Natural English bee products sold directly from their 16th century Thatched Cottage.

“I keep my bees with emphasis on honeybee welfare and health rather than maximum production, bees given the best possible environment to thrive. I’m also keen on promoting local dark bees rather than the imported hybrid bees that many beekeepers and bee farmers use.” – Jonathan Allchorne

Use honey first for a cough, new guidelines say,” reports the BBC, referring to new guidelines on the best ways to treat acute short-term coughs.

The guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and Public Health England (PHE) have been developed after looking at the best available scientific evidence.

The evidence showed that honey could be effective at reducing the symptoms of acute coughs due to upper respiratory tract infections (infections of the airways), including how often people coughed and how bad their cough was.

The guidance applies to adults and children over 5 years of age.

It’s important to note that honey is not safe for children under the age of 1.

Other remedies which were also found to give some benefit included the herbal remedy pelargonium, and cough medicines containing either guaifenesin or antitussive dextromethorphan (for those aged 12 years and over).

Most acute coughs are self-limiting viral infections that will get better by themselves.

And antibiotics are ineffective in treating viral infections but can still cause unpleasant side effects.

Antibiotics will only usually be used if people are very unwell or have increased risk of complications due to an underlying health condition such as cystic fibrosis.

Importantly we should only use antibiotics when they are really needed.

Increasing antibiotic resistance may mean we might not benefit from these treatments in the future.