Honey, honey

In October, our young colleague Antoine Bonfils dashed, the flower in the rifle, in the assault of the Everest. He returned without his flower, but especially without five toes of his right foot. Ice-cold ! Impossible to escape the amputation. Repatriated then hospitalized in Bets, Antoine sees advising a supplementary planning of his foot to reduce enough skin on the wound. Otherwise, the healing would be long and painful. A nightmarish perspective for this sportsman. " The fate then became known to me the exceptional repairs obtained by the professor Bernard Descottes with some honey ", explains Antoine. He calls him to the hospital of Limoges, explains him his case and receives some days later a jar of honey of thyme accompanied with a protocol of application. " On January 1st, I began the treatment. On March 1st, the healing was finished! In two months, and without any pain! It was unhoped-for ", is still delighted the young amputee. He is not the only one to rely on the apitherapy. For some years, the official medicine rediscovers the big virtues antiseptics, healing and anti-inflammatory some honey. It is nevertheless an old story. Already, the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Chinese, the Greeks, Romain used it to look after wounds and treat stomach ache. The prophet Mahomet recommends the honey to eliminate the diarrhea in particular. In 50 AD, the Greek Dioscoride recommends it to calm the inflammations of the throat, the cough and to weaken prefleas too much squeezed. Today still, many traditional medicines use it: in Ghana to look after ulcers infected by legs, in Nigeria for the troubles of ear, in Mali for the measles, in India for the eye affections... The only West forgot the honey, especially since the succession of antibiotics, used wildly. These will have had to collide with a resistance of germs so that it is given a boost. For two decades, it is the object of more and more numerous scientific works which confirm its efficiency to bring down plethora of germs, even among the most virulent. In England, in the United States, in Germany, the honey begins to flow in streams into free health centers and hospitals. There is only France which drags feet. The professor Bernard Descottes, the leader of the service of visceral surgery and transplantation of the hospital of Limoges, is there still the only apostle. Nevertheless, its revelation dates 1984. " One day, a girl came to consult me for a wound recovering from an appendicectomie which did not heal. I dashed : I asked to my nurses to apply some honey. They looked at me by thinking that the boss cracked up, but three days later the wound was closed. Since, I handled more than 3 000 patients successfully. " Become the president of the French-speaking association of apitherapy, the professor Descottes tested the efficiency of hundreds of honeys from the whole world. These tries crowned the varieties in the thyme and in the miellat (the sweet substance excreted by the sucking insects of sap, especially that of conifers). They insure a healing twice as fast as a fat bandage. Even pharmaceutical creams, hundred times more expensive to the gram, are incapable to compete! That it is about a wound either about a burn. The antiseptic secret of the honey, it is the hydrogen peroxide which it produces naturally! This manufacturing ensues from the presence of an enzyme (the glucose-oxydase) used by the bee to operate the transformation of the nectar. There remains enough so that in the presence of a little water a new chemical reaction engages: the sugar decomposes into hydrogen peroxide and into glucolique acid. We know the antiseptic power of the first night, whereas the acidity also hinders the development of germs. As for the power healing strictly speaking, it results at once from some sugar which, by osmosis, reclaims the wound and of a ribambelle of organic compounds facilitating the emission of cytokine and interleukine prohealing. The bee pharmacist does not stop amazing. Here is little, Tobias Olofsson, of the laboratory of microbiology of Helsingborg (Sweden), identified in the stomach of lactobacilles and the bifidobactéries which protect it from certain diseases in exchange for the shelter and for the place setting. These friendly bacteria could meet themselves in the honey, the antiseptic powers of which they would strengthen. At least, as long as this one is fresh. Certain bees more malignant than the others gather healing plants, active substances of which they take. Here is thus who explains the supernatural profits of the honey of thyme used by the professor Descottes: it contains of the thymol, a phenol in the powers antiseptics and vermifuges recognized. Also for the famous honey of manuka of New Zealand, the therapeutic exploits of which celebrated all over the world recover from a molecule taken from the tree with tea (Leptospermum scoparium). During years, the professor Peter Molan, of the New Zealand university of Waikato, tried to identify it in vain. Finally, this molecule was discovered last year by the German chemist Thomas Henle, of the university of Dresden. It is about the méthylglyoxal, the concentration of which in the honey manuka is until hundred times superior to that of the other honeys. The numerous tests led by Molan show that the honey doped in the méthylglyoxal comes at the end of the troubles of throat, gastro-enteritis, dental carieses but also mycoses. It destroys even the entérocoques redoubtable and the staphylococcus aureus. The honey does not content with exterminating germs. The doctor researcher Noori al-Waili, native of Dubai, today settled in New York, published not less than 160 scientific papers finding him an effect in quantity of affections. For example, it obtained a decline of the glycemia and the tension at diabetics and hypertense whom it had made inhale "vapors of honey ". It has still reduced the intensity and the duration of crises of genital and labial herpes at patients more effectively than cream to the aciclovir. Finally, it claims to have improved the tests hématologiques and biochemical of an old sick woman of the AIDS having made him do a cure of honey at the rate of 80 grams a day. Other researchers have still noticed the beneficial effects of the "médicamiel" on ulcers, on hepatic, renal and seborrhoeic functions, and even on psoriasis. On January 12th, the professor Miki Fukuda, of the university of Kyoto, published a study confirming the improvement of the immunizing functions and the antitumoral activity to the mouse after a treatment in the honey of jungle collected in Nigeria. Finally, scientific journals published several studies ending in a beneficial effect of the honey in the treatment of certain human cancers. Certain medical studies ask however to be confirmed. But the honey possesses a potential which it would be stupid to leave unexploited. There is a honey, but also all other apicoles specialities: the pollen, propolis, the royal jelly and the poison of bees. In brief, if it becomes urgent to protect the pollinisatrice bee, it is also crucial to save the bee pharmacist. We absolutely have to make everything so that the world becomes again the country of Canaan where the honey flows in streams. It is a question of nutrition and public health. The professor Descottes supplies gracefully his honey of thyme to all the victims of persistent wounds, bedsores or grave burns. It is enough to make the demand for the secretarial department of the service of visceral surgery and transplantation of the hospital of Limoges. 1) Its antibacterial, antiviral and fungicidal powers were confirmed by medical tests. It shows itself anti-inflammatory and antioxidizing. Finally, it stimulates, refresh, protects the heart, slows down the swelling of certain tumors, would reduce the rate of cholesterol and triglycerides and would prevent the osteoporosis. An action is indicated against the arteriosclerosis. A positive action would even have been indicated for certain cancers. 2) Its antibacterial, antiviral and fungicidal powers were confirmed by medical tests. It shows itself anti-inflammatory and antioxidizing. Finally, It stimulates, refresh, protects the heart, slow dances down the swelling of someone tumors, would reduce the fail of cholesterol and triglycerides and would prevent the osteoporosis. The year action is indicated against the arteriosclerosis. In positive action would even have been indicated for certain cancers. 3) It is a broth of molecules benefactions of which we discover. Stefan Bogdanov, of the Swiss Center of the apitherapy, raised in the literature the following beneficial effects: antibacterial, immunoprotecteur, radiodefender, anti-inflammatory, antirheumatic, anticoagulating. It leads the synthesis of haemoglobin, increases the blood circulation, makes lower the tension, activate the central nervous system and stimulates the production of endogenous cortisone. Pollen It is a source of antioxidant polyphenols. A beneficial effect on the tumor of the prostate was observed G. D. S. To make bandages in the honey, still bees would have not to disappear. Golden, no ignore that a world pandemic decimates hives. France does not escape it. The causes are multiple. In a report published in February, Afssa (French Agency of sanitary of food) counts not less forty: parasites, mushrooms, bacteria, viruses, pesticides, loss of the biodiversity... Only a general mobilization could again save the French hives. In the meantime, the foreign honey flows in streams. Between 2003 and 2008, the imports almost doubled, passing from 15,8 to 28,1 thousands of tons a year. They already represent 70 % of the French consumption! This honey arrives by barrels of Argentina, Spain, Hungary... The last year, the Chinese imports even quadrupled! And there, distrust! In 2003, Brussels had had to close temporarily the European borders in the honey of China after several cases of contagion in speechless antibiotics. Certain Chinese beekeepers had not hesitated to dilute their production with sweet liquids, such the syrup. Since, Peking claims to have done the housework in its apiaries and publishes a plan of surveillance being convenient for the European Commission. The controls on the borders of the veterinarian services are globally satisfactory but stay less numerous, and many importers and distributors continue to avoid the Chinese honey. As for the consumer, It is totally impossible for him to meet itself there, because the Chinese honey is always mixed in honeys of the other origins. The air-conditioner restricts then to register on the jar: honey native of the European Community or outside the European Community. The appeal to the import is only a last resort, because the apicole bloodbath is a world phenomenon. In a few years, the honey will become a luxury item, extremely expensive.