What clinical trials exist testing honey or apitherapy for Alzheimer’s disease in humans?
Executive summary
Neither large randomized controlled trials nor registered clinical programs specifically testing honey or broader apitherapy as a disease‑modifying treatment for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) exist in the peer‑reviewed record; reviews of the field repeatedly emphasize promising preclinical findings but a stark lack of human trials directly in AD populations [1] [2]. A small number of clinical interventions and trials in older adults have tested honey for general cognitive outcomes or oxidative‑stress markers, but these do not establish efficacy for diagnosed Alzheimer’s disease and are heterogenous and limited in scope [3] [4].
1. What the systematic reviews say about human trials
Major recent reviews and systematic overviews conclude that while in vitro and animal studies show consistent neuroprotective signals for honey and honey constituents, randomized controlled human studies specifically evaluating honey as a therapeutic or preventive agent for Alzheimer’s disease have not been completed or registered, and human evidence remains limited [1] [2] [5]. These reviews searched major databases and repeatedly flag the absence of rigorous human trials as the main limitation to translating laboratory results into clinical recommendations [1] [6].
2. Trials and clinical interventions that are sometimes cited — what they actually tested
Some literature compiling “clinical intervention” studies includes trials of honey in older adults assessing cognitive performance or biomarkers of oxidative stress, such as a cited randomized trial (Khan et al., 2023) reporting improved cognition and reduced oxidative markers in older adults, but this study was not presented as an Alzheimer’s disease treatment trial addressing diagnosed AD populations or disease pathology directly [3] [4]. Media summaries and reviews note these isolated human studies as suggestive but insufficient — they do not equate to randomized controlled trials in people with Alzheimer’s disease nor to trials with Alzheimer’s‑specific endpoints like amyloid or tau biomarkers [7] [5].
3. Why preclinical evidence has driven attention but not trials
Preclinical experiments — dozens of in vitro and animal studies — show that varieties of honey and specific flavonoids/phenolic acids can counter oxidative stress, neuroinflammation, and amyloid‑related toxicity in models relevant to AD, providing mechanistic rationale for human testing [8] [9] [10]. Reviews focused on apitherapy argue that constituents such as quercetin, chlorogenic and ferulic acids merit translational research, and they explicitly call for clinical trials based on the experimental data; however, those reviews stop short of documenting completed human AD trials [11] [10].
4. Conflicting signals and limitations in the reporting
Claims that honey “prevents and manages” Alzheimer’s disease appear in promotional outlets and are echoed in some secondary reviews, but authoritative scientific reviews and trial registries indicate no guideline‑endorsed use of honey for AD prevention or treatment and emphasize the need for standardized dosing, quality control across honey types, and rigorous trial design before clinical recommendations can be made [5] [12]. Where individual clinical studies exist, they tend to measure general cognition or oxidative biomarkers in older adults rather than clinical AD progression, and systematic reviews explicitly note this gap [3] [1].
5. Trial prospects and what would be needed next
Experts and review authors consistently recommend designing randomized, placebo‑controlled trials in defined AD populations with dementia‑specific endpoints (cognitive decline trajectories, AD biomarkers like amyloid/tau, functional outcomes), standardized honey preparations or isolated constituents, dose‑finding work, and safety monitoring — steps that have not yet been completed according to current reviews and database searches [1] [11] [2]. Until such trials are registered and reported, the evidence base for honey or apitherapy as a therapeutic for Alzheimer’s disease in humans remains preclinical with suggestive but inconclusive human pilot data on cognition in older adults [7] [3].
6. Bottom line
There are no completed, large randomized controlled trials testing honey or apitherapy specifically in people with Alzheimer’s disease; the literature is rich in laboratory and animal studies and contains a few small human interventions in older adults, but authoritative reviews state that no randomized controlled human studies directly evaluating honey for AD have been completed or registered, leaving a clear research gap [1] [2] [3].