Health and life magazine September 2016

All too often we reach for prescription drugs to cure our ills; however, nature provides
a wide range of medicines in the form of fresh fruits, vegetables and herbs. Whereas
prescription medicines often have potentially harmful side effects, the side effect that
you can expect from these natural foods is a boost in health and vitality.
THE PROBLEM WITH
PRESCRIPTIONS
There is an epidemic of prescribed antibiotics
causing more harm than good, with their
widespread misuse resulting in astronomical
levels of sickness, and in some cases death.
Originally introduced in the 1940s in the form of
penicillin, antibiotic drugs work by disrupting the
essential processes or structures of bacterial
cells. Although antibiotic drugs have saved
millions of lives since their introduction 75 years
ago, their unrestrained use has brought about
devastating repercussions.
This is largely a two-fold problem. Firstly, through
the overuse of prescribed antibiotics, we are
essentially breeding an army of “superbugs”
that are resistant to pharmaceuticals. This is
brought about by strains of bacteria evolving and
developing immunity to antibiotics, having been
repeatedly exposed to this class of drug. Our
overzealousness has come at a heavy cost, with
an average of 700,000 deaths worldwide each
year attributed to antimicrobial resistance.
The second problem is an internal one. Whilst
antibiotics are effective at treating the harmful
bacteria that threaten our health, they also
damage the good bacteria in the gut that we
rely on to keep the harmful bacteria under
control. With many of these helpful bacteria
being wiped out, people are increasingly
vulnerable to infection, with at least 250,000
people per year contracting infections linked to
antibiotic consumption, of which 14,000 die as a
consequence.
When we take the prefix “anti” (to kill), and the
word “bios” (the Greek word for life), we see that
antibiotic literally means life-killing. This clearly
has negative repercussions when the life we are
extinguishing belongs to the good bacteria that
are essential to our health. So, what’s the solution?
The good news is that natural foods all around us are filled with
antibiotics — we reaped the benefits of these long before we
began to ingest medications. These foods are still being used
around the world to heal disease without needlessly lining the
pockets of large pharmaceutical companies.
Unlike man-made antibiotics, harmful bacteria do not develop resistance
to the antibiotic power in these healing foods. By consuming antibiotic
rich foods, you can support your body from the inside and fortify your
immune system against future sickness. The best part is that these natural
antibiotics are available to you right now, with zero risk attached, and at a
fraction of the cost of prescribed medicines!
01
BACK TO NATURE
Since ancient times, honey has been widely known as one
of the best natural antiseptics, anti-inflammatories and
antimicrobials available. Both the holy Quran and Hadiths
refer to honey as a healer of disease. Mānuka honey is a mono-floral
honey made exclusively from the flowers of the Mānuka tree, native
to Australia and New Zealand. Mānuka honey has been found to be
an exceptionally effective antibacterial — this is due to high levels
of the dicarbonyl compound, methylglyoxal, which is created from
dihydroxyacetone in the Mānuka flowers.
A study conducted in 2014 by the University of
Wales Institute tested the antibiotic properties of
Mānuka honey against three stains of the bacteria
Clostridium difficile. They found that
the honey effectively inhibited its
growth, demonstrating the
antibacterial properties of
this natural food. A recent
report by the University
of Greenwich echoed
this, recognizing that
natural antibacterial
agents such
as Mānuka
honey present
an affordable
and effective
treatment in lieu
of increasingly
powerless manmade
antibiotics.
MĀNUKA
HONEY
11
SEPTEMBER 2016