Video: Israeli Honey Offers Hope to Cancer Patients

By Nicky Blackburn, Israel 21C, 1/21/2008

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…It took 30 years of research to develop LifeMel Honey. Produced by bees fed on a special nectar derived from 40 therapeutic herbs including Siberian ginseng, Echinacea,uncaria tomentosa, and other natural ingredients such as iron, protein and vitamins, the honey has been shown in a clinical trial to be effective in decreasing the incidence of anemia in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.

In the trial on 30 patients, carried out at Sieff Hospital in Tzvat by Prof. Jamal Ziden, Dr. Moshe Stein of Rambam Hospital and Prof. Eitan Friedman of Sheba Medical Center, 64 percent of the patients showed a decrease in anemia and the incidence of severe neutropenia. In addition, the honey was found to lower the incidence of potentially fatal thrombocytopenia (low platelets).,.

The authors of the study, which was published in the Journal of Medical Oncology, concluded that "LifeMel Honey is a very expensive, safe and effective method of preventing chemotherapy-induced pancytopenia."…

The idea behind LifeMel Honey came from Dr. Alexander Goroshit, a Russian immigrant to Israel. In the 1970s, as a medical student in the Soviet Union, he was involved in a medical project charting cholera cases in a village in the Russian countryside.

Goroshit made a map of the village and noted all the houses where the disease had hit. He was surprised to find two areas where there had been no cases of cholera at all. He visited both areas and discovered they were populated by the families of beekeepers. Goroshit was fascinated and began to research the topic of honey, bee-keeping and medicinal plants…

Today Zuf Globus develops many different types of medicinal honey including Dermomel, a honey designed to reduce the suffering that pressure sores cause the elderly. LifeMel was originally created to help a member of staff who was suffering from acute anemia.

The company is also researching new potential honey treatments including one for AIDS sufferers, and another for treating women going through menopause. Clinical trials are now taking place on both these new honeys, and should be completed within the next few months. Trials are also taking place on a honey to build the immune system...