| Apitherapy
Apitherapy is the medicinal use of various products of Apis mellifera--the
common honeybee--including raw honey, pollen, royal jelly, wax, propolis
(bee glue), and venom. Various studies attribute antifungal, antibacterial,
anti-inflammatory, antiproliferative, and cancer-drug-potentiating properties
to honey (Science News, 1993). In China, for example, raw honey is applied
to burns as an antiseptic and a painkiller. Recently, propolis (the bee
product that cements a hive together) has been identified as containing
substances called caffeic esters that inhibit the development of precancerous
changes in the colon of rats given a known carcinogen (Rao et al., 1993).
Preparations from pieces of honeycomb containing pollen are reported to
be successful for treating allergies, and bee pollen is touted as an excellent
food. This section focuses on bee venom to treat chronic inflammatory
illness because of the popularity of this treatment and the availability
of related research material. That forms of apitherapy have been used
since ancient times is not remarkable, because bees formed an important
part of many early economies. Ancient writers as diverse as ~Hesiod (ca.
800 B.C.), Aristophanes (ca. 450-ca. 388 B.C.), Varro (166-27 B.C.), and
Columella (1st century A.D.) all wrote on the cultivation of the hive,
and Charlemagne (742-814 A.D.) is said to have had himself treated with
beestings. The Koran (XVI: 71) refers to bee products in the following
terms: "There proceeded from their bellies a liquor wherein is a medicine
for men" (Kim, 1986). For apiculture and the scientific understanding
of bees, real progress began about 100 years ago when physician Phillip
Terc of Austria advocated the deliberate use of beestings in his 1888
work, Report about a Peculiar Connection Between the Beestings and Rheumatism.
Today's proponents of apitherapy cite the benefits of bee venom for alleviating
chronic pain and for treating many ailments including various rheumatic
diseases involving inflammation and degeneration of connective tissue
(e.g., several types of arthritis), neurological disease (e.g., multiple
sclerosis, low back pain, migraine), and dermatological conditions (e.g.,
eczema, psoriasis, herpesvirus infections). In one sample description
of the use of bee venom therapy, a physician reported anecdotally ~that
among 128 patients with a wide spectrum of illnesses, all but 11 appeared
to improve (Klinghardt, 1990). (Of the 11 who did not improve, 1 was worse
and 10 were unchanged.) This report is typical of anecdotal apitherapy
reports that begin with stories of beekeepers recounting various health
improvements after receiving accidental multiple stings from their bees.
Klinghardt's patients had diagnoses of gout, rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia,
spinal strain or sprain, spinal disc injuries, postlaminectomy pain, bunion,
postherpetic neuralgia, incomplete healing of a fractured bone, intractable
pain from large burn wounds, osteoarthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, vertigo,
and multiple sclerosis. Earlier, Steigerwaldt and colleagues (1966) reported
improvement among 84 percent of 50 cases of arthritis in a controlled
study. In contrast, interest in bees has been sporadic in conventional
medicine, focusing mainly on three areas unrelated to the therapeutic
uses proposed above. These areas are (1) the danger of hypersensitivity
reactions, including anaphylactic shock, from the sting of insects of
the genus Apis; (2) the use of bee venom itself as immunotherapy for allergic
reaction to such stings, especially to prevent life-threatening anaphylactic
reactions in adults; and (3) the ~danger of infants contracting botulism
from ingesting raw honey--possibly one death every 2 to 5 years (Wyngaarden
and Smith, 1988). The modern movement promoting apitherapy is spearheaded
by veteran beekeeper Charles Mraz of Vermont and physician Bradford Weeks
of Washington State, assisted by other members of the American Apitherapy
Society. They cite studies identifying various biological properties for
semipurified fractions of bee venom and for more purified products to
help explain the curative properties attributed to this venom. Table 1,
adapted from Klinghardt (1990), summarizes these properties, which include
pronounced anti-inflammatory, analgesic, and immunostimulatory properties.
The American Apitherapy Society contends that hypersensitivity reactions
to bee venom therapy are very rare, occuring mostly from stings by related
species but not by the honeybee. The procedures the society recommends
include always testing a new patient first with a small amount of venom
to look for possible allergic reactions and never using bee venom without
an emergency beesting kit (containing epinephrine) available.~In practice,
proponents say that the best results are obtained when there is a "good
reaction"--considerable swelling and inflammation--at the site of sting.
Mraz believes that the optimal means of delivering venom is through a
hypodermic needle administered by a licensed physician. However, since
most medical practitioners do not recognize the benefits of bee venom,
practicing apitherapists almost always use "the original hypodermic needle
developed by Mother Nature and the honeybee some 30 million years ago:
the bee stinger." Procedures for obtaining and purifying venom have been
developed, but of course this product in liquid or dried form costs more
than using live bees. The usual treatment involves stinging the patient
at a specific site relative to the illness and repeating the stings over
a period of time. For example, it is suggested that the venom be injected
into arthritic patients at trigger points in a daily course of treatment
that lasts 4 to 8 weeks. Proponents indicate that there are typical patterns
of responsiveness, depending on the ailment. A 50-year-old patient with
arthritis might note pain relief in 2 weeks, mobility in 3 weeks, and
freedom from symptoms in 4 weeks (Weeks, 1994). ~Research on bee venom
has included studies of whole venom and venom products. For example, in
the 1960s and 1970s, studies on bee venom to treat rheumatic diseases
were conducted by William H. Shipman of the U.S. Navy Radiological Defense
Laboratory, James Vick of the Walter Reed Army Hospital Medical Research
Center, and Gerald Weissman of New York University Hospital and their
colleagues, with funding by private and public sources. One finding was
that whole bee venom could suppress the development of an induced arthritis
in rats, although it could not alleviate the illness after it had started
(Zurier et al., 1973). Treatment with separate fractions of bee venom
had no positive effect. In later studies in which the components of bee
venom were purified further, the various properties, such as anti-inflammatory
and antibacterial activity (see table 1), began to be associated with
specific materials. In a more recent study (Kim, 1992), a randomized,
controlled trial was conducted comparing true honeybee venom therapy with
a "sham" product for 180 patients suffering from chronic pain and inflammation;
solutions were injected twice weekly for 6 weeks. ~Significant posttreatment
reductions in pain and inflammation were recorded in the true bee venom
therapy group and were maintained at 6-month followups. The American Apitherapy
Society endeavors to coordinate information on bee venom research. Starting
with 100 citations 12 years ago, when patients in his medical practice
first interested him in the subject, Bradford Weeks, the society's president,
has now acquired more than 12,000 case reports on persons treated with
bee venom (Weeks, 1994). Together, these 12,000 reports are the basis
for the ongoing National Multicenter Apitherapy Study. Approximately 200
physicians and 200 beekeepers voluntarily contribute reports. At this
time, the database for the multicenter study contains mostly anecdotal
information, such as "I had an illness; I was stung by bees; my health
improved." As Weeks notes, there is no proof in such reports that a person
really had the specified illness and really improved because of the bee
venom treatment. ~The American Apitherapy Society would like to obtain
research funds to improve the collection of both retrospective (past)
information and prospective (future) data. Funding could provide research
staff to search out medical records for proof of illness, training for
research staff and bee venom therapists on how to gather data, and support
for statistical analyses. Meanwhile, the multicenter study has in its
database some 1,300 reports on patients with multiple sclerosis (subjectively
reporting increased sensation and bowel and bladder control), 2,800 with
rheumatoid arthritis, and other groupings of data on such problems as
gout, viral illnesses, and premenstrual syndrome--nearly 100 percent of
40 women being treated for premenstrual syndrome by apitherapy became
symptom free, according to Weeks (1993). In some ways, apitherapy is a
classic alternative therapy. It has ancient roots and, although discarded
by mainstream medicine, has survived in folk practice.
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