Thursday, March 29, 2012

Apitherapy (Bee Venom therapy) Used to Ease Arthritis Symptoms

Star-Gazette, 3/24/12

…Bee venom therapy -- BVT for short -- involves taking multiple stings or "hits" as a remedy for arthritis, multiple sclerosis and other ills. Bill Draper takes his hits on an arthritic knee.

"I feel better (when) I take a sting," said Draper, who has been stung literally thousands of times over the years.

It must be pointed out that bee stings can cause a potentially fatal allergic reaction that can occur the first time a person gets stung -- or the 10,000th.

Draper relates this story:

"There was a young wrestler from Wysox who had a huge wart on the back of his hand. It kept bleeding when he wrestled, and that was a problem. His parents tried everything to get rid of it -- freezing, chemicals and so on, but nothing worked.

"They came to me, and they had a wet cloth over the wart to keep it soft. He took eight stings on the wart and left. I never heard what happened.

"Years passed, and one day this big, strapping guy came in and asked if I remembered him. I didn't. He said, 'I'm the wrestler from Wysox who you treated with bee stings. After not very long, that wart just fell off. It never came back. And it must have been powerful, because other warts I had fell right off, too.'

"So there's one success story."

Among other bee remedies, all available from Draper's:

» Royal jelly: The food of the queen bee, it's a milky-white liquid secreted by nurse bees.

It can help maintain youth, normalize bodily functions, increase resistance to disease and increase energy levels, Dr. Steve Schecter wrote in The Journal of the American Apitherapy Society. And that's just a partial list of benefits.

» Propolis: Resin or sap exuded by tree bark and buds that is collected by bees and deposited in hives.

It has been proven to have "antibiotic, antifungal, analgesic, antioxidant and anti-viral properties," Draper said.

» Pollen: That yellow stuff that clings to bees' knees. It's 25 percent to 30 percent protein and touted as "nature's perfect food."…

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