Bee Venom Treatment for Arthritis

Severe arthritis can cause terrible, unrelenting pain in the joints that regular medication cannot alleviate. Bee venom is an alternative treatment for eliminating pain but is not administered by many physicians. Bees are not killed when the venom is extracted.

Mechanisms

• Bee venom may help slow the production of interleukin-1, which drives arthritis pain. It also contains substances called melittin and adolapin, which are anti-inflammatories and painkillers.

Types of Treatment

• Bee venom can be injected.

  A bee venom solution can be injected or rubbed onto the skin as a cream. Prescriptions are needed for some venom types, but several over-the-counter types are available.

Discovery

• Beekeepers may have discovered the use of bee venom for arthritis.

  The use of bee venom for arthritis may have been discovered when beekeepers realized that the more often they were stung, the less severe their arthritis pain was.

Danger

• Bee venom treatment poses some danger if the patient is allergic to bee stings, which is true of from 1 to 5 percent of the population. The more venom injected, the more sensitive the patient will become. Before starting treatment, the patient should be tested for allergies.

Historical Use

• Bee venom was used in the ancient world to treat pain.

  Medical documents from ancient Greece and Egypt describe treating pain and swelling with bee venom.