Self-study
Wounds become infected because the break in the skin allows bacteria to enter. █████████ █████ ████████ █████ ████████████████ ████████ ██ ███████ ██ ██████ █████ ████ ████ ████ ████████ ███ █ █████ ██ █ ████████ ████████ █████ ████ ███████ ██████ ████ ████ ███████ ████ █████████████ ████████ ███████████ ██████████ ██ █████████████████ ███████ ██ ████████ ████ ████ ███████ ██████ ███████ ████ ██████████ ████████ ███ ██████ ███████ ███ ███ █████████ ████████
"Surprising" Phenomenon
Why did cleaned wounds treated with honey heal faster than both cleaned wounds treated with antibiotics and wounds that were only cleaned, even though honey has lots of bacteria, which slows healing?
Objective
The correct answer should tell us something that suggests the net effect of honey on healing time results in faster healing than cleaning wounds with antibiotics and cleaning wounds without additional substances. For example, there could be something in honey that kills enough bacteria to offset the additional bacteria in honey such that honey-treated wounds end up with less bacteria than antibiotics-treated wounds.
11.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ █████ ██ ███████ ███ ████████ ███████████ ███████ ███ ███████ ██ ███ █████ ███ ███ ██████ █████ █████ ███████ █████████ ██████████ ███ ████████
a
Wounds that have ██████ ████ ███████ ████ ████ ███ █████ ███ ███ █████████ ███████ ████ ██████ ████ ██████ ████ ████ ████ ███████ ███ ████ ███████ ████ ██████████ █████████
This doesn’t explain why the honey-treated wounds healed faster. And, we have no reason to think the cleaned wounds were cleaned with soap and water (as opposed to just water, or something else).
b
The bacteria found ██ █████ ███ ███████ ██ ████ █████ ██████████████ ████ ███ ██████████████ ██ ████████ █████████ ███████ ██ ████████ ███████ ███ ████████ ██████████ ████████ ██ █ █████ ██████ ██ ████ █████ ███ ██ ███ ████████ █████████ ███ ██████
Even if the honey-bacteria has a lower concentration than wound-bacteria, the honey-treated wound would still have both the honey-bacteria and the regular wound-bacteria. So we’d still expect it to have more bacteria than an antibiotic-treated wound.
c
Honey has properties ████ ███████ ███ ██████ ██ ████████ ██ ███████ █████████ ███ ████████ ███ █████ █████████ ███ ██████████ █████████ ██████ █████████ █████ ███████ █████ █████ ████████
So, honey stops bacteria growth, including its own bacteria. And, on top of that, antibiotics do something that slows healing. This provides a potential explanation for why honey-treated wounds healed the fastest.
d
The high concentration ██ █████ ██ █████ ████████ ███ ██████ ██ ████████ ██ ███████ █████████ ███ ████████ █████████ ██ ███ █████ ███████
(D) only explains why honey is better than cleaning alone. It doesn’t explain why honey-treated wounds healed faster than the antibiotic-treated wounds. After all, we’d expect antibiotics to kill bacteria, too.
e
The antibiotic ointment ████ ██ ███ █████ ███████ █████████ ██████ ██ ███████ █████ █████ ████████ ███ █████ ████ ███ ████ ████ ██████ ██ ███ █████ ███ ████ ████████
So, honey has one advantage over antibiotic ointment. You know what else it has? Tons of bacteria. This doesn’t help explain why honey-treated wounds, in light of that bacteria, healed faster than antibiotic-treated wounds.