CamBearCookie t1_j2ei8xk wrote
Reply to comment by fastolfe00 in ELI5. Why is honey and lemon a popular cure for cold like symptoms. What makes lemon more effective than say an orange or lime? by alexkid_in_realworld
Raw honey specifically maunka honey is strong enough to be used as a prescription medicine for coughing. You are 100% wrong about honey having a placebo effect.
fastolfe00 t1_j2esg15 wrote
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.
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