Bee Venom

By way of an update, after studying and then working constantly for 35 years, I’ve been enjoying a few months off. I am currently based in UK after 25 years in New Zealand, and enjoying going to football matches, the “interesting" climate, catching up with my old university friends and my favourite hobby - lecturing on cruise ships. But I’ll be back early in the new year with ideas for new, novel natural health products.

I did though want to talk about one of my favourite natural ingredients, bee venom. You can also see me talking about it here, on a Netflix documentary series called (Un)Well - Season 1, Episode 6 - Bee Sting Therapy)
www.tinyurl.com/SHNETFLIX

Bee stings have been used medically for hundreds of years to help with pain and inflammation. In traditional bee venom therapy, bees are picked up and placed on the area to be treated and held until they sting. This always results in the death of the bee. However, modern extraction methods mean that the venom, which is the active component of the sting, can be extracted without killing the bee, and the venom can then be administered as a cream to the skin or as an injection into a painful joint.

The venom is collected by using specially designed equipment which stimulates the bees with small electric shocks and collects the venom on glass sheets. Normally, a bee will die when it stings, as it leaves the stinging part of its body in the target, thereby tearing open it's abdomen which results in death. However, when bees attack the glass, the stinger cannot penetrate the surface and so the stinger does not detach from the body and the bees survive.

Bee venom, also called apitoxin, causes steroid chemicals to be released by the body, and it is thought that this is the mechanism by which bee stings can help treat pain and arthritis. It is nature’s own steroid injection.

As an anti-ageing product, it works within a few minutes and lasts for up to 12 hours. The mechanism of action is thought to be that it causes a mild inflammation and swelling that irons out and fills in wrinkles. In other words, it encourages the body to react as if it has been lightly stung, and increases the blood flow and supports cell renewal in the area of application. When used on a regular basis, the mild chronic inflammation is thought to stimulate collagen production that can result in longer-term wrinkle reduction.

It is estimated that 1% of the population are allergic to bee stings and so a small test patch should be used first by people who do not know if they are allergic or not, and it must never be used by people who are known to have anaphylactic reactions to bee stings (sudden, serious allergic reactions that can cause death).