How to Use Honey for Beauty and Wellness

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Honey is a superfood in every way, deserving high honors and praise. Besides being an exquisite-tasting natural alternative for sugar, honey offers incredible wellness support, emergency care and should be an integral part of anyone’s beauty regimen.

Nutrition

Research has shown that honey contains a wide array of vitamins, minerals, amino acids and antioxidants. Flavonoids and phenolic acids, which act as antioxidants, are found in honey. The amount and type of these compounds depends largely on the floral source.

Wellness

When it comes to healthcare, nobody enjoys having a sore or ticklish throat. Honey offers soothing, effective results.

A study by a Penn State College of Medicine research team found that honey may offer parents an effective and safe alternative. The study found that a small dose of buckwheat honey given before bedtime provided better relief of nighttime cough and sleep difficulty in children than no treatment or dextromethorphan (DM), a cough suppressant found in many over-the-counter cold medications.

The same study found that honey has been used for centuries in some cultures to treat upper respiratory infection symptoms like cough, and is considered to be safe for children over 12 months old. Honey has well-established antioxidant and antimicrobial effects, which could explain its contributions to wound healing.

I like to blend honey with garlic whenever I feel a cold coming on. I finely chop up a clove of garlic. And merge it into a teaspoon of honey. This was a recipe told to me personally by Jeanne Rose, (herbalist, aromatherapist, author). It will wake you up. It also wakes up your immune system. I sometimes add various flowers from my herb garden into honey and allow the honey to meld with the flowers for 2-3 days. Then I remove the flowers. Lavender makes a beautiful scent and taste. Marshmallow is mucilaginous so it further helps to soothe the throat. Thyme and Oregano leaves and flowers are also immune boosters.

Beauty

Nice skin is smooth and hydrated. Honey provides both! Honey is a humectant, which means it attracts water. This makes the skin more plumped out and radiant. It also adds a dewy quality. (Tip: Drinking enough water also helps to hydrate and plump the skin.) Honey is also an emollient, which means that it helps to soothe and soften the outer layer of skin.

In cosmetic formulations, it exerts emollient, humectant, soothing, and hair conditioning effects, keeps the skin juvenile and retards wrinkle formation, regulates pH and prevents pathogen infections. Honey-based cosmetic products include lip ointments, cleansing milks, hydrating creams, after sun, tonic lotions, shampoos, and conditioners.

Using honey yourself at home is as easy as going to your kitchen. The easiest and most effective way is to add it to some yogurt. Mix it well and apply it to your face and neck. Massage well for a few minutes, then soak and gently rub it off using a soft warm washcloth. Your skin will be nice and soft. Great recipes and ideas can be found at The All Natural Beauty Website.

In Conclusion

We’ve just begun to touch on all of the amazing things honey can do. But on a somber note, the decline of the bee population is a serious issue that needs to be remedied. At the rate things are going, honey could prove to some day be a rare commodity. This delicate botanical substance is precious, for many reasons. Let’s do what we can do to help save the bees and be grateful for what they’ve worked so hard to provide. (Beauty Prepper Tip: Stock up while you can)

There are many more reasons why honey is a superfood in every way, deserving high honors and praise. I hope that you do your own search for honey online and discover many more ways to use this phenomenal all-natural substance. It could some day actually save your life.

References –
National Honey Board, “Nutritional Benefits of Honey”
http://honey.com

Penn State University Study https://news.psu.edu/story/192001/2007/12/03/honey-proves-better-option-childhood-cough-otcs

Jeanne Rose (Author/Herbalist/Aromatherapist) http://jeannerose.net

PubMed.gov https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24305429

Sharon Houghton
Sharon Houghton, is Founder & Director
of the All Natural Beauty Website (https://AllNaturalBeauty.com)
and Organic Web Care (https://OrganicWebCare.com)
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Sharon enjoys a healthy all-natural lifestyle, and empowering others to do the same.