Every fall those annoying respiratory infections start getting passed around. Most are short lived and minor. They don’t require antibiotics or homeopathic medications to resolve. Thankfully, our body will cure itself if given enough time.
However, there are lots of options to help improve symptoms while the body is clearing the infection. One over-the-counter ‘medicine’ that has long been used for soothing a sore throat or calming a bad cough is honey. In a study of children with a cough that was disrupting their sleep, researchers compared a spoonful of honey, specifically buckwheat honey given its dark color and presumably higher antioxidant content, to dextromethorphan, the leading OTC cough suppressant, and a placebo. Then they polled the parents on which children slept better. The parents didn’t know which therapy their children had received.
The study showed that the parents reported a better night sleep in the children who had received the honey. So next time you’re suffering through a bad cold consider how wise your grandmother was in offering you good food as the best medicine. Remember that children under one year of age should not eat honey.