What works better against aphthous ulcers? Honey applied with a cotton swab three times a day after meals was compared head-to-head against an over-the-counter soothing pain-relieving paste and a prescription steroid cream. We’ve known about painful aphthous ulcers, commonly referred to as canker sores, for thousands of years. “They are the most common lesion of the oral mucosa,” (the lining of our mouths) notes a 2017 paper published in The Journal of Clinical and Aesthetic Dermatology. These sores were perhaps named by Hippocrates himself. What did he prescribe for it? He “recommended honey for wounds of the head, ears, and penis,” though the first “written record of honey as a wound-healing agent dates back to 2600-2200 BCE,” notes a paper in JAMA dermatology. By that dating, Hippocrates was beaten to the punch by a few millennia by the ancient Egyptians on that score. Honey was also known to the ancient Chinese and is perhaps the oldest wound dressing material known to man. Evidently, honey has been successfully used as a treatment for a number of types of wounds, including chronic ulcers. The evidence …