Dr Arikawe Adeolu, a Medical Practitioner at the Federal Medical Centre, Jabi, Abuja, has cautioned Nigerians against consuming adulterated honey.
Adeolu who raised concern over the sales of the product in the country, said on Friday in Abuja that consuming adulterated honey was hazardous to health.
He decried the nonchalant attitude of most consumers of the product in ensuring the source of honey is ascertained thereby exposing themselves to possible health complications.
“The purity of the source of honey is something that continues to be of great concern to the medical community.
“It is often difficult to get pure honey because many sellers of the product tend to mix it up with other substances and sell to people.
“This is one risk people tend to expose themselves to, especially if they cannot guarantee the source of the honey.
“Honey is a very good natural product and in its pure form have a lot of properties including anti microbial properties that has the ability to kill disease causing organisms.
“The scientifically proven usage of honey is for outside the body to treat infected wounds.
“If there are wounds that have failed to heal, honey helps to heal such because it kills off any organism that has infected the wound and helps local growth of normal tissue.
“Honey is very acidic and contains hydrogen peroxide which is very toxic to micro organisms. This is why it is able to kill off whatever organism has infected the wound leading to better healing.
“It is very important to note that only honey that is pure and unadulterated can give all this desired effects and more,” Adeolu said.
He said that although honey has been proven to have good healing abilities in the human body, it could have adverse effects on the body when used excessively.
Adeolu advised against giving children under the age of one year honey as it could put the child at high risk of developing ‘Botulism.
According to him, botulism is a situation whereby a toxin produced by a bacteria which is in honey causes classic paralysis of the baby.
He said that this prevents the baby from being able to control his or her muscles, limbs and obstructs breathing because the child would be unable to control the muscle responsible for respiration.
“We do not recommend that you give honey no matter how pure you think it is to any child below the age of one,” he said.
