A health care practitioner in Taiwan has used 6,000 honey bees delivering 200 stings a week to a woman with multiple sclerosis (MS), an inflammation of the central nervous system that short circuits signals.

Not surprisingly, her red blood cell count increased and the woman, who had been bedridden, is seen in a video walking slowly to her car. The practitioner was a disbelieving executive in the textile industry until his arthritic wife turned to bee sting therapy to treat her arthritis.

Used in a similar way to acupuncture, bee venom appears to deliver a specific anti-inflammatory agent, melittin, which has been used in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) as well as to treat lyme disease. Both are destructive, inflammatory diseases affecting the joints with pain, stiffness and swelling. Melittin appears to reduce inflammation in a way similar to COX-2 inhibitors.

Apitherapy is the use of honeybee products such as honey, bee glue and royal jelly to cure illnesses, including shrinking tumors.

However, these gentle giants may be in trouble. A large number of disappearing honeybees are experiencing colony collapse disorder around the world. A German study has found the bacteria in the guts of young bees mirrored the same genetic traits of genetically modified crops.

Apitherapy News and National Geographic Video May 21, 2007

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