What is tonsillitis, and can manuka honey help as a home treatment?
Tonsillitis is the inflammation of the tonsils. These are two pieces of flesh that hang at the opening of the throat.
Tonsillitis can be caused by different things.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, tonsillitis can be either viral or bacterial.
Viral tonsillitis is caused by things such as colds and flus.
Bacterial tonsillitis is usually caused by Streptococcus bacteria. This can also be referred to as strep throat.
Symptoms of tonsillitis are a sore throat, pain swallowing, swollen tonsils, fever, and swollen lymph nodes.
Is Manuka Honey Good For Tonsillitis?
Manuka honey is a known antiviral and antibacterial agent.
In this 2014 study, manuka honey was shown to have significant success at combating the influenza virus.
“Our results showed that honey, in general, and particularly manuka honey, has potent inhibitory activity against the influenza virus, demonstrating a potential medicinal value.”
Because influenza is a known cause of viral tonsillitis, it makes sense that Manuka honey will be potentially helpful as a treatment.
Moreover, the standard treatment for influenza is usually nothing more than “go home, drink lots of fluids, maybe take some painkillers and rest.”
With Manuka honey being a completely natural treatment, that doesn’t require a prescription, has no known side effects and is a known anti-viral, this makes it a perfect at-home treatment to use when you’re suffering from viral tonsillitis.
The news is also good when it comes to bacterial tonsillitis. This is usually caused by strep bacteria, and research shows Manuka honey is very effective and inhibiting and treating strep bacteria in the throat.
This study and this study showed the effectiveness of manuka honey against strep.
Overall, both types of tonsillitis will be receptive to manuka honey treatment.
What’s the best way to take manuka honey during tonsillitis?
Whenever we have a sore throat in the house, we make a basic honey lemon drink using a high UMF Manuka honey.
The important thing here is to NOT use boiling water.
You do not want your water too hot or you’ll compromise the active ingredients in the honey.
Use warm water and lemon, then stir your honey in vigorously.
The other great way to take manuka honey while you have a sore throat is to eat it straight! Simply dunk a spoon inside the jar and eat a mouthful 2 or 3 times a day.
This is the most effective way as you get a good dosage and the honey is completely unadulterated by cooking or heat.
Which Manuka Honey is best for tonsillitis?
We always recommend using a high UMF manuka honey when dealing with illness (at least UMF 24).
(click here to learn more about UMF grades and why they matter).
Our favourite Manuka Honey and the one we always recommend is the UMF 24 from NZ Honey Co. It’s one of the highest quality manukas in the world with some of the highest UMF gradings.
If you’d like to see our full listed of rated Manuka honeys, click here.
