Rarely does the name of a product cause so much horror. And yet this is the case with bee venom, even though it contains, like all bee products, certain elements that are used in medicine.
The aggressive system of the bee depends on the female genitalia. It comes from the ovary transformation that is still present in some hymenoptera. So only females have a sting and produce poison.
This secretion is synthesized by the venom glands and then stored in a special case and ejected through the center during the sting. A mature worker has between 100 and 150 μm of poison. This amount is much less than that of a young queen who has about 700μm. That of the queen serves to exterminate only her rivals.
The bee uses its thorn only to defend its nest, its family. You have to push her, bother her to decide to bite you. She never attacks first and for no serious reason.
The poison consists of:
water 85%.
Essential oils 2 to 3%, which are numerous and very important from a therapeutic point of view. This is one of the reasons why it is better to apply acupuncture with live bee venom instead of concentrated venom, which has lost almost all its essential oils.
About 12% of the remaining ingredients are found:
enzymes such as phospholipase A2 (important effect on rheumatism) but also esterases, phospholipase B, phosphatases and hyalurodynamics.
proteins such as melittin and peptides such as apamine (basic peptide acting on the nervous system), cardiopeptide, histamine and dopamine.
non-protein nitrogenous constituents, phospholipids, simple sugars, fructose and glucose, vanilmandelic acid and oligosaccharides.
As with many natural poisons, a sensible use in that of the bee allows the acquisition of highly synthetic therapeutic solutions.
Except in the case of a marked allergy, it takes more than a thousand stings for an adult to die. So when we apply twenty to forty bites per session, we are far from the danger zone for our health.
Bee venom treatment has been known for a long time. In the 4th century BC. Hippocrates speaks of this and it is also mentioned that Charlemagne and Ivan the Terrible resorted to this treatment to deal with arthritis attacks.
Today the results are tangible and the sixty thousand people treated in the US. can testify to the effectiveness of this method. The poison exerts its action mainly in rheumatic diseases, diseases of the immune system, in some ulcers and skin cancers.
However, the medical world always denies its use and large laboratories do not like to talk about the excellent vasodilating properties of the poison.
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