How Can Manuka Honey Help Treat Acne?

If you have persistent problems with acne on your face, you've likely tried many different ways to get rid of it. One method that's becoming more popular for treating acne is to use manuka honey. Most honey you buy at the store is polyfloral honey, which means that the bees that make it use pollen from many different flowering buds.

Manuka honey is different because it's monofloral honey — it's produced using only the flowering buds of the manuka tree, which is native to New Zealand. This gives it properties that set it apart from regular honey, including enhanced antibacterial properties. To learn more about how you can use manuka honey to help treat your acne, read on to learn more about what causes acne and how manuka honey fights against it.

What Causes Acne?

Acne occurs when one of the hair follicles on your face becomes clogged with either dead skin cells or oil. Bacteria within the follicle start to reproduce, and your immune system tries to eliminate them — the immune reaction causes inflammation, which results in redness. Your immune system also sends white blood cells to fight the infection, and the dead white blood cells build up beneath your skin and cause a white or yellow pustule to form.

How Can Manuka Honey Help Treat Acne?

Manuka honey contains high amounts of methylglyoxal, which is a strong antibacterial agent. It's unique from other kinds of honey in this regard since the bees who produce it are only pollinating the manuka tree, which contains other organic compounds that result in methylglyoxal being formed when they make honey with it.

As a strong antibacterial agent, manuka honey eliminates the bacteria that's stuck in the clogged hair follicle. As the bacteria are destroyed, your immune system slows down in response, which helps to reduce the redness from inflammation along with the pus formed by white blood cells.

How Do You Use Manuka Honey to Treat Acne?

Using manuka honey to treat your acne is simple — apply it directly to your acne and keep it on for as long as possible. If you're worried about accidentally rubbing it off, you can apply a bandage over your acne in order to keep the manuka honey on your skin. When you're using manuka honey, it's best to use 100% manuka honey rather than skincare products that contain it — raw manuka honey is thick enough to adhere to your skin, and skincare products that claim to contain manuka honey may not have very much of it.

If you're looking for a way to help treat the acne on your face, you may want to give New Zealand manuka honey a try. Its unique antimicrobial properties due to its high methylglyoxal content can help eliminate the bacteria trapped underneath your skin, giving your immune system a break and reducing the redness associated with inflammation.

For more information about New Zealand manuka honey, contact a supplier such as Hokitika Honey & Herb Co today.