I believe you are making this up.

There is virtually no evidence that honey reduces the severity of symptoms or reduces time to recover for respiratory infections.

Really most of the evidence comes from this one review: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22419319/

But everyone citing this review as proof that honey works is misunderstanding what the study is saying. Here is the Conclusions section (emphasis mine):

> > Honey may be better than 'no treatment' and diphenhydramine in the symptomatic relief of cough but not better than dextromethorphan. There is no strong evidence for or against the use of honey.

A lot of studies come out with these "may" conclusions. They use weasel words like this because the study usually has some flaw, such as a low sample size, or some significant uncontrolled variables (eg., are you sure it was the honey or just that they drank something?). You get to scientific (thus medical) truth through multiple studies with different methodologies, and only when you get consistent agreement do you start accepting something as truth. We're not there with honey.

But even here they were talking about pasteurized honey. Raw honey specifically is never recommended medically due to the high risk of botulism. If your doctor is prescribing raw honey for a cough they should be referred to their medical board.

As I keep saying, please don't take medical advice from randoms on social media. Just talk to your doctor and stop spreading medical misinformation until you do.

The rationale is "it may make you feel better 🤷‍♀️". There is no evidence to indicate it's therapeutic, but if it causes you to drink more fluids, and if you subjectively feel better even if you aren't necessarily getting better, then there's no harm in recommending it.

There is actually no product on the market, prescription or over-the-counter that is known to meaningfully reduce your cough symptoms or the time it takes for you to recover from a cold. This includes things like Zicam and OTC cough syrups (dextromethorphan, etc.). The more these drugs are studied the less confidence there is that they a single thing to help you. A lot of these remedies came into use before we have today's standards for establishing their safety and efficacy.

The placebo effect is a very real phenomenon. It's not just "you're imagining that you're better". The belief that you are being helped can result in very real, measurable, physiological improvements. This typically happens because of a reduction in stress associated with the illness. When you anticipate more (and worsening) symptoms, your apprehension can release stress hormones that exacerbate them. The certainty that taking a drug will make you feel better can reduce or eliminate that stress, giving you better outcomes.