# Advantages of Honey? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 9, 2022, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advantages-of-honey/959175 "2022-02-09T21:22:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2022, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advantages-of-honey/959175/41 "2022-02-12T21:46:33Z")
> [@Railer13](#): > > Raw, local honey also contains a blend of local pollen, which can strengthen a person’s immune system, and reduce pollen allergy symptoms No body of scientific study supports that eating local pollen will reduce pollen allergy symptoms. If that were possible then allergists would give you pills instead of shots. I am skeptical as to whether pollen would survive the trip through stomach acid and enzymes. Also the types of pollens that bees collect are generally different than what causes allergies. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2022, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advantages-of-honey/959175/42 "2022-02-12T22:32:48Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > the types of pollens that bees collect are generally different than what causes allergies. This seems like the major problem with the theory. We’ve already seen decent studies showing that eating peanuts reduces the risk of developing peanut allergies, so it’s pretty plausible that eating pollen could do the same. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2022, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advantages-of-honey/959175/43 "2022-02-12T23:04:37Z")
Morphine and the like do work for a lot of people. They have significant risks of addiction, but they also work as actual pain relief. They don’t work for me - it looks like I don’t have the genes that work with opiates - but in a sense, that makes me trust the results more for those they do work for. NSAIDS also work for a lot of people. I can’t use those either because they make my asthma much worse (and they also gave me an ulcer), but used correctly, in conjunction with a PPI, they can be very effective. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2022, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advantages-of-honey/959175/44 "2022-02-13T00:11:17Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > Morphine and the like do work for a lot of people. They have significant risks of addiction, but they also work as actual pain relief. For a short time, yes. But over longer time periods they become less effective, requiring higher and higher doses to achieve a lesser and lesser effect. Eventually the chronic pain patient typically ends up on doses high enough to kill an opioid-naive elephant while suffering from constipation and still experiencing about as much pain as they were originally. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2022, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advantages-of-honey/959175/45 "2022-02-13T00:20:33Z")
Agreed - depends on the dose, I guess. I do know people who’ve been on opiate painkillers for twenty years in the UK and haven’t had to increase the dose hugely. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2022, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advantages-of-honey/959175/46 "2022-02-13T15:25:07Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > We’ve already seen decent studies showing that eating peanuts reduces the risk of developing peanut allergies, so it’s pretty plausible that eating pollen could do the same. I am not a biologist or health practitioner. But one allergy is not necessarily the same as another. The most common desensitization therapy for pollen allergies is subcutaneous injections. For some pollen allergies there is also sublingual therapy, not because it acts in the digestive system but because it enters the bloodstream sublingually. I know of no widely accepted desensitization treatment for pollen allergies that acts through a substance going through the digestive system, as what is claimed by eating local honey. Exposure to peanuts at an early age (by eating them) seems to mitigate the development of peanut allergies later. Some studies indicate that exposure to pollen through the ambient environment (_not_ by ingestion) may also help prevent pollen allergies. But there is no body of study that builds consensus that eating honey will treat or prevent pollen allergies. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2022, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advantages-of-honey/959175/47 "2022-02-13T16:03:55Z")
And, since the pollen in honey is collected by bees, and doesn’t tend to get airborne, and the pollen that causes allergies is almost always airborne, even if eating pollen DID help with allergies, eating local honey wouldn’t help with pollen allergies. You don’t see bees hanging out around ragweed or grass or oak blossoms. Those plants depend on the wind, not on bees, to pollinate them. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2022, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advantages-of-honey/959175/48 "2022-02-14T00:20:04Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > You don’t see bees hanging out around ragweed or grass or oak blossoms. Those plants depend on the wind, not on bees, to pollinate them. Not true that bees avoid ragweed. “Because it flowers so late into the season, ragweed offers up a prodigious source of protein-rich pollen for bees gearing up for fall and winter.” > **[Why We Shouldn't Rag on Ragweed — In Defense of Plants](https://www.indefenseofplants.com/blog/2016/9/5/why-we-shouldnt-rag-on-ragweed)** ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2022, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advantages-of-honey/959175/49 "2022-02-14T00:38:22Z")
Be aware that real 100% tupelo flower honey is very strong tasting, not what you expect honey to taste like. Two years ago, my horse fell out of a moving trailer and tore herself up real bad. She spent a month at Tufts University Veterinary Hospital, where her life was saved, and when she came home for rehab, my old horse vet told me to pack Manukka honey under her bandages to control scar tissue formation (which is a serious problem with leg wounds in horses). I did as he suggested and yes, it did seem to really help. , ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2022, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advantages-of-honey/959175/50 "2022-02-14T00:44:01Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > Be aware that real 100% tupelo flower honey is very strong tasting, not what you expect honey to taste like. That would be from “black Tupelo” flowers, not the lighter ones that result in a light, fragrant and sweet product. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2022, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advantages-of-honey/959175/51 "2022-02-14T01:03:07Z")
ignorance fought! ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2022, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advantages-of-honey/959175/52 "2022-02-14T01:08:31Z")
It makes sense that eating peanuts would be relevant for a peanut allergy, since after all the allergic reaction there is from eating peanuts. Likewise, one would expect that the relevant exposure mode for pollen allergies would be inhalation. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2022, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advantages-of-honey/959175/53 "2022-02-14T02:08:51Z")
I think they’re big on apiaries in Thailand, based on a saying I’ve always heard there, “No money, no honey.” ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2022, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advantages-of-honey/959175/54 "2022-02-14T02:18:35Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > There’s a lot of hype out there about Manuka honey, but a paucity of evidence to show superiority in wound treatment to other types. You should under no circumstances use Manuka honey for wound treatment. It’s delicious. It should be a crime to do anything with it other than ingest it orally. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2022, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advantages-of-honey/959175/55 "2022-02-22T13:35:14Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > …I did as he suggested and yes, it did seem to really help. > , Your lack of controls makes this statement nothing more that wishful thinking, not proof of anything. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2022, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advantages-of-honey/959175/56 "2022-02-22T13:36:39Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > our lack of controls makes this statement nothing more that wishful thinking, not proof of anything. I’d call it more than wishful thinking, less than proof. The guy who recommended it had fifty years of daily field experience treating wounds. In any case, it was certainly harmless. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advantages-of-honey/959175.md?page=2)