Discover why honey may help with acne and how you can use it to improve your skin!
It’s not an old wife’s tale when they say honey heals wounds.
In fact you ought to try it yourself, and on acne at that. You see, acne is an infection that leaves lesions on your skin, almost like a wound.
Instead of applying some over-the-counter medication, you can use honey (pure, organic is best) by applying it gently on the infected area, at least twice a day.
Then see what happens in the next few days.
Although like most medicines, there may be a handful of people who won’t respond favorably to a honey treatment, generally – and some hospitals have resorted to using honey for infections that have not been licked by antibiotics – you can still expect improvement on your acne.
Some facts about honey
Did you know that not all honey comes out the same?
That’s because bees get the nectar from a variety of flowers and the honey produced takes on certain properties of each one. Even the color of honey changes – from deep brown to golden amber — depending on the source of nectar.
What remains constant is the sweet flavor and viscosity, which actually play an important role in treating infections.
Honey is a humectant and thus has the capability of trapping and retaining moisture. That’s pretty much what sebum, the oily substance produced by the sebaceous glands found in the skin, also does.
Watch this video to discover more about overall health benefits of honey:
But unlike honey (which we only ingest or apply to the skin sometimes), sebum is manufactured internally and constantly and is affected by certain activity, particularly abnormal hormonal activity.
When hormones rage, the glands produce more sebum than is needed, which then clogs up the pores and becomes a breeding ground for acne.
But back to honey…
Not only does it fight infection by targeting the source (bacteria), it also stimulates new tissue growth so you’re better assured of getting your skin back to its normal state. What’s more, you won’t even notice that your pus, scab or dead tissues have already fallen off because you’ll hardly feel a thing.
It’s known as nature’s original antibiotic because long before these powerful drugs were discovered, they did the job fighting bacteria, fungi and viruses that attack the body, inside and out.
And while its medicinal benefits may have been ignored for a while with the introduction of antibiotics, honey has proven it is more superior than these synthetic drugs. How? It can beat antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Sugar heals
Honey is largely composed of sugars – fructose and glucose, both natural forms of sugar. And while we know that too much sugar can be bad for the body, in the case of honey this is what gives it the ability to fight infection.
Through osmosis, the high sugar content draws the infection and fluid from wounds, or in the case of acne, lesions, and prevents the Propionibacterium acne from further multiplying.
Bacteria do not thrive in the absence of water. It draws the lymph out of the infected area, and any dirt along with it. When bacterial growth is prevented, the swelling will reduce, including the pain associated with infections and you’ll be on your way to healing.
Bacteria nemesis
What antibiotics can do, honey can do better. It is anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory, the very things needed to treat acne. And it has little side-effects, if any.
How does honey stop bacteria growth?
Compared to other fluids, it is very dense and it is this density that inhibits bacteria from multiplying and making the infection worse. It acts like a protective coating against these pathogens.
What’s more, when honey mixes with fluids in the body like blood or water as it is applied to an infected area, it has an enzyme that produces hydrogen peroxide, a known anti-bacterial agent.
Because of its acidity and low protein content, it reduces the nitrogen supply that is necessary for bacterial growth. So in all likelihood, the P. acne bacteria stands little chance of survival when you turn to a honey treatment.
Smoothens the skin
Native American women were known to use honey on their faces. Although their coloring is naturally darker, they had a sometimes golden or pinkish sheen that gives off a healthy look. That’s honey at work on the skin.
Once it does the job of killing bacteria and setting in motion the healing of your acne, it goes one step further by stimulating new tissue growth.
To accomplish this, it creates a moist healing environment where skin cells are able to re-grow across a healing wound and thus prevents any deformity (like scarring or keloids) of a lesion.
Although sticky, it does not affect tissues underneath the wounds and in fact leads to scabs falling off easily yet painlessly.
To heal, you need tissues (which have been damaged by infection) to re-grow. Honey promotes the formation of new blood capillaries and the growth of fibroblasts, which are needed to replace the connective tissues of the deeper layer of the skin attacked by infection.
This in turn will produce collagen fibers to hasten and strengthen the skin repair process. Honey also acts to stimulate the growth of epithelial cells that make up the new skin cover for the healing wound.
While honey is now widely available, you will want the best kind to help you deal with your acne problems.
Whenever possible, find the pure and organic kind to use for your skin. Whether you apply it directly or use it with something else, like cinnamon, unadulterated honey will be twice or three times more effective.
If these aren’t available, then there are other skin care products using natural ingredients like Clear Skin MAX that can also help in treating acne problems and give you the same results. Make sure to read our Clear Skin MAX review before you go!