Medical-grade honey outperforms conventional treatment in healing cold sores, reducing healing time and alleviating associated symptoms like pain and itching.

2021 Pharmaceuticals Medical-Grade Honey Outperforms Conventional Treatments for Healing Cold Sores—A Clinical Study Naik PP, Mossialos D, Wijk B, Novakova P, Wagener FADTG, Cremers NAJ

Randomised Controlled Trial Cold Sore Honey

The methodology in this study involved a crossover trial with a group of 29 patients with recurrent cold sores. The majority of these patients experienced four or more episodes per year, so they served as their own control group. These patients applied a medical-grade honey product called L-Mesitran Soft to their cold sore either at the onset of symptoms or upon the appearance of the blister. After the healing process, they answered a questionnaire, assessing the effectiveness of the honey treatment based on healing time, pain, and itching level.

Researchers found that the average healing time was significantly less with the honey treatment in comparison to conventionally used treatments. The honey treatment led to faster healing in 86.2% of all patients and increased subjective healing score in 79.3% of the patients. Moreover, patients experiencing pain and itching with cold sores reported a reduction in these symptoms when treated with medical-grade honey. Additionally, all the patients expressed a preference for the honey treatment over conventional ones for future cold sores. This suggests the potential of MGH as a superior alternative treatment for cold sores.

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