Honey in Bronchial Asthma: From Folk Tales to Scientific Facts

Abstract

Background

Bronchial asthma is one of the most common chronic inflammatory diseases with recurrent episodes of wheezing, chest tightness, breathlessness, and coughing. Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is growing lately in treatment of many persistent diseases.

Objective

The current study aims to investigate the efficacy of honey in the treatment of bronchial asthma, improvement of lung function and respiratory muscle power.

Study design

Descriptive cross-sectional study

Place and duration of study

Department of Pulmonology, Nishtar Hospital Multan. The duration of the study was January 01, 2017 to March 31, 2017.

Method

The study was comprised of 76 patients. All the patients presenting with suspected diagnosis of bronchial asthma were included in our study. The patients who were critically ill or immune compromised were not included in the study. The cases who did not give informed consent were also excluded. All these cases were evaluated by detailed histories, thorough physical examination and the necessary investigations. All the demographic data and other variables related to clinico-epidemiological features were measured and recorded using a specifically designed proforma. The data were analyzed by using computer program SPSS 21 version.

Result

Of the 76 patients included in the final analysis 32 were females and 44 males. The age of study population ranged from 4-50 years with mean age of 43.91± 5.8. The use of bee’s honey showed significant improvement in all pulmonary functions including FEV1, FVC, PEFR in both moderate and severe uncontrolled persistent asthma compared to baseline.

Conclusion

Use of honey in the management of bronchial asthma patients shows different grade of efficacy on clinical and pathological aspects. However, more robust evidence is needed before further implementation into practice.

Keywords: Asthma, Asthma control test, Bee's honey, pulmonary function test, Respiratory muscle