Honey, health and longevity.
Honey is a broad spectrum antimicrobial agent which can enhance wound healing. A beneficial effect in cancer has been shown in cell cultures and in animal studies and a number of further nutritional and physiological effects of relevance to health and function have been shown for honey. A representative sub-sample of 665 men within the Caerphilly Cohort kept a weighed dietary record for seven days. Risk factors for vascular and other diseases in 41 men who recorded eating honey suggest that these men were on the whole healthier than the 624 men who had not recorded honey consumption. All-cause mortality during 25 years of follow-up was considerably lower in the men who had consumed honey, the hazard ratio, adjusted for a number of possible confounding factors, being 0.44 (95% confidence limits 0.23, 0.86; P<0.017). Because of the small number of subjects and of deaths in this study, further data from other large cohorts will be required before any effect upon mortality and other health effects of honey consumption can be adequately evaluated.
Cooper
Rose A
RA
Centre for Biomedical Sciences, Cardiff School of Health Sciences, University of Wales Institute, Cardiff, Western Avenue, Cardiff CF5 2YB, UK. rcooper@uwic.ac.uk
Fehily
Ann M
AM
Pickering
Janet E
JE
Erusalimsky
Jorge D
JD
Elwood
Peter C
PC
D015331:Cohort Studies; D004435:Eating / Q000502:physiology; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006304:Health Status; D006722:Honey; D006801:Humans; D008136:Longevity / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009026:Mortality / Q000639:trends