“If life isn’t about human beings and living in harmony, then I don’t know what it’s about.”

Orlando Bloom (English actor).

Introduction:

One-third of the food we eat comes from crops that need animal pollinators. Without bees, billions of dollars’ worth of crops across the United States would fail. The importance of bees as pollinating insects has increased all over the world. It is estimated that a quarter of human food depends on bee pollination.

Since 15,000 years, man has been using honey. This has been possible because bees have been visiting flowers by the millions. It .is estimated that that one kilo of honey is produced after bees visit 5-7 million flowers. Bees utilize their glands to produce enzymes, which convert nectar into honey. The end result is a well-preserved, bacteria-destroying, easily digestible, readily energized food.

It is also known that bees can sting badly. The much feared bee sting has a lot of therapeutic value. Bee venom therapy is also called as APITHERAPY. Man has known the medicinal use of honeybee products since ancient times. This is a very remarkable experimental therapy that is useful for humans and does not cause cruelty or death to these precious insects.

The Chemical Ingredients in Bee venom:

Honeybee venom contains at least 18 active substances.
• Melittin is an anti-inflammatory agent, which is 100 times more potent than Hydrocortisol.
• Adolapin is another strong anti-inflammatory substance, which inhibits Cyclooxygenase activity and thus exhibits an analgesic effect.
• Other substances include, hyaluronidase, Compound X, Phospholipase, A2, Histamine and Mast Cell Degranulating Protein, Neurotransmitter like Dopamine, Nor adrenaline and Serotinin.

 Research using Bee venom:
• Patients suffering from phlebitis and thrombophlebitis improved in terms of increased skin temperature and better blood circulation in their limbs.
• Good results were shown in all the sciatica cases.
• When combined with an oral therapy, such as vitamin therapy, good analgesic effects were obtained in cortisone-dependent patients suffering from rheumatoid, polyarthritis. The bee venom is applied for 4 –5 days, followed by a 2 – 3 day break. Treatment is then re-commenced again. Using this method no adverse effects were reported.
• Applying the venom as an ointment topically provided a long-lasting effect and offers significant benefits in arthritic and rheumatic conditions.
• Bee venom therapy was found to be useful in acute and chronic injuries, bursitis, tendonitis and chronic neck pains
• It is useful in dissolving scar tissues and keloids.
• It is useful in Multiple Sclerosis, where its mechanism of action is poorly understood.

How is Bee venom therapy performed?

Bee venom therapy can be performed by a beekeeper and the patient can be taught to use the bees. The bee is taken out of a hive and the number of sites, where the patient is to be stung is determined beforehand and it depends on the condition that the patient is suffering from. A simple tendonitis may respond with a few stings. A chronic arthritis may require 2 to 3 stings for about 3 months, before a favorable result is obtained. Patients with Multiple Sclerosis take many months before they respond. Bee venom is also extracted in sterilized vials and doctors mix anesthetic agents and to prevent the pain of the sting.

The Side effects of the treatment are:

• Inflammation
• Itching
• Rarely a severe life threatening choking may result because of an anaphylactic reaction.

Conclusion:

Bee venom therapy is an interesting alternative therapy, which has important uses. It has generated a lot of interest among medical researchers because it shows promise in refractory disease. This therapy is an example of man using nature’s resources for his benefit, without exhibiting cruelty to the bees.

References and links:

Abstracts from The XXIXth International Congress of Apiculture of Apimondia, Bucharest, 1983.

Elena Palos and Filofteia Popescu; Use of Bee Venom in Anti-rheumatic Drugs. (Romania).

www.beevenom.com.

www.gilbertsville.com.

www.ahealthyme.com.

CADMIUM SULF.

It is a useful remedy in Cholera and Yellow Fever, where there is exhaustion, vomiting and extreme prostration and the disease runs a deathward course.

It is a wonderful remedy for stomach cancer, where there is nausea, retching and blackish vomit.

There is hemorrhage of the bowels with black clots.

It is useful for pyuria with raw soreness of the urethra

The patient wakes out of his sleep with a sensation of suffocation or stops breathing on going to sleep.

Readers must realize that this remedy only palliates Cancer of the Stomach, which is a deadly malignancy. It just helps to keep the patient comfortable by reducing the nausea or the hematemesis. IT IS NOT A CURE FOR Cancer OF THE STOMACH.

CACTUS GRANDIFLORUS.

This remedy is derived from the flowering plant, the Night blooming circus.

This remedy is useful in Cardio-vascular disorders, such as Angina Pectoris and in IHD’s.

It suits patients, who have a suffocative feeling and feel that the heart is clasped by a vice and have palpitation.

It is also useful in cases of cardiac conditions associated with coldness of the extremities and numbness of the left arm.

This remedy is useful in cases of Acute Left Ventricular failure.

It is also useful in cases of ‘Globus Hystericus’, which is a hysterical condition where there is a sensation of a lump choking the throat.

Although this remedy is considered useful in Angina Pectoris and Ischemic Heart disease, I do not think that any allopathic physician would dare to use it as a first line anti-angina agent. With the advances in Interventional Cardiology, this remedy may become marginalized. It must however be remembered that this remedy has come over a hundred years ago, when we did not have nitrates, or remedies like Trimetazidine, Nicorandil, low dose aspirin preparations and the large majority of remedies that we have in the allopathic armamentarium to combat Coronary Artery disease today.

BRYONIA ALBA.

It is derived from the White Bryony plant, found all over Europe, especially in Germany and France.

This remedy acts on all the serous membranes and the viscera they contain.

The general character of pain in this remedy is STITCHING, TEARING, WORSE BY MOTION AND BETTER BY REST.

The patient is very irritable, inclined to be vehement and angry.

It suits subjects who are anxious, angry and obstinate.

It suits children who are fretful and dislike being carried or being raised.

It is a useful remedy when the patients are sluggish in nature and their complaints develop slowly.

It suits subjects, who fear death and poverty.

It suits subject, whose complaints develop after an exposure to cold or when warm weather sets in after cold days

The mucous membranes are all dry and there is an excessive thirst.

The stools are dry, hard and stony.

The rheumatic pains and swellings are often associated with effusion of the synovial membranes.

The patient experiences painful stitching pain and stiffness in the small of the back.

It is useful in Pleuro-pneumonia with a dry hacking cough. It is magical in acute pleurisy, where there is a stitching or tearing pain worse from coughing, movement, sneezing and even the breathing is painful.
This remedy is useful in acute mastitis, where the breasts become hot, inflamed, and painful and heave and the patient feels compelled to support the breast to prevent the slightest movement.

This remedy is useful in acute hepatitis, where the liver is congested, inflamed and enlarged with stitching pain in the right hypochondrium, worse from motion or changing position and better from lying on the right or painful side.

It is useful in Typhoid fever, when the symptoms develop sluggishly, associated with a headache, coated tongue and thirst for large quantities of water and the patient lies very quietly, due to the soreness of the body and likes cool open air.
This remedy is useful in meningitis arising after the suppression of exanthematous fevers.

The patient is worse by warmth, the least motion, eating, hot weather, exertion and touch.

The patient feels better lying on the painful side, pressure, rest and cold things.

TIPS FROM THE MASTERS …

I use only the most often indicated remedy in the first stages of Appendicitis, usually being BRYONIA, the symptoms being characteristic of this trouble. I recommend surgery unless marked improvement is evident within 24 hours.
Dr. Walter James.

In peritonitis, Bryonia is useful when we desire to remove the effused fluid, as soon as possible.
Dr. Boehr.

The pathological picture, developed by the super-invention of Pericarditis, during pneumonia or pleurisy generally corresponds very fully with the pathogenesis of BRYONIA.

Dr. Boehr.

BRYONIA is generally considered a remedy for acute diseases but I know of no more frequently needed medicine for those elderly women who are constipated and suffer much with vertigo. Bryonia is almost an absolute specific for those cases, many of which are slightly rheumatic.

Dr. William Henry Schwartz, M.D.

No remedy in the Materia Medica has a stronger claim to a position among the anti-pneumonia remedies than BRYONIA, judging from both its provings and clinical experience.

Dr. Goodnough.

In the second stage of pleurisy, after the stage of serous effusion has commenced, no remedy can equal BRYONIA.

Dr. Burt.

For Pleuro-pneumonia BRYONIA is almost a specific.

Dr Burt.

In the acute digestive complication of Influenza, the drug that I have found most frequently indicated is BRYONIA. Here we have a classical picture of acute gastritis, with extreme abdominal sensitiveness, intense nausea, aggravated by any movement; better by eructation and relief from hot drinks. This is not infrequently a complication that yields very readily to BRYONIA.
Dr. D.M Borland, M.B., Ch.B., F.F Hom (Lond).

BRYONIA takes care of the vaccination reaction following Anti-typhoid and anti-paratyphoid shots.
Dr. A. H. Grimmer, M.D.

This remedy is extremely useful in fevers, where the patient just lies still and has a thirst for large quantities of water. I have also seen that it is useful in cases of Post-viral Pleural effusion and it aids in re-absorption of the pleural effusion and reduces the pain during the inspiration. It is also useful in many case of constipation.

BOVISTA.

This remedy is derived from a fungus called as Lycoperdon bovista.

It is useful to overcome stammering in children.

It is useful for persons who are clumsy and keep dropping things.

It is useful to treat Urticaria (Hives) that comes on whenever the patient is excited.

It is useful in Dermographia (a condition, where blunt instruments leave a great impression in the skin).

It is useful in treating Herpetic eruptions.

Bovista is the remedy of choice to antidote coal tar applications.

It is useful in acne arising due to the over use of cosmetics.

It is useful for intolerable itching in the tip of the tailbone.

It is useful even in certain forms of eczemas.

TIPS FROM THE MASTERS…

Looseness of bowels before or during menstrual period: BOVISTA.

Dr. William R. Powell.

BOVISTA antidotes effects of local applications of tar; suffocation from gas.

Dr. H.C. Allen, M.D.

I find this remedy useful in some cases of Urticaria. It is also useful in some cases of Psoriasis, where coal tar based ointments have been used. I do not have much experience in eczemas. It is said to be very useful in Herpetic infections.