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A couple of weeks ago, my 76-year-old mother frantically called me to say that she had been stung by several bees while she was trying to get in her home. She did not see a huge swarm of bees hovering nearby, and evidently, she disturbed them. In her mad dash to get away, those bees sensed her fear and were undoubtedly angered by her presence, so they went to work on her. She escaped with roughly 15 bee stings, a few of which were around her ankle and resulted in a very swollen foot. I did not know this at the time, but there are some benefits to bee venom, and my mom, an arthritis sufferer, may have been injected with a certain form of pain relief.
Her birthday was a couple of days later and needless to say, I got to see her badges of honor all over her body and around her ankle. I am not so sure if she really got a kick out of the birthday cake I made for her. It was decorated with a brightly-colored bee and simply read, “Happy Bee-Day!” I thought it was clever! Perhaps the humor was delivered too soon. We all enjoyed the cake, however, so I guess when you do get stung by a bee, you can have your cake and eat it, too.
Enough with the bad jokes. I recently ran across some information about bee venom therapy and thought it might be of interest to those suffering from joint pain. While I myself will run like the wind if I am around snakes, unidentifiable insects, mad and barking dogs with big teeth, and bees, I had to slow down to digest the information on this topic. So, sit down and enjoy the education. If you have to leave for a moment, promise me you will “bee” right back. I’m as busy as a bee, too, so let’s cut to the chase!
The therapeutic benefits of bee venom have been known for centuries. Even Hippocrates and Confucius were familiar with its healing properties. (So why didn’t I know about this?) Bee sting therapy, in fact, has been used to treat arthritis as far back as 130 AD. Many European countries and China still widely support this form of treatment.
In addition to helping arthritis sufferers, bee venom therapy has been reported to assist in the control of many conditions and diseases, including ankylosing spondylitis, shingles, gout, tennis elbow, tendonitis, lower back pain, ligament injuries, cholesterol levels, and auto-immune disease, among others. Research has shown that bee venom therapy actually stimulates the activity of the immune system so the body produces its own healing agents.
According to the sources at honeybeetherapy.com, “bee venom therapy is a classic example of the homeopathic principal, which states that a substance that produces the symptoms of a disease is a cure for that disease. Rheumatic diseases result in swelling, pain, and inflammation. A bee sting causes the same symptoms. The sting stimulates the immune system to relive the inflammation caused by the bee venom, while relieving the symptoms of the rheumatic disease at the same time.” (Wow! My mom needs to aggravate those bees some more if she wants to see improvement in her arthritis symptoms! Of course, she would probably respond to that by noting, “That won’t ‘bee’ any time soon!”)
While the purpose of this article was basically to alert you to the potential benefits of bee venom as therapy for the relief of arthritis symptoms, it is important that you engage in your own continued research to determine if such a course of action is for you. Remember, some folks are allergic to bee stings. In that case, you just might want to stay away from my mom’s house. I wouldn’t want to “bee” responsible for any adverse reactions from those pesky things.
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