*Disclaimer- I am not a doctor, and this is not medical advice. This is simply my experience, and what I believe has helped greatly reduce my arthritic pain. Also, this is not a sponsored post. I genuinely like this product, purchased it on my own, and wanted to share my experience with you.
Up until about two weeks ago, every morning went like this:
I wake up in my pitch black bedroom around 3am from the pain in my joints. All the little joints in my hand feel enlarged. Knowing that movement helps stimulate synovial fluid, the stuff that lubes up your joints so you don't feel like the Tin Man, I start moving my wrists and fingers and wince in pain as they loudly click. At some point, I fall back asleep.
8am, I wake up. I delicately pick my iPhone up and check my email in bed. The phone feels like a ten pound weight, and the joints in the hand holding it are screaming. I put the phone down. I use my abs to sit up in bed because if I push my hands into the mattress to help myself up I know it will be painful. My feet lightly touch the floor, and as I ease my way up off the bed, my knees make an audible pop and the small bones in my feet creak. I gingerly take my first few steps of the day, wincing in pain. The pain throughout my body will go on for a few hours and return right before I go to sleep at night. This is arthritis from my long battle with Lyme disease.
Fast forward to February 9. After lots of research, I pulled the trigger and ordered manuka honey MGO400. It costs just over $50 for a small jar (I looked, and it's cheaper in the US), but I figure it's the same price as the supplement chondroitin which hadn't helped me at all, so I might as well give it a try. I take two teaspoons in the morning before breakfast with cinnamon sprinkled on top. (Cinnamon has anti-inflammatory properties.)
Six days later as I'm going down to my car, I make an observation. I no longer have to take the stairs one by one- I can bounce down like a kid because my knees feel perfect. My hands do not hurt the way they did a week prior (though they do still click the tiniest bit in the morning). Overall, the morning pain, on a scale of 1-10, has come down from about a 9 to a 3, and my days are virtually pain-free.
So what is this manuka honey all about?
Honey has natural antibiotic properties and can be used a number of ways to treat a variety of different things. But not all honey is the same. Some honey is more potent than others, and manuka honey is the cream of the crop. Manuka honey comes from New Zealand by bees that pollinate the manuka bush. It contains methylglyoxal (MG). MG is found in most types of honey but in small quantities. In manuka honey, the MG is much higher than regular honey. The higher the MG, the stronger the antibiotic effect. For this reason, the price point varies for manuka honey based on the amount of MG. I purchased manuka MG400. I think the lowest is 10 and the highest is 550.
So what can manuka honey be used for?
-preventing and treating cancer
-reducing systemic inflammation
-reducing high cholesterol
-treating diabetes
-treating ear, eye and sinus infections
-treating gastrointestinal problems
You can read more about manuka honey here.
I can't speak for any of its other uses, but I just know that after months of arthritic pain, manuka honey has helped tremendously in six short days. Usually the warmer months make my arthritis disappear, so until the temps rise I'll continue to take the manuka honey and reap the benefits.
*Update* About four weeks later the arthritic issues returned.
