The Bees Knees: Bee Venom Treatment

While most of us are trying to avoid bee stings this summer, many are swarming to bee venom and its therapeutic results.

Bee venom therapy is an inexpensive alternative for sufferers of arthritis, multiple sclerosis (MS) and migraines.

MSNBC reports that bee venom therapy (also called apitherapy) is a regular part of clinical treatments in Europe and Asia and plays an important role in Chinese acupuncture. Usually because it's far cheaper than Western medicine's arthritic treatments, but more often than not it's because of the frustration of not achieving results through conventional medical treatments.

Interestingly, bee venom is made up of a mixture of water-soluble proteins (enzymes and peptides) containing more than 18 components of pharmacological activities.

In the MSNBC article, a man suffering from gangrene who was told he had to have his foot amputated, challenged the diagnosis with bee venom therapy - and won.

Traditionally, pinpointed stings are applied directly to the patient's affected area, with repeated treatment to build up the number of stings over time. Typically, people undergoing apitherapy may get stung 80 times a day or more. However, Healthy Me warns, though it is used in some countries to diminish bad reactions to bee stings in general, it is unwise not to do a "test sting" on the knee or forearm, before handling full-on apitherapy.