ease the symptoms of a wide variety of diseases, including arthritis, multiple sclerosis, tendonitis, and fibromyalgia; they’re also thought to promote desensitization to bee stings. These claims don’t come from beekeepers looking for a profit; they’re made by patients whose experience with bee venom has turned them into believers.
One woman says that 80 stings every other day helped reverse her rheumatoid arthritis. A woman with multiple sclerosis found that the leg spasms she’d been having calmed down after she started using bees to sting herself a few times each day. Some doctors, particularly in Eastern Europe, have also reported using injections of bee venom to successfully treat rheumatoid arthritis.
Does bee-venom therapy really work?
Personal testimonials are one thing, but careful scientific studies are the real test. And so far, studies conducted on animals and in test tubes suggest that bee venom may have some ability to lessen the pain and inflammation of arthritis. In 1988, researchers at the Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki in Greece reported that bee stings greatly slowed the progress of an arthritis-like disease in rats.
The Greek scientists, along with researchers at Montreal General Hospital, have also reported that venom slows the production of interleukin-1, a compound that helps fuel arthritic pain and inflammation. More recent studies in South Korea have revealed how melittin, an important compound in bee venom, blocks inflammation. Their study showed significant anti-arthritic effects in mice.
Although some research suggests that bee venom given by injection may be effective in treating tendonitis, fibromyositis, and rheumatoid arthritis, among other conditions, the results are not conclusive. Human trials on bee venom and arthritis, for example, have been few and far between, and the results