This article is written by our son Byron who is a veteran at using manuka honey to heal all sorts of scrapes and bruises. Enjoy!

Sometimes it sounds like manuka honey can do just about everything. But can it cure staph infections?

If you have a staph infection the last thing you want to do is leave it untreated. If you are reluctant to use antibiotics, or want a natural alternative, maybe manuka honey could be a potential candidate.

So, can manuka honey cure staph? The short answer is yes. Not only is it known to cause staph, it’s used for that purpose worldwide and even in hospitals as an antimicrobial agent against staph and MRSA.

If you’d like to know more about treating staph with manuka honey, this article will explain exactly how I’ve learned to do it, with some tips to make sure your healing time is swift and safe as possible.

What is staph?

Whether it’s from wrestling, jiu-jitsu, gymnastics, or wherever else you might have caught it, staph sucks.

However, it often comes with the territory of contact sports, and unless you’re willing to hang up your ear guards for good, it’s something you’ll just need to deal with.

The most basic explanation of staph is it’s a bacterial skin infection. Staph isn’t actually bad for us, it lives on everybody’s skin and is a completely normal part of our bacterial and floral make up. However, when you participate in contact sports, where you are constantly in contact with other people’s sweat and skin, it can lead to foreign bacteria getting into cuts or scratches on your own skin. This can lead to infection.

Now if you’ve been to the doctor, he’s probably prescribed you some sort of antibiotic for the next week. If you want to use that, it’s fine. It will probably work, and you’ll go on with your life.

However, in recent years we’ve all but concluded that antibiotics are not good for us. They destroy the good bacteria in our bodies, and they prevent our immune systems from fighting their own battles. Of course, this doesn’t mean antibiotics are completely evil – for serious and stubborn infections, they are helpful and often save lives. But our overdependence on antibiotics has become a problem.

My philosophy is – if you can cure it without antibiotics, do it.

So – you’ve got staph, and maybe you’re reluctant to use antibiotics for a staph infection that doesn’t look too serious. Luckily, I’ve actually done this a couple of times after getting staph from jiu-jitsu, and both times it completely cleared up within 7-10 days. Below I’m going to lay out exactly how I did it.

What do you need?

The first weapon in your cure-staph-naturally arsenal is a special honey called manuka honey. Manuka is a plant native to New Zealand and the pollen from the manuka flower makes an exceptionally strong antibacterial honey. The science behind this honey is quite exceptional andI have a blog post detailing more aspects of the honey here if you’re interested.

If you scour the internet, you’ll read about countless people using manuka honey to cure staph and even MRSA, particularly when antibiotics didn’t work initially. It’s pretty impressive.

Let’s look at some of the science.

This study concluded:

“Manuka Honey inhibited the growth MRSA by preventing cell division and potentiating oxacillin inhibition on MRSA”, at a concentration less than 10%…”

“Manuka Honey was needed for the inhibition of all the 58 strains of Gram-positive MSSA and 18 strains of MRSA isolated from wounds…”

“At a concentration of 10% (v/v), all three tested Manuka Honeys produced a significant decline in both MSSA and MRSA…”

This study published by the American Society for Microbiology found that:

“Manuka honey can inhibit S. aureus, MRSA, and vancomycin-intermediate S. aureus (VISA) at low concentrations”, and;

“More recent studies have also highlighted the ability of manuka honey to increase efficacy of some clinically relevant antibiotics against MRSA, which could also be useful in the case of difficult-to-treat antibiotic-resistant S. pseudintermedius infections.”

This study, published in Nature, concluded that:

“Based on best-fit line equation, we expect for 10% and 1% raw Manuka honey to start having bacterial-killing abilities at about 6 × 10⁶ CFU/mL and 6.1 × 10² CFU/mL, respectively. The positive control for the experiments was 50% raw Manuka honey, which killed all bacteria after a 24-h incubation period.”

This is only a small part of the scientific literature on manuka honey and wound healing, but the science is robust.

How To Get Manuka Honey?

A few years ago manuka honey was difficult to come by, and could only be reliably sourced if you actually came to get it yourself in New Zealand!

However, in the days of the internet, things have become much easier. Jars are now traceable, and gradings for individual batches can be found online. You can also simply order online directly from producers, who ship honey all over the world.

For treating staph I would recommend a manuka honey that’s at least UMF 20 (you can read more about the gradings here).

Our top recommendation for treating staph would be the UMF 24+ Manuka Honey from NZ Honey Co.

NZ Honey Co has raw, organic, unpasteurized honey, certified by the UMF Association and also certified as glyphosate-free.

It’s really the top of the spectrum when it comes to high-grade manuka honey.

UMF 24 has been shown to be effective against staph in studies, and it’s very affordable (cheaper than a hospital visit, for sure!)

As for the highest grade available – that would be the UMF 28+ honey from NZ Honey Co.

This is a much more potent grading and closer to what hospitals would use for treating MRSA (yes, it’s used in hospitals!)

Very few companies are able to produce manuka honey of this calibre.

The price is very reasonable for a honey of this quality, and the antibacterial potency will be unmatched.

If you want the best chance of nuking your staph infection, this is probably what you want. This is personally what I used for my last staph infection.

You can get it directly from their website by clicking here.

Tea Tree Oil

The second weapon is tea tree oil.

Many of you will already be familiar with tea tree oil. It’s great for using as an antiseptic, antifungal, antibacterial, hot baths, it’s even used as a scabies treatment in Australia. But what you might not know is the tea tree plant is actually the same plant that the manuka flowers from (tea tree is the Australian name, manuka is the native New Zealand name).

When using the honey together with the essential oil, it packs a double whammy punch of antibacterial action that is super effective against staph and MRSA.

A standard tea tree oil from Amazon, such as this one, will suffice for treating staph:

Tea tree oil and manuka honey: The Treatment Plan

So, how do we use manuka honey and tea tree oil to cure staph?

It’s pretty simple.

Step 1

The first thing you want to apply is the tea tree oil. Tea tree oil is extremely potent and you do not want to use a lot. One drop should be more than enough, maybe two depending on how big the infected area is. Simply put one drop into the wound and rub it in gently.

Step 2

After that, you want to take a popsicle stick or small teaspoon and take about a fingernail’s worth of manuka honey. Place it on the infected area as a blob and make sure the whole area is covered.

Be certain to wash the spoon or utensil if you dip again to avoid contaminating your whole jar of manuka – you might want to eat some later!

Step 3

Once you’ve applied both the honey and tea tree oil to your staph infection, cover it with a large band-aid.

Repeat!

Repeat this every 4-6 hours. You’ll need to uncover the wound, wipe it gently and reapply the tea tree oil and honey. Ensure the treatment is on 24 hours a day. Not only does re-dressing the wound allow you to apply fresh honey and oil, but it allows you to get a look at your infection and see if it’s improving.

For me, it showed improvement within less than 24 hours both times.

And that’s it!

Keep the treatment on round the clock and hopefully, you should be good as new within a week.

Another thing: You can also eat the honey – taking it internally is also helpful. Just take a spoonful and put it down. Yum.

And finally, a word of warning: People respond to staph infections and treatments differently. Some antibiotics work for some people and not for others. It’s the same with natural treatments. If your staph infection doesn’t show improvement within 72 hours, I would suggest going to a doctor or starting a course of antibiotics. The worst thing you can do is let a staph infection grow and get out of control. They are minor inconveniences if treated early, but apocalyptic to your health if you let them drag on.

Ready to get started?

The tea tree oil I use and recommend can be purchased on Amazon here.

The manuka honey I use and recommend is the UMF 28 Manuka Honey from NZ Honey Co. This is one of the highest UMF-graded honeys I know of on the market and will give you the best chance of killing staph and MRSA.

As for band-aids, I like to use wide 4 inch band-aids such as these. They cover the wound nicely with lots of room to spare.

Good luck!