Testing Grandma's Honey Remedy

The Question

Sarah's grandmother always claimed that local honey helped with seasonal allergies. Sarah had been taking a tablespoon of local honey daily for years and felt it helped, but she wanted to know: is this real, or placebo?

She couldn't test this in humans through Litmus (human subjects aren't allowed), but she could test a related, more fundamental question.

Refining the Hypothesis

Sarah started with: "Does local honey help with allergies?"

Working through the Litmus tutorial, she refined this to something testable:

Final hypothesis: "Raw local honey contains measurable pollen content (>1000 pollen grains per gram), and this pollen retains allergenic protein activity as measured by IgE binding capacity."

Rationale: The folk theory is that consuming local pollen builds tolerance. For this to even be plausible, the honey must contain pollen, and that pollen must retain its allergenic properties after being in honey.

The Protocol

Sarah requested protocol design assistance. Within 48 hours, she received a proposed protocol:

Part 1: Pollen Count

1. Dissolve 10g honey in warm distilled water
2. Centrifuge to pellet pollen
3. Count pollen grains using hemocytometer under microscope
4. Identify major pollen types using reference images

Part 2: IgE Binding ELISA

1. Extract proteins from honey samples
2. Coat ELISA plates with honey protein extracts
3. Add pooled human serum with known IgE reactivity
4. Detect bound IgE with anti-human IgE-HRP conjugate

Estimated cost: $185 | Estimated time: 2 weeks

Results

The operator delivered results in 11 days:

Pollen Count

IgE Binding (Relative Units)

Interpretation

Hypothesis partially supported:

✅ Local raw honey contains abundant pollen (4,250 grains/gram >> 1,000 threshold)

✅ Pollen proteins retain IgE binding activity (8.5x higher than filtered honey)

The operator noted: "Local honey shows clear IgE binding activity, approximately 40% of the signal from pure pollen extract. This suggests pollen proteins survive in honey but may be partially degraded."

Sarah's Conclusion

The experiment confirmed that local raw honey does contain significant pollen and that this pollen retains allergenicity. This doesn't prove the folk remedy works (that would require human trials), but it establishes biological plausibility.

Cost Breakdown

Lessons Learned

1. Start with what's testable: Sarah couldn't test human health effects, but she could test the underlying mechanism.

2. Protocol design assistance works: Sarah had no idea how to count pollen or run an ELISA. The protocol design service bridged that gap.

3. Controls matter: The commercial filtered honey was essential—without it, there'd be no baseline for comparison.

4. Open results benefit everyone: Sarah's public results now appear in searches for "honey pollen allergenicity."