Is honey safe for stem cell or car t cell recipients?

@drgehl05 - Welcome to Mayo Clinic connect.

I Underwent Car T, I did not consume raw honey until about 3 years past the treatment. I did eat pasteurized honey however. It was important to be super careful and insure foods were well prepared to reduce the risk of ingesting something that could attack the immune system. Even gardening was a risk due to spores that could travel in the air of freshly turned soil.
I hope this helps and hope others may have some information to share with you as well.

Hi @drgehl05 I had an Allogenic bone marrow transplant and honey was definitely off the table until I was fully off my immunosuppressants at around the 2.5 year mark. As you mentioned, honey, even if it says pasteurized doesn’t mean it was heated to a specific temperature to kill spores and bacteria. It has more to do with extending the shelf life of the product to keep it from crystallizing.

When your SCT or Car T is relatively recent, your immune system is highly compromised and it’s not up to fighting off an infection. So it’s crucial to avoid anything which would potential be a source of illness, whether intestinal, lung, cuts, etc.
All deli food, especially ‘wet meats’ such as cold cuts are off limits for fear of listeria. All fruits and veggies must be thoroughly washed and peeled. Even bananas need to be washed before peeling or cutting through them. I wasn’t able to eat salads for several months! That was tough!!
As @grandpabob mentioned, gardening, potting plants, or even having fresh flowers in the house or hospital rooms are not allowed for the possibly of fungus, molds and bacterial infections. This isn’t forever.
Masking is also a way of life, especially in the first few months…even while walking outside or sitting in a car with the AC, my team advised me to wear a mask because of the potential for exposure to mold and fungal infections.
Anything time we get ill initially in our transplant journey, it sets us up for the potential for longterm graft vs host disease…which we want to avoid at all cost!
Usually at the time of either of these procedures there are educational classes for the recipient and their caregivers. Are you or a family member going to receive a stem cell transplant or have the Car T procedure?

Having a hard time understanding what in Raw honey will cause an infection. So you are stating treat the body system like the 1 year or less immune system ??

The fact that honey is unable to grow bacteria when unpasteurized

Honey: Raw, Unpasteurized, and Pasteurized
Honey can be raw, unpasteurized or pasteurized. But what is the difference? And is one better than the other? We explain it all.

The difference in these three types of honey can be found in the way the honey is processed.

Raw honey can be seen as honey straight from the hive. It is extracted from the honeycombs and poured over a nylon cloth to separate the honey from any impurities. Once the honey has been extracted, it is jarred without being heated and only lightly filtered. Due to the honey being kept in it’s natural state, it still contains all of it’s nutritional properties.

Unpasteurized honey is slightly heated while being processed. Most of the honeys nutritional properties will still be present after processing.

Pasteurized honey has been exposed to high heat while being processed. During the heating process, the yeast that is naturally present in honey will be destroyed, giving it a smoother texture. Unfortunately the high heat also destroys most of the honeys nutritional properties. Pasteurized honey will therefor contain fewer antioxidants, amino acids, vitamins, minerals and healthy enzymes than raw and unpasteurized honey. For this reason all the honey sold at Country Bee Honey Farm is raw and unpasteurized.

This is for a family member

The primary concern in raw or even pasteurized honey is Botulism. If you read any honey label there is a caution about giving honey to infants under 18months of age. That’s because their immune system isn’t strong enough to protect them against botulism poisoning.

If your loved one had a bone marrow transplant or Car T therapy, their immune system is in its infancy stage for a certain period of time. I’m not sure about CarT but for a bone marrow transplant it takes a minimum of 12 months or longer for the immune system to mature to that of an adult. I was told to wait at least 18 months for honey or until was off my anti-rejection med…which is an anti-inflammatory drug.
When did your loved one have the transplant?

so treat the immune system like a 1 year old due to the following

Honey can contain the bacteria that causes infant botulism, so do not feed honey to children younger than 12 months. Honey is safe for people 1 year of age and older.

Yes, treat the new immune system like that of an infant. It is up to the patient’s transplant team to help decide when it is safe for the patient to eat honey. It will have a lot to do with the numerous types of white blood cells that show whether a patient is fully robust enough to handle certain challenges.

So for now, your family member must follow all the guidelines that were presented to them by their transplant team. It is for their own good because research, experience and statistics have shown that these guidelines are in place for a reason.
While it’s tough to forego some of our favorite foods initially, it’s not for a lifetime! But following the rules will help ensure that your relative does get to live a long and healthy lifetime. ☺️