Apitherapy

Honey bees have been around for thousands of years, and Egyptian culture of old had mentioned very early on the use of honey for medicinal purposes. Honey has antibacterial effects, and has been used successfully in clinical studies to heal chronic wounds. Bee venom therapy is the part of apitherapy which utilizes bee venom in the treatment of health conditions. Apitherapy is the use of beehive products, including honey, pollen, propolis, royal jelly, bee venom.

 

Besides honey, the resin collected from trees and bark also has antibacterial effect, and the bees use them to sterilize their common passages to prevent the growth of fungi, bacteria and viruses. These special antiseptic compounds are called Bee Propolis.

 

Also well known to the public is the Royal jelly consumed by the Queen bee, which can lay up to three thousand eggs a day and live many times longer than a regular bees. Royal jelly has enriched vitamins, minerals and also essential amino acids.

 

Bee Venom Therapy

Bee Venom therapy is another outstanding contribution from the honey bees. It has been used since ancient times to treat include: chronic pain, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, lupus, chronic viral infections, nervous system disorders such as depression, chronic non-healing skin ulcers, asthma, migraines, rheumatism, skin diseases such as psoriasis and eczema, joint infections, vascular problems, and most recently as an alternative treatment for multiple sclerosis.

 

Bee venom comes from the stingers of honey bees who use it in defense of the bee colony. Although in very small amount, Bee venom elicits a big response from the human body .There are at least 18 active components in the venom which have some pharmaceutical properties such as histamine, dopamine, melittin, apamin, minimine, phospholipase A, and hyaluronidase, the venom also contains the mineral substances, volatile organic acids, formic acid, hydrochloric acid, ortho-phosphoric acid. Also present are some antibiotics, an enzyme – phospholipase A, as well as two amino acids rich in sulphur methionine and cystine.

 

Particularly important is Bee venom’s stimulation on the adrenals through these substances, leading to the increase production of natural hormone cortisol, (Sulphur is the main element in inducing the release of cortisol from the adrenal glands, and in protecting the body against infections), the major form of natural steroid use by the body, which has tremendous impact in improving pain and immunity.

 

Bee Venom Therapy at Grace Life Medical Center

 

The most important concern on the part of the patients seem to be allergic reactions to the bee sting. First, we must understand that the bee sting by honey bee is far less allergic than that of the hornet, wasps and africanized bees. Further, a pretreatment skin test can identify those patients that have anaphylactic reactions to the bee sting. Otherwise, acceptable reactions to the bee sting include pain, itching, swelling, inflammation, and redness in the injected area.

 

At Grace Life Medical Center, we use standardized extract of bee venom. For increase patient safety, a pretreatment skin test will be performed to determine if a severe allergic response to bee venom is present or not. Dr Wong will select the sites for the bee venom to be injected carefully after reviewing the patient’s history and physical exam. Bee venom is usually injected into trigger points, acupuncture points or selected bio-energetic points.

Some related sources of information.

The American Apitherapy Society,Inc.
 1209 Post Road
Scarsdale, NY 10583-2023
(914) 725-7944 Fax- (914) 723-0920
Email : aasoffice@apitherapy.org

Apitronics, Inc. (Mihaly Simics)
9611 No. 4 Road
Richmond, B.C., Canada, V7A 2Z1
Ph./Fax (604) 271-9414
E-mail: msimics@direct.ca
Website: www.beevenom.com

 

 

Bee Venom Therapy for cancer

http://www.beelief.com/apitherapyforcancer.html

 

Bee Venom Therapy for dissolving of scar tissue

http://www.beelief.com/BVT.html

 

Pictures of  Live treatment with Honey bee stings

http://www.beelief.com/content.asp?sectionID=35

 

Bee Venom Cream for arthritis pain

http://www.adcom.co.nz/

http://honeybeetherapy.com/products.htm

http://manukahoneyusa.com/ManukaHoneyforArthritis.htm

http://www.arthritis-treatment.biz/

http://www.umfactivemanukahoney.net/order.htm

http://www.happyfamilies.co.nz/honeybalm/

http://www.naturebee.com/bvcream.html

 

Bee Venom therapy for multiple sclerosis

http://www.beevenomtherapy.com/multiplesclerosis/

 

 

Histamine combined with BVT for Multiple sclerosis

http://www.dancingb.com/store12.html

 

Manuka honey fro chronic wounds

http://www.honey.com/pressrm/research/healer800.html

http://www.medihoney.com/honey_is_safe_to_use.htm

http://honey.bio.waikato.ac.nz/potential.pdf

 

 

Bee Venom Facts and Questions

http://www.thewhite-halefamily.com/faq.htm

http://www.apitherapy.org/aapsfaq.htm

 

CD Rom  for  learning how to use Apitherapy

http://www.apicultura.com/cd/us/

　

Live Bees by mail

http://www.beesinabottle.com/welcome.html

 

 

References

 

·        Anisimova L.M.;  Smirnov A.A.;  Troshin,V.D.;  Krylov,V.N.  (1995) (Russia)  -  The use of Solapiven in reflexotherapy of humans with nervous system diseases, in the XXXIV-Th. Apimondia Congress, Lausanne, Switzerland.

·        Beck, F. Bodog (1935, 1997) (USA)  -  Bee Venom Therapy. Bee Venom, Its Nature, and its effect on Arthritic and Rheumatoid Conditions. D. Appleton-Century Co., Incorporated. New York. London, 1935 238 pp.; references, bibliography and two indices (***);  Health Resources Press, 1997 (under the name: The Bible of Bee Venom Therapy).  

·        Boutin, Y.;  Jobin, M.; Bedard, P. M.;  Hebert, M.;  Hebert, J. (1994) (Canada)  -  Possible dual role of anti-idiotypic antibodies in combined passive and active immunotherapy in honeybee sting allergy, in J Allergy Clin Immunol, Jun;93(6),  pp.1039-46 (***-abstract).

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·        Derevici Adelina,  Dima,V. (1967) (Romania)  -  Action of bee venom on the development of epithelial cell cultures of monkey kidneys, in the XXI-St. Apimondia Congress, Maryland, USA.

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·        Gallesio Maria Teresa (1986) (Italy)  -  Diagnosis and therapy of allergy to hymenoptera venom, in Apiacta, # 3. 

·        Hristea, C. L. (1974) (Romania)  -  Apipuncture with bee venom (Romanian), in Apicultura, # 12,  p.10  

·        Kazior,A. (1987) (Poland)  -  Acupuncture-type iontophoresis of apitoxin as a special therapeutically method in arthritis in elderly patients, in the XXXI-St. Apimondia Congress, Warsaw, Poland,  p. 464-467 (***).  

·        Krylov, N. Vasily. (1995) (Russia)  -  Bee venom: properties, production, usage (Russian). Nizhny Novgorod. Lobachevsky University. 224 pp., illustrations; ISBN -5-85746-076-X.  

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·        Kroner,J.,  Lintz,R.M.,  Tyndall,M.,  Andersen,L.,  Nicholls,E.E. (1938)  -  The treatment of rheumatoid arthritis with an injectable form of bee venom, in Ann. Intern. Med. 11,  pp.1077-1083.  

·        Mraz, Charles (1983)  -  Methods of collecting bee venom and its utilization, in Apiacta 18, # 2,  pp.33-34; 54.

·        Mraz, Charles (1985) (USA)  -  Le venin d’abeille et l’immunotherapie, in the XXX-Th. Apimondia Congress, Nagoya, Japan,  pp.477-479 (***). 

·        Nardi Umberto (1996) (Italy)  -  Apiterapia. Curarsi con il Miele, Polline, Propoli, Pappa Reale e Veleno d'api. Aporie Edizione. Roma. ISBN 88-85192-11-4.

·        Ohta, Naoki (1997) (Japan)  -  Bee acupuncture therapy in Japan, present status and future, in the XXXV-Th. Apimondia Congress, Antwerp, Belgium.  

·        Oota, Naoki (1999) (Japan)  -  Shizenkai no Chiryuuryoku. Mitsubachi ga seimei o sasagete okuru dare demo dekiru hooshin ryoohoo (The Healing Power of the Natural World. The bees give their lives for a treatment with beestings that anybody can learn).  Tooseisha-sha (Toosei Publishing Company), Tokyo, Japan. ISBN 4-924725-58-7. 

·        Orlov, Boris Nikolajevich (1997) (USSR)  -  The received findings and new prospects of bee venom application, in the XXXV-Th. Apimondia Congress, Antwerp, Belgium. 

·        Palos Elena (1978) (Romania)  -  The use of crystallised bee venom in apitherapy (Romanian), in Apicultura in Romania, # 12,  p.20.  

·        Palos Elena,  Popescu Filofteia (1983) (Romania)  -  Use of bee venom in anti-rheumatic drugs, in the XXIX-Th. Apimondia Congress, Budapest, Hungary,  pp.410-413 (***).  

·        Partheniu, Alexandru;  Neacsu, Constantin (1973) (Romania)  -  Neuro-endocrine-metabolic basis of the therapeutic action of bee venom in the degenerative vascular diseases, in the XXIV-Th. Apimondia Congress, Buenos Aires, Argentine,  pp.420-423 (***).   

·        Patrizzi, R.;  Muller, U.;  Yman, L.;  Hoigne, R. (1979)  - Comparison of skin tests and RAST for the diagnosis of bee sting allergy, in Allergy, Aug;34(4),  pp.249-56 (***-abstract).

·        Qiao Ju,Han (1997) (China)  -  Investigation of winter sting therapy,     in the XXXV-Th. Apimondia Congress, Antwerp, Belgium.

·        Saine, Joseph (1965) (Canada)  -  Is bee venom a panacea for the treatment of arthritis ? in the XX-Th. Apimondia Congress, Bucharest, Romania,  pp.443-445 (***).

·        Serban, E. (1981) (Romania)  -  Utilisation du venin d’abeille injectable dans le traitement de la spondylarthrite ankylosante, in the XXVIII-Th. Apimondia Congress, Acapulco, Mexico,  p.501 (***).

·        Simics, Mihály (1994) (Canada)  -  Bee Venom Collection for Medical Use, in Canadian Beekeeping, Vol. 18, No. 6,  p.140 (***).

·        Thurnheer, U.;  Muller, U.;  Stoller, R.;  Lanner, A.;  Hoigne, R. (1983)  -  Venom immunotherapy in hymenoptera sting allergy. Comparison of rush and conventional hyposensitization and observations during long-term treatment, in Allergy, Oct;38(7),  pp.465-75 (***-abstract).  Varanda A. Eliana,  Takahashi,S.Catarina,  Soares A.E.E. (1989) (Bresil)  -  Honeybee venom as a radioprotective agent in Wistar rats irradiated with gamma rays, in the XXXII-Nd. Apimondia Congress, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,  p.546 (***-abstract).  

·        Vasiliev,V.,  Stoianova L.,  Ninov,V. (1969) (Bulgaria)  -  Therapy of rheumatism by electrophoretic and phonophoretic methods with lyophilised bee venom, in the XXII-Nd. Apimondia Congress, München, Germany,  p.603 (***-abstract).

·        Vinogradova T. V.;  Zaitsev, G. P. (ed.) (1962) (USSR)  -  Les abeilles et la santé de l’homme (Russian). Ministry of Agriculture Publishing House, Moscow, 191 pages.  217L/63. 

·        Vitcu, Octav (1997) (Romania)  -  Bee venom, attack and defence weapon to the social insects (Romanian), in Romania apicolã # 12, December,  pp.13-14 (***).

·        Wells, F. B. (1977)  -  Hive product uses-venom, in American Bee Journal 117,  pp.10-22.

·        Youlten, L. J.; Atkinson, B. A.; Lee, T. H. (1995) (UK)  -  The incidence and nature of adverse reactions to injection immunotherapy in bee and wasp venom allergy, in Clin Exp Allergy, Feb;25(2),  pp.159-65 (***-abstract).