Michael Simics is a beekeeper. He distributes live bees to people who use them to therapeutically sting themselves. Simics has also written a number of books and pamphlets on bees. His bee products are known for their high quality and purity throughout Canada and the United States. And he has been doing this for almost two decades.

“Seventeen years ago, I woke up with horrible back pain,” Simics explains. “Debilitating. There was no cause, and it wouldn’t go away. Now, my father had been a beekeeper in Hungary and I remember him and my grandmother telling me stories about bee stings used for aches and pains. Nothing else would take care of the pain, so I decided to give the stings a try. I stung myself twice and forgot about it for the rest of the day. The next morning, I woke up and the pain was gone. Just like that! I was shocked. Now, I’m not going to say that bees cure all joint and back pain, but they surely cured me. I’ve never had pain since.”

Simics’s books, including Bee Venom: Exploring the Healing Power have become staples in a quiet but ever-growing interest in this prickly healing modality. The use of bee stings as medicine has eastern and western roots. It can be traced back to ancient China, where some scholars believe the stings made the first acupuncture needles. It is mentioned by Hippocrates, in the Bible, and the Koran. The 20th century German metaphysicist and educator, Rudolf Steiner advocated the healing powers of bees. Indeed, the bee thing seems to generate an almost sacred enthusiasm and higher awareness in those who are stung by it.
Now, it seems, there may be some good reasons for this. In the past 15 to 20 years, bee sting therapy has generated a swell of interest in its possible effectiveness in treating autoimmune diseases. Seeming to generate out of the depths of our gene pool and toxic overload, autoimmune diseases cause the body to attack its own tissue. Their destructive swaths can be unstoppable, causing widespread immunologic and anti-inflammatory alterations of connective tissue. Western medicine offers sufferers no cures, while painkillers, anti-inflammatories, and the other drugs that are used by doctors to alleviate symptoms come with a swarm of nasty side effects.

Rheumatoid arthritis, for example, is a chronic systemic inflammatory disease of unknown origin that strikes most frequently between the ages of 20 and 40, although it may occur at any age. It mostly affects the synovial membranes of joints, causing erosion of cartilage, bone and tendons. In its late stage, fibrous ankylosis or stiffening and hardening of the joints occurs. After months or years, deformities may occur, most commonly, deviations involving the fingers and knees. Susceptibility to rheumatoid arthritis is genetically determined.

The treatment of rheumatoid arthritis includes NSAIDS (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) or in stubborn cases, Methotrexate. The list of side effects of these drugs is dizzying gastro-intestinal effects, gastric ulcers and bleeding, being the most frequent, along with lower bowel irritation, kidney toxicity, interference with platelet function and longer bleeding time. Methotrexate can cause gastritis and stomatitis. It is also toxic to the liver and has been implicated in cases of fibrosis and cirrhosis.

Lupus, or Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, is another inflammatory autoimmune disorder. Typically, lupus sufferers have a characteristic “butterfly” rash on their face or some other skin rash. Lesions on the fingertips and splinter hemorrhages in the fingernails are common. They may have very cold hands and feet. Joint pain is very common, occurring in 90 percent of patients. The eyes are also affected: conjunctivitis, photophobia, blurry vision, and transient blindness are not uncommon. Treatment is symptomatic, and includes anti-malarials, NSAIDS, and corticosteroids.

Multiple Sclerosis is a nerve disorder with no known cure. In this case, the fatty myelin sheath around a nerve degenerates. It is also believed to be an autoimmune disease. Myelin sheath degeneration interferes with the conduction of nerve impulses in the brain and nervous system. Eventually, the disease progresses to disability, weakness, spasticity, vision problems, and urinary incontinence. Currently, there is no Western medical means of preventing its progression.

Apitherapy (from the Latin, apis, which means ‘bee,”), however, by anecdotal evidence, has been getting consistently good results with autoimmune diseases. Apitherapy technically refers to the use of bees and beehive products, including honey, pollen, propolis (the brown resin that bees collect and use to cement their hives; in apitherapy, it is used as an analgesic, especially effective for sore throats), bee venom and royal jelly (an energy tonic and super-nutrient, which is the sole food of the Queen bee; it is the product of chewed pollen by nurse bees, who mix it with their own glandular secretions).

Apitherapy has been used since ancient times to treat arthritis, rheumatism, back pain, and skin diseases. Recently, in the last 15 to 20 years, bee venom in particular has also been used to treat not only rheumatological and dermatological problems, but also immune system disorders including multiple sclerosis, osteo- and rheumatoid arthritis, eczema, psoriasis, topical ulcers, scleroderma, lupus, and endocrine disorders.

The history of its use in the US dates back over a hundred years and includes the work of Dr. Bodog Beck, who wrote the 1935 classic, Bee Venom Therapy, based on his work with bee venom in the late ‘20s (and reprinted as The Bible of Bee Venom Therapy in the ‘70s).

A student of Beck’s, Charles Mraz, went on to become the main figure in the bee venom therapy movement in the last century. Mraz became a prophet of the bee movement by virtue of his own pain. In 1934, at the age of 28, he was hit by a violent attack of rheumatic fever. The pain was brutal, writes Mraz, “like my back had just been cleaved by an axe.” The pain continued, moving around his body, attacking a new joint everyday. When he was finally able to get out of bed, he says: “I was no longer a young man of 28. My joints were so painful and stiff that I felt more like an old man of 98.”

As luck would have it, Mraz was a beekeeper, and like Simics, he had also heard the old wives’ tales that bee stings were good for arthritis. It took six months of crippling pain before Mraz decided to give in to those tales, but once he did, he woke up the next morning pain-free. “I was in a state of shock,” he writes. “I even started to question my sanity. I wondered if I had really had arthritis for the last six months or if it had just been my imagination.” This was the dramatic turning point in Mraz’s life, and from that point forward he treated people with arthritis and later, multiple sclerosis with bee stings, until his death.

The story of how Mraz discovered that bee sting therapy might be helpful in treating multiple sclerosis follows the lines of most classic medical discoveries—it was purely accidental. In 1975 he had successfully treated a woman with arthritis with bee stings. Five years later some of her symptoms returned. Upon visiting her doctor for tests, she was told that she did not have arthritis after all, but multiple sclerosis, and that she had likely had it for the last 10 years. She came back to Mraz to tell him that he had actually successfully treated her MS. He went on to treat many patients for multiple sclerosis—work that has been furthered by his students and other licensed health practitioners across the country.

What is in bee venom that makes it so efficacious? According to Simics, there are six components that are thought to provide the major therapeutic benefits of bee venom therapy. Apamin, probably the primary active ingredient in the treatment of MS, assists damaged nerve receptors by enhancing critical aspects of nerve transmission to improve conductivity of the degenerating nerve sheath. Histamine produces signs of inflammation, which bring cleansing mast cells and blood to the area. Hyaluronidase is an enzyme that loosens the glue that connects cells, which make tissue more permeable, making cells more accessible to healing substances, and the elimination of toxins easier for the body. Mast cell degranulating peptide is another agent that leads to the release of histamine. Its positive effects on neurochemistry may lead to feelings of increased mental alertness and improved concentration. Melittin attacks certain cell walls, creating the “sting”. It has bacteriocidal properties and strong anti-inflammatory effects. Phospholipase A1 and A2 are found in all insect venom and are emulsifiers that detoxify cells.

How does BVT work? Although the jury is still out on this question, scientists believe that bee venom stimulates the adrenal glands to produce cortisol, the body’s own natural form of cortisone. The healing comes as a result of having that system of complex cascade reactions “woken up” rather than being injected with an isolated and synthetic form of cortisone.

Bee stings also cause an acute condition—redness and heat in the area you were stung—that helps heal underlying chronic conditions as well. Heat, part of the body’s immune response, breaks down the venom. The body also dilutes the venom by bringing fluid to the area, which is then washed away by blood. Itching occurs when the new blood returns to the area. Heat, swelling, and itching are considered by apitherapists to be signs that the BVT is working.

There are certain precautions to take and preparations to make before embarking on your bee sting journey. Apitherapists practice “safe stinging” by requiring that a bee sting kit containing epinephrine and antihistamine, antidotes to bee sting allergies, be on hand. Second, one has to take a test sting and wait for the body’s response. The only life-threatening reaction to bees is “a generalized immediate reaction that quickly (in 5-10 minutes) develops into a breathing problem. This is a bonafide bee allergy, requiring shots of antidote.

Apitherapists note that allergies to honey bees are quite rare. “Bee Queen” Amber Rose, who practices and teaches acupuncture and apitherapy in Long Island, author of the book Bee In Balance, points out that some people incorrectly believe they are allergic to bees. A strong reaction to a sting is a normal, healthy immune response. If you had a nasty reaction to stepping on bees, you were probably stung by yellow jackets, not honeybees, because honeybees do not live on the ground, she continues. If you are allergic to yellow jackets and/or wasps, it doesn’t necessarily follow that you are also allergic to honeybees. “The only way you really know for sure if you are allergic to honeybees is to get a test sting,” Rose says. If you are allergic, there is a desensitization process that you can undergo. (Refer to Dr. Theodore Cherbuliez in the Side Bar.)

Once the test is passed, what can the prospective apitherapy patient expect to feel? Pat Wagner, known on her Web site as the “Bee Lady,” is a good person to ask. Now a healthy, mobile apitherapist and another tireless organizer for the BVT movement, 10 years ago Wagner was totally wheelchair-bound with chronic progressive MS. In 1992, Wagner decided to try bee sting therapy herself. A friend brought over some bees in a jar, she remembered. “He came into my bedroom—you have to realize that none of us knew anything about how to do this then—and took out a bee and had it sting me on the inside of my left knee.” Within 20 minutes, Wagner recounted; her leg went from “feeling frozen with ice water running through the veins” to “feeling warm blood flowing through.”

Some people are more explicit about the sensations. “Bee stings hurt,” said Amber Rose. But, she added, “look at the positive side. If the bee sting hurts for the first minute or two, at least you can feel them. If at first you are numb and you don’t feel the stings, that means your nerve endings are asleep.”

Over time many patients report that they are able to tolerate the stings much better, with reduced pain, itching, and swelling. For others, however, this is not the case. One of Rose’s MS patients said, “I still feel every sting after years of treatment. It does not feel good. But I’ll gladly take seconds of pain for hours of pleasure.”

After several treatments, the body goes into (what is called in the field) a “healing crisis,” during which the patient develops flu-like symptoms of fatigue, nausea, cramps, fever, chills, tired or achy muscles. This can be frightening for the patient, but it is part of the expected course of treatment. These are not the side effects of Western allopathic drugs. “This is what we want to happen,” said Wagner. “We tell the patient not to despair, that it lasts for three to four days to several weeks, but it does end,” said Rose. “It is a sign that toxins are leaving the system and are being flushed through the bloodstream. Some patients may not want to continue at this point but we really urge them to push through it.” Afterwards, the patient feels much more energetic and strong, said Rose, and the healing crisis never occurs again during treatment.

Apitherapists usually start a patient off with three to six stings the first time, and increase the number of stings by two, every other session. “We don’t give the body more than it can handle,” says Rose. She has found in her own practice that 15-20 stings per session is a good maximum. For those with chronic conditions, she recommends stinging oneself three times a week for six months.

Another frequently asked question is whether bee venom can be isolated and taken either orally or by injection. Bee venom is painstakingly collected and reconstituted into an injectable form, but in the process it is mixed with saline solution. In so doing, the venom is diluted and becomes one-twentieth the potency of actual stings. “Injectable venom is not as potent as the real thing,” says Rose. “When man tempers with Mother Nature, something is lost in the translation.”

So, you may wonder, if BVT is so effective, why is it not more widespread? And why is there so little BVT research? The bee people have several answers. Amber Rose points out that it is not well known because it cannot be mass-produced. Collecting bee venom is so time-consuming that pharmaceuticals can’t make money from it, she says. Simics adds that because it is a natural product, the quality of the venom is not consistent, varying by location and time of year, making scientific research difficult, if not impossible. And actually, its use is spreading, with therapist trainings for happening across the country. But for the time being, we will have to accept bee venom therapy as another type of “out there” medicine lacking the scientific establishment’s stamp of approval. For those with an autoimmune disease, however, you may well want to start taking “out there” seriously.

For more information on bee venom therapy, check out additions to this article on the Chronogram Web site at www.chronogram.com. Or e-mail me directly at dylana@mindspring.com.