Dr. Faiza Mohammad to Yemen Times:”Honey is an alternative medicine” [Archives:2005/864/Last Page]
In the modern era, many extensive researches and studies have been conducted so far in different Arab and western countries, highlighting the vitality of this miraculous substance in curing diseases. People profit from honey as an alternative medicine in treating several diseases that poses challenge to the chemical medicine. To know more about honey and its nutritious and medicinal value, we invited Dr. Faiza Mohammad, holding a doctoral degree in honeybee and forwarded to her the following questions:
Q: How do you enter the bee kingdom?
A: By chance, I played a great role. I obtained a bachelor degree in zoology at one of the Libyan universities and did my master in rat's immunity science in Germany. In 1986, I moved to Bulgaria to prepare my PH.D. in the same specialization, but the only professor of zoology there had died. Then I conducted my thesis on bees, a study which forces man to contemplate deeply in god's creation. When read in Surat al-Nahl “Your Lord revealed to bees From their bellies, multi-color drink comes out containing medicine for people” until the end of the Surah, we feel there is a miracle embraced in this verse.
The Chinese and Indian ancient books of medicine, as well as the holly books made a mention of honey, but the quran was revealed with a new style containing expressions signifying consecutive explorations until the day of resurrection.
Hereby, we understand that honey is not only the thing which comes out of the bellies of bees providing medicine for people and that diseases cure by this substance produced by bees.
Q. Do you mean there are other bee products?
A. Having a glance at the verse, we find out that medicine can be used as a medicine for different diseases. This product comes out from the bellies of bee workers which also give out different fluids, in addition to honey, the kingly nutrition and the main food for small bees. From the kingly nutrition, these bees make their poisonous substance to defend themselves and the wax they sort out to adopt its hex-eyes in which it places its eggs and honey. The bee workers produce other substances containing enzymes to elevate its nutritious value.
The different experiments confirmed different benefits of such products. Prophet (peace be upon him) gave us a piece of heartfelt advice, saying to its people: “You should have the two medicines, Honey and the Quran”, and his saying: “Any body having three licks a month will protect himself from any epidemic. All these examples give us clear-cut evidences about the importance of taking honey in a frequent manner to earn his body the required immunity against any diseases.
Q. How do treat patients?
A. While I was reading Surat al-Nahl, I set down and deeply thought there are many important points we ignore. I thought several times on the matter and then attended the conference of Arab beekeepers at the American University In Beirut in 1999 and presented a research on the longevity of the queen in egg production. I also attended the international symposium in Egypt on the medical uses of honey in 1997. This event was held in the presence of several ophthalmologists and surgeons who presented papers revealing the medical benefits of honey.
In this respect, I revised different researches and studies and in the light of which I conducted many experiments. With honey, I have so far treated around one thousand cases from Yemen and the neighboring countries. With honey I provided treatment for sterile women helping them give birth after staying for nearly 20 years without pregnancy.
Q. What are the diseases you usually treat with the help of honey?
A. With the help of honey, I provided treatment for weak sexual instinct, irregular menstruation, ulcer, hepatitis, diabetes, eye diseases, losing eating appetite, and leanness.
Q. How do assess the trend of people to use honey for treatment?
A. In the western countries, people tended toward beehives in search for physiotherapy. Most of them feel skeptic of the chemical medicine and turn to the alternative medicine (honey) particularly as hospitals and clinics became interested in material gains at the expense of offering humanitarian services.