Honey for coughs? It really works!

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - We all know a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. So what would a spoonful of honey do?

Honey has been claimed to have many health benefits, including better athletic performance, improved sleep and relaxation, fewer allergies, faster healing of cuts and scrapes, and, of course, soothing coughs.

Pediatrician Dr. Lawrence Nemeth said, "That was a common thing. Honey and lemon, honey and whiskey even. That was an old time remedy. The joke was, of course, that you gave the honey to the child and the whiskey to yourself, and you both get a good night's sleep."

Now there's evidence that honey really works. Doctors in Israel tested it in 300 children, age one to five, who had respiratory infections and night-time coughing. Each child was given one dose of honey or a similar tasting placebo made from dates.

In those who received the honey, there were less frequent and less severe coughing, less interference with the child's sleep, and also less effect on the parent's sleep.

"They tested three different kinds of honey, and all three of them worked," noted Dr. Nemeth.

These results may be very important because children should not be given standard cough medications.

"In young children it's dangerous, because if they consume too much of it, it can be a central nervous system depressant," Dr. Nemeth explained. "The over-the-counter preparations, even in older children, are not considered all that good."

But honey is not for the very young.

"Any child under the age of one should never consume honey, and it's because of the potential of botulinum toxin that may be in the honey," Dr. Nemeth said.

Vicky Leader is a nurse in Dr. Nemeth's office. She gave her sons honey when they were young.

"It really works. It works very well," Leader assured, adding, "Better than anything I bought over-the-counter."