Leg Ulcers

[youngdave]

I live in Spain, I heard about manuka honey in treating leg ulcer, which I have, I went to the store and found Manuka honey 16+, and there was some manuka cream product, not sure if any of these products would help in healing my leg ulcer, can you provide some suggestions. Thank you.

[NZHS]

The first thing to remember about manuka honey is it is not all the same. This is just part of nature - there is a lot of natural variation.

All honey is 'Active' to some degree, through a hydrogen peroxide effect, which can vary greatly between honeys. Some companies measure the total activity, including the hydrogen peroxide part.

What earned manuka honey its reputation, and that the research behind it is based on, as a extra antibacterial property unique to only some manuka honey. This is a non-peroxide activity that is not affected by body fluids.

The UMF® standard measures only the non-peroxide activity, and not total activity, as this is deemed most suitable to show the health benefits of the honey. The UMF® mark also represents a wider quality standard for the honey, with checks and auditing through the whole process. Only some manuka honey is UMF® rated. For internal use this is what you should be looking for.

For wounds - including leg ulcers - it is important to have a proper medical grade manuka honey. This goes through a more rigourous set of standards and processes, and also gets sterilised. We have a medical grade manuka honey - called ManukaCare, that has an EU medical devices license. This is the tube of honey, and this particular product is one that has been used in clinical trials on leg ulcers. We have many customers who have been able to help their ulcers heal from using it.

There is also some ready made dressings, these are under the Medihoney name - Medihoney Apinate dressings. Some customers prefer these (again are medical grade), but overall more use the tubes of ManukaCare.

[youngdave]

how much of the honey should I put on the ulcer?

[NZHS]

As each wound or leg ulcer case can be different, this is something we can't give a specific answer for.

General guidance though would be to put an approx 3mm layer of honey over the area.