Honey, the Best Remedy for the Treatment of Depression

Scientists may have found a natural alternative for the treatment of depression according to studies.
Depression is a common and serious psychological illness, affecting the physical and mental functions of patients, including the ways patients feel, think and act.

Some patients with depression may feel sadness and/or a loss of interest in activities once enjoyed.

There are many causes associated with the onset of depression, including genetics, changes in hormone levels, certain medical conditions, stress, grief, or difficult life circumstances that initiate the change of brain chemistry in inducing depressive syndrome.


The most common symptoms of depression include sadness, hopelessness, guilt, change of mood, loss of interest in friends, family, favorite activities, and sex.

Some patients with depression also experience cognitive symptoms of trouble concentrating, making decisions, remembering, and thoughts of harming themselves.

Readers may find other symptoms not be included in the article including behavior and physical symptoms.


According to the statistics provided by the Anxiety and Depression Association of American, major depressive disorder is the leading cause of disability in the U.S. for ages 15 to 44.3, affecting more than 16.1 million American adults, or about 6.7% of the U.S. population age 18 and older.

Some researchers suggested that the widespread depression in the Western world may be associated with life stress at work and home.

Dr. T. Plieger, the lead scientist in examining the effects of psychological stress on depression wrote, "A significantly closer relation between depression and life stress than between burnout and life stress was found in the healthy (z = 3.01, p = .003) as well as in the depressed sample".

And "This finding was supported in both samples by means of a path analytic approach where the associations between life stress, burnout, and depression were controlled for the possible mediator and moderator effects, also considering the influence of age".

Honey is a miraculous product made by bees using nectar from flowers.

The rich golden liquid is considered one of the healthy sweet food for replacing the use of white sugar and artificial sweetener by many people.

Scientists searching for an alternative remedy for the treatment of depression with no side effects examined the effects of honey on several studies through searching the database of online medical literature.

8 studies that satisfied the standard criteria and guidelines were chosen, including 2 RCTs of human subjects and 6 animal studies.

The randomized studies suggested that depressed elderly treated with a mix of honey and barely exhibited a significant decrease in depression, stress, and mood disturbances scores compared to the control group.

In menopause women, treatment with honey or a mix of honey and pollens exerted a significant activity in the improvement of the three subscales of the Menopause Rating Scale (MRS) by 68.3% and 70.9%, respectively.

The results also suggested that posttreatment demonstrates a better effect compared to the pretreatment when the mixture of honey was applied.

Furthermore, the application showed similar effects on the serum levels of cholesterol, such as total, HDL, or LDL cholesterol), triglycerides, or oestradiol in both groups.

According to the survey returned, participants reported that they observed improvements 3-4 days after the initiation of treatment. On a 10-point taste scale, (1 = very good and 10 = very bad) honey received an average score of 2.3, whereas a honey and pollen mix received an average score of 6.0.

Interestingly, the side effects of exhaustion and edema of lower extremities were reported by some participants and 2 participants were withdrawn from the study due to the taste of the mix of honey with bare powder.

In animal studies, all experiments displayed a positive effect of honey on depression. Some studies also found that honey improves depressive-like behaviors, cognitive function, and symptoms of anhedonia.

Furthermore, honey injection also showed a reduction of anxiety symptoms and improvement of spatial memory.

Moreover, honey alone or a combination of honey and other bee products inhibited MAO enzyme activity in the liver of treated mice.

Where monoamine oxidase A (MAO-A), an enzyme that metabolizes monoamines was elevated in depressed patients.

And, the anti-depressive effects were correlated to the volume of honey intake. In other words, greater improvements were associated with the increased administration of high doses of honey.

In order to reveal more information about honey depression activity, researchers examined
Tualang and Acacia honey in patients with stress-depression disorder.

Both Tualang and Acacia honey showed a significant anti-depression activity through increasing the production of levels of antioxidants.

However, Tualang honey consumption was found to be more suitable in regulating weight-related effects of stress-depression disorder compared to that of Acacia honey which exerted more profound effects in alleviating depression effects and managing glucocorticoids imbalance effects of the stress-depression disorder.

Taken altogether, honey, particularly Tualang, and Acacia honey, used alone or combined with other bee products may be considered functional remedies for the prevention and treatment of depression, pending the confirmation of large sample size and multicenter human study.



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Author Biography
Kyle J. Norton (Scholar, Master of Nutrition, All right reserved)
Health article writer and researcher; Over 10.000 articles and research papers have been written and published online, including worldwide health, ezine articles, article base, health blogs, self-growth, best before it's news, the karate GB daily, etc.,.
Named TOP 50 MEDICAL ESSAYS FOR ARTISTS & AUTHORS TO READ by Disilgold.com Named 50 of the best health Tweeters Canada - Huffington Post
Nominated for shorty award over last 4 years
Some articles have been used as references in medical research, such as international journal Pharma ISSN 0975-6299.

Sources
(1) Bee Honey as a Potentially Effective Treatment for Depression: A Review of Clinical and Preclinical Findings by Amira Mohammed Ali1* and Amin Omar Hendawy. (JOJ Nursing and Health Care)
(2) Potential used of Tualang and Acacia Honey in Ameliorating Stress-Depression Disorder: A Preliminary Study by Qamarul Hafiz Zainol Abidin, Nurul Hanani Mohd. Rujhan, Wan Iryani Wan Ismail. (Researcher Gate)
(3) Life stress as potential risk factor for depression and burnout by Author links open overlay panelT.PliegeraM.MelchersaC.MontagbR.MeermanncM.Reuterad. (Science Direct)