known is that they’re more likely than the overall population to have poor oral health.
Research has shown people with serious mental illness are four times more likely than the general population to have gum disease. They’re nearly three times more likely to have lost all their teeth due to problems such as gum disease and tooth decay.
Serious mental illnesses include major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder and psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia. These conditions affect about 800,000 Australians.
People living with schizophrenia have, on average, eight more teeth that are decayed, missing or filled than the general population.
So why does this link exist? And what can we do to address the problem?
mihailomilovanovic/Getty Images Why is this a problem?
Oral health problems are expensive to fix and can make it hard for people to eat, socialise, work or even just smile.
What’s more, dental issues can land people in hospital. Our research shows dental conditions are the third most common reason for preventable hospital admissions among people with serious mental illness.
Meanwhile, poor oral health is linked with long-term health conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, some cancers, and even cognitive problems. This is because the bacteria associated with gum diseases can cause inflammation throughout the body, which affects other systems in the body.
Why are mental health and oral health linked?
Poor mental and oral health share common risk factors. Social factors such as isolation, unemployment and housing insecurity can worsen both oral and mental health.
For example, unemployment increases the risk of oral disease. This can be due to financial difficulties, reduced access to oral health care, or potential changes to diet and hygiene practices.
At the same time, oral disease can increase barriers to finding employment, due to stigma, discrimination, dental pain and associated long-term health conditions.
It’s clear the relationship between oral health and mental health goes both ways. Dental disease can reduce self-esteem and increase psychological distress. Meanwhile, symptoms of mental health conditions, such as low motivation, can make engaging in good oral health practices, including brushing, flossing, and visiting the dentist, more difficult.
And like many people, those with serious mental illness can experience significant anxiety about going to the dentist. They may also have experienced trauma in the past, which can make visiting a dental clinic a frightening experience.
Separately, poor oral health can be made worse by some medications for mental health conditions. Certain medications can interfere with saliva production, reducing the protective barrier that covers the teeth. Some may also increase sugar cravings, which heightens the risk of tooth decay.
Some medications people take for mental health conditions can affect oral health. Gladskikh Tatiana/Shutterstock Our research
In a recent study, we interviewed young people with mental illness. Our findings show the significant personal costs of dental disease among people with mental illness, and highlight the relationship between oral and mental health.
Smiling is one of our best ways to communicate, but we found people with serious mental illness were sometimes embarrassed and ashamed to smile due to poor oral health.
One participant told us:
[poor oral health is] not only [about] the physical aspects of restricting how you eat, but it’s also about your mental health in terms of your self-esteem, your self-confidence, and basic wellbeing, which sort of drives me to become more isolated.
Another said:
for me, it was that serious fear of – God my teeth are looking really crap, and in the past they’ve [dental practitioners] asked, “Hey, you’ve missed this spot; what’s happening?”. How do I explain to them, hey, I’ve had some really shitty stuff happening and I have a very serious episode of depression?
What can we do?
Another of our recent studies focused on improving oral health awareness and behaviours among young adults experiencing mental health difficulties. We found a brief online oral health education program improved participants’ oral health knowledge and attitudes.
Improving oral health can result in improved mental wellbeing, self-esteem and quality of life. But achieving this isn’t always easy.
Limited Medicare coverage for dental care means oral diseases are frequently treated late, particularly among people with mental illness. By this time, more invasive treatments, such as removal of teeth, are often required.
It’s crucial the health system takes a holistic approach to caring for people experiencing serious mental illness. That means we have mental health staff who ask questions about oral health, and dental practitioners who are trained to manage the unique oral health needs of people with serious mental illness.
It also means increasing government funding for oral health services – promotion, prevention and improved interdisciplinary care. This includes better collaboration between oral health, mental health, and peer and informal support sectors.
Bonnie Clough, Senior Lecturer, School of Applied Psychology, Griffith University; Amanda Wheeler, Professor of Mental Health, Griffith University; Caroline Victoria Robertson, Research Fellow, Griffith Research Centre for Mental Health, Griffith University; Santosh Tadakamadla, Professor & Head of Dentistry and Oral Health, La Trobe University, and Steve Kisely, Professor, School of Medicine, The University of Queensland
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Share This Post
-
Does Your Butt…Wink?
10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.
What is a Butt Wink?
A “butt wink” is a common issue that occurs during squatting exercises.
Now, we’ve talked about the benefits of squatting countless times (see here or here for just a few examples). As with all exercises, using the correct technique is imperative, helping to both reduce injury and maximize gain.
Given butt winks are a common issue when squatting, we thought it natural to devote an article to it.
So, a butt wink happens when, at the bottom of your squat position, your pelvis tucks rotates backward (otherwise known as a “posterior pelvic tilt”) and the lower back rounds. This motion looks like a slight ‘wink’, hence the name.
How to Avoid Butt Winking
When the pelvis tucks under and the spine rounds, it can put undue pressure on the lumbar discs. This is especially risky when squatting with weights, as it can exacerbate the stress on the spine.
To avoid a butt wink, it’s important to maintain a neutral spine throughout the squat and to work on flexibility and strength in the hips, glutes, and hamstrings. Adjusting the stance width or foot angle during squats can also help in maintaining proper form.
A visual representation would likely work better than our attempt at describing what to do, so without further ado, here’s today’s video:
How was the video? If you’ve discovered any great videos yourself that you’d like to share with fellow 10almonds readers, then please do email them to us!
Don’t Forget…
Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!
Learn to Age Gracefully
Join the 98k+ American women taking control of their health & aging with our 100% free (and fun!) daily emails:
-
How old are you really? Are the latest ‘biological age’ tests all they’re cracked up to be?
10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.
We all like to imagine we’re ageing well. Now a simple blood or saliva test promises to tell us by measuring our “biological age”. And then, as many have done, we can share how “young” we really are on social media, along with our secrets to success.
While chronological age is how long you have been alive, measures of biological age aim to indicate how old your body actually is, purporting to measure “wear and tear” at a molecular level.
The appeal of these tests is undeniable. Health-conscious consumers may see their results as reinforcing their anti-ageing efforts, or a way to show their journey to better health is paying off.
But how good are these tests? Do they actually offer useful insights? Or are they just clever marketing dressed up to look like science?
How do these tests work?
Over time, the chemical processes that allow our body to function, known as our “metabolic activity”, lead to damage and a decline in the activity of our cells, tissues and organs.
Biological age tests aim to capture some of these changes, offering a snapshot of how well, or how poorly, we are ageing on a cellular level.
Our DNA is also affected by the ageing process. In particular, chemical tags (methyl groups) attach to our DNA and affect gene expression. These changes occur in predictable ways with age and environmental exposures, in a process called methylation.
Research studies have used “epigenetic clocks”, which measure the methylation of our genes, to estimate biological age. By analysing methylation levels at specific sites in the genome from participant samples, researchers apply predictive models to estimate the cumulative wear and tear on the body.
What does the research say about their use?
Although the science is rapidly evolving, the evidence underpinning the use of epigenetic clocks to measure biological ageing in research studies is strong.
Studies have shown epigenetic biological age estimation is a better predictor of the risk of death and ageing-related diseases than chronological age.
Epigenetic clocks also have been found to correlate strongly with lifestyle and environmental exposures, such as smoking status and diet quality.
In addition, they have been found to be able to predict the risk of conditions such as cardiovascular disease, which can lead to heart attacks and strokes.
Taken together, a growing body of research indicates that at a population level, epigenetic clocks are robust measures of biological ageing and are strongly linked to the risk of disease and death
But how good are these tests for individuals?
While these tests are valuable when studying populations in research settings, using epigenetic clocks to measure the biological age of individuals is a different matter and requires scrutiny.
For testing at an individual level, perhaps the most important consideration is the “signal to noise ratio” (or precision) of these tests. This is the question of whether a single sample from an individual may yield widely differing results.
A study from 2022 found samples deviated by up to nine years. So an identical sample from a 40-year-old may indicate a biological age of as low as 35 years (a cause for celebration) or as high as 44 years (a cause of anxiety).
While there have been significant improvements in these tests over the years, there is considerable variability in the precision of these tests between commercial providers. So depending on who you send your sample to, your estimated biological age may vary considerably.
Another limitation is there is currently no standardisation of methods for this testing. Commercial providers perform these tests in different ways and have different algorithms for estimating biological age from the data.
As you would expect for commercial operators, providers don’t disclose their methods. So it’s difficult to compare companies and determine who provides the most accurate results – and what you’re getting for your money.
A third limitation is that while epigenetic clocks correlate well with ageing, they are simply a “proxy” and are not a diagnostic tool.
In other words, they may provide a general indication of ageing at a cellular level. But they don’t offer any specific insights about what the issue may be if someone is found to be “ageing faster” than they would like, or what they’re doing right if they are “ageing well”.
So regardless of the result of your test, all you’re likely to get from the commercial provider of an epigenetic test is generic advice about what the science says is healthy behaviour.
Are they worth it? Or what should I do instead?
While companies offering these tests may have good intentions, remember their ultimate goal is to sell you these tests and make a profit. And at a cost of around A$500, they’re not cheap.
While the idea of using these tests as a personalised health tool has potential, it is clear that we are not there yet.
For this to become a reality, tests will need to become more reproducible, standardised across providers, and validated through long-term studies that link changes in biological age to specific behaviours.
So while one-off tests of biological age make for impressive social media posts, for most people they represent a significant cost and offer limited real value.
The good news is we already know what we need to do to increase our chances of living longer and healthier lives. These include:
- improving our diet
- increasing physical activity
- getting enough sleep
- quitting smoking
- reducing stress
- prioritising social connection.
We don’t need to know our biological age in order to implement changes in our lives right now to improve our health.
Hassan Vally, Associate Professor, Epidemiology, Deakin University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Don’t Forget…
Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!
Learn to Age Gracefully
Join the 98k+ American women taking control of their health & aging with our 100% free (and fun!) daily emails:
-
3 Exercises To Recover Safely From Back Pain
10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.
If you’ve ever had serious back pain, you will know two things:
- the road to recovery involves regaining your normal mobility, and your back’s inability to flex normally (something usually taken for granted) affects every little thing.
- the idea of taking your back through any range of motion is a terrifying prospect, knowing that you could at any moment be flung into searing, paralysing pain.
So, how to resolve this? How to address the former, while avoiding the consequences of the latter?
Over-50s specialist physio, Will Harlow, gives us the 3 exercises he gave his mother (herself in her 60s) to successfully fix what was prognosed as a lifelong disability:
Gently does it
The key, he explains, is to exercise in a way that gently proves to your body that it’s safe to move again—as otherwise, you will have a subconscious psychological block stopping you allowing a return to full mobility, much as most people find it very difficult to deliberately give themselves a serious injury.
As to how to do it, he gave her these three exercises, and recommends the same to us, should the need arise:
1. Knee rolls: yes, knees. Not the most intuitive exercise for one’s back, but that’s the whole point: rolling one’s knees (description to follow in a moment) obliges one’s back to twist, just a little, while still being supported by whatever you’re lying on. As such, it’s done lying on your back with knees bent and lower back slightly flattened into the surface. Slowly roll both knees to one side, then return to center, starting with small movements to signal safety to the brain. Initially, the range should be limited—just a few inches side to side—to prevent spasms. Do 20 reps per side, repeat 3–4 times daily. Over time, range of motion improves, reducing stiffness and spasms. For Mrs. Harlow, it took six weeks to get the full range of motion.
2. Seated forward flexion: an exercise that looks like it’s not remotely an exercise at all, but it’s actually a very important one*. Sit on a firm chair with hips and knees at 90°, feet flat, and legs slightly apart. With hands on thighs, slowly bend forward from the top of the spine, sliding hands down legs. Initially stop at the first sign of tightness or pain, then return. As flexibility improves, progress to touching the floor. This movement calms the central nervous system, proving to the brain that forward bending is safe. Do five reps, three to four times daily or when the back feels tight.
3. The clam: lie on your side with the top leg to be worked, knees and hips bent at 90°, feet together. Roll slightly forwards, then lift the top knee without moving the rest of the body. Maintain strict form and stop if you feel the effort above the waistline (which means the back is working instead). This strengthens the gluteus medius and minimus—key for offloading the lower back. Continue until you feel a working ache below the waistline, then rest. Do multiple sets daily, together or spaced out.
*it reminds this writer of last time I hurt my back, and I needed my son’s help to put my socks on, precisely because I could not perform this movement!
For more on each of these, plus visual demonstrations, enjoy:
Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!
Want to learn more?
You might also like:
How To Stop Pain From Spreading
Take care!
Don’t Forget…
Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!
Learn to Age Gracefully
Join the 98k+ American women taking control of their health & aging with our 100% free (and fun!) daily emails:
