Venoms could treat a number of ailments

The latest “pharmaceutical gold” for everything from Lyme disease to rheumatoid arthritis and cancer comes from the nasty venoms of creatures likes bees and worse. Cate Montana reports

Kris Rossi, 63, was diagnosed with chronic Lyme disease in 2009. A nurse anesthetist from New Hampshire, she  started therapy with an allopathic doctor who treated Lyme with antibiotics. She’d get better for a little while, but then all her symptoms would come back and she’d have to start the course of antibiotics all over again. 

“I had chronic fatigue and some joint pain and numbness on the left side of my face,” says Rossi. “My hand would twitch, and my tongue and the left side of my lip would twitch. I had numbness in my feet and decreased sensation in my hands, and I had bad insomnia and a lot of cognitive difficulties. 

“I would be driving to work—and I’ve worked in the same hospital for 20 years—and suddenly I wouldn’t recognize where I was. I knew if I just kept driving that it’d come back to me, and usually within half a block I’d know where I was. But I was really struggling. Basically I was at my wit’s end. I figured I was either going to lose my job or have to quit.” 

Realizing that allopathic medicine had nothing for her, she quit her doctor and the antibiotics. She tried herbal remedies, ozone treatments and special diets. Then one day at work one of the other nurses, a beekeeper, shared a story from a beekeeping newsletter about Ellie Lobel, a now-famous woman who had put bee venom therapy on the map in the US. 

Ellie was in her 40s, and had been on the verge of death from Lyme disease. The story reported that she was taken into a garden by her caretaker to get some fresh air and got attacked and stung repeatedly by a massive swarm of bees. 

“The caretaker ran off, and Ellie, who could barely walk, thought God had sent the bees to kill her off even earlier,” says Rossi, “She refused to go to the hospital afterwards and went to her room to die. Three days later she wasn’t dead, the pain was gone, she could walk, and she hadn’t felt so good in years.”

Not long afterwards, Rossi stumbled across the website of Emily Maiella, ND, and made an appointment to see her at her office in Brattleboro, Vermont. During her appointment, Emily asked if she’d ever thought about bee venom therapy. “I thought, I don’t think I can sting myself with bees, but I’m really comfortable with syringes. So I started doing the venom protocol with her.” 

Rossi used the therapy for nine months and experienced improvement, especially in terms of daily energy, but found that the therapy made her insomnia worse. At that point she decided to stick with the therapy but make a big change: to become a beekeeper and use the live bees for venom. 

“I ordered a book on beekeeping, and I got the bees and the equipment and signed up for a course on using bees for therapy. I started stinging myself the day the bees came, and I’ve been doing it for two and half years.”

Today the twitching and numbness are gone. Her insomnia is cured, her cognitive abilities are normal and her energy is back. Even a strange case of psoriasis she developed has disappeared.

 “The change in energy from before I started bee venom therapy is profound,” she says. “For instance, I can ride my bike for 20 miles or more and feel appropriately tired afterward, not sick tired. It’s a joyful thing to get your energy back.”

Apitherapy

Apitherapy is a branch of alternative medicine that uses bee venom and other honeybee products such as honey, pollen, propolis (a mixture of bee resins, waxes, essential oils, pollen and other organic compounds) and royal jelly (a substance secreted from the glands of nurse bees made to feed bee larvae). 

Bee venom, however, is the major player in apitherapy. A colorless, odorless, slightly acidic liquid produced by female worker bees, bee venom is mostly water combined with an extremely complex blend of peptides, enzymes and other bioactive molecules.1

Studies indicate that whole bee venom and the venom peptide melittin are effective antimicrobial agents against Borrelia burgdorferi, the spirochete bacteria responsible for Lyme.2 Microscopic analyses have shown that B. burgdorferi  has “extraordinary sensitivity” to melittin, which severely compromises the mobility and surface structure of the Lyme bacteria.3 

“Even though melittin is anti-spirochetal, I think there’s still a direct immune system response in Lyme cases,” says Maiella. “It appears to work through downregulation of inflammatory cytokines and upregulation of anti-inflammatory cytokines.” 

Cytokines are molecules secreted by immune system cells as a form of communication. Among their many functions, they can drive immune cells to ramp up or sustain an inflammatory response, or conversely, they can cool down inflammation by promoting anti-inflammatory pathways. The same cocktail of peptides and other compounds in bee venom that makes a bee sting hurt—over a small area for a short time—is able to signal the immune system to reduce inflammation throughout the entire body for a longer time.

Bee venom is used to treat a diverse array of clinical issues in addition to Lyme disease, from Alzheimer’s disease to intervertebral disc disease and spinal cord injury, musculoskeletal pain and multiple sclerosis.4 It’s also being used to treat inflammatory diseases and has proven highly effective in treating both rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis.5 

Naturopathic doctor Donese Worden, NMD, from Mesa, Arizona, has treated many patients with arthritis (and many other conditions) using bee venom. One of her favorite stories involves a 95-year-old man with rheumatoid arthritis.

“The arthritis in his knees was severe, but he was healthy otherwise,” says Worden. “He couldn’t bend his knees or go up and down stairs. I injected him with bee venom, and it worked so well and so quickly that he was invited onto a local TV station to talk about the therapy. In the middle of his interview he forgot he was supposed to stay seated, hopped up and started doing deep knee bends on camera, challenging the people in the studio to keep up with him. I only did one injection series on him and his body took hold of it. I didn’t have to continue to do treatments.”

Bee venom is also an effective treatment for chronic low back pain.6 Clinical and experimental studies have demonstrated that bee venom and its active components can be used to treat a wide range of immunological and neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson’s disease. 

The mechanisms that make bee venom effective as an painkiller and anti-inflammatory agent have yet to be completely understood, but studies support Maiella’s assessment that bee venom modulates immune cells as well as glial cells, which are the support cells that feed and protect neurons.7 

Perhaps the most exciting application for bee venom is cancer. Laboratory studies suggest that melittin could reduce the propensity for non-small cell lung cancer to spread.8 One of the most recent discoveries is that honeybee venom and melittin can suppress the growth of breast carcinoma cells by interfering with receptors on the cell surface.9 

“Melittin rapidly kills cancer types,” says Worden. “Within 20 minutes it disrupts the chemical messengers that the cancer cells need to grow and divide, which is, of course, how cancer kills you. And it can completely destroy the cancer cell membrane within 60 minutes, punching holes in the outer membrane. This is big news in the research world.”

Melittin has even been found to effectively treat moderate to severe depression. In one study, volunteers with severe depression treated with melittin experienced either no depression or mild depression after six months, and absolutely no depression after 12 months.10

Bottom line, bee venom therapy works. “I think that it has to be approached with due respect,” says Rossi. “People need to have an EpiPen with them [all of Maiella and Worden’s patients carry an EpiPen], and they need to know how to be prepared for an allergic reaction. It is rare, but it would be a tragedy to develop a problem when you’re doing bee venom therapy on yourself in your bathroom.”

Despite its unusual nature, Rossi is unhesitating in her appreciation and enthusiasm for the therapy. “With bee venom, I feel like I am my own physician.”

But don’t stings hurt?

“People are willing to have back surgery that might not work and leave them in chronic pain for the rest of their lives rather than do some exercises to treat their back problem,” Rossi observes. “Those are the same people who are like, ‘Oh, no, I could never sting myself with a bee.’ 

“Yes, it hurts a lot. But it hurts a lot for 15 seconds and then it’s gone. Frankly, I think you must get some endorphins or something from a sting because there is a sort of peace afterwards that’s so good.”

A brief history of venom therapy

Apitherapy—using honeybee products from venom to propolis to royal jelly—has been practiced worldwide for millennia and can be traced back to ancient Egypt, the Middle East, Greece, China and India. References to the beneficial uses of bee products can be found in the Vedic scriptures, Bible and Quran. 

In ancient Egypt, honey was an ingredient in the embalming fluid used to preserve the dead. Hippocrates, the “father of medicine,” used bee venom to treat joint pain and arthritis. Greek athletes reputedly consumed honey to increase their energy levels during sports competitions. 

In the Middle East, potions made from snakes were considered to be a cure-all. To this day, some Bedouin tribes are believed to eat poisonous snakes as a restorative aid to good health and a long life. In India, snake venom has been used since ancient times in Ayurvedic medicine to cure various pathological conditions. In Europe, a homeopathic preparation of venom from the surukuku or bushmaster snake of Brazil was introduced in 1835.

The venom

Even the word seems poisonous. And yet, if we break down the various venoms—whether they come from bees, snakes, scorpions, toads or toxic snails—and look at their individual components, we find some highly beneficial substances. As the ancient Ayurvedic physician Acharya Agnivesha put it several thousand years ago, “Even an acute poison can become an excellent drug if properly administered.”

The most commonly used and understood venom comes from the honeybee (Apis mellifera). Bee venom contains many biologically active substances, including peptides (short chains of amino acids), enzymes (long, complex chains of amino acids), amines (compounds derived from ammonia such as histamine and epinephrine) and other components.1 

The biggest known players in bee venom therapy are the peptides melittin, apamin, adolapin and mast-cell-degranulating (MCD) peptide. Here is a quick rundown on what they do:

Melittin, a peptide consisting of 26 amino acids, is responsible for the burning pain associated with bee stings and the principal ingredient of bee venom, accounting for approximately 50 percent by weight of dried bee venom. In high doses it can cause itching, inflammation and localized pain, but at small doses, melittin has broad anti-inflammatory effects and inhibits the production of proinflammatory cytokines.2 

MDCP is a peptide that, at low concentrations, can stimulate mast cells to release antimicrobial cytotoxins. (A mast cell is a part of the immune system with a major role in allergic reactions.) 

Adolapin is an effective pain killer and anti-inflammatory with antipyretic (fever-reducing) properties.3 

Apamine blocks potassium channels and regulates genes involved in cell development. It has potential applications in the prevention of apoptosis (cell death) and fibrosis (unchecked growth of connective tissue), and in the treatment of central nervous system diseases.4 

The sting without the bee

Patients are much more receptive to venom therapy when you replace the word “sting” with “injection.”

Most therapists offering bee venom therapy do not use live honeybees. Instead they deliver bee sting “equivalents” via a regular syringe and needle. Treatments vary widely depending upon the condition being treated. “If you’re treating headaches, then a couple of stings on the neck close to the ears is enough,” says Emily Maiella, ND.  “If somebody has diffuse body pain, then 13 bee sting equivalents might be more appropriate.” 

Some therapists use heavier doses. For instance, Donese Worden, NMD, regularly treats patients for rheumatoid arthritis, MS and other autoimmune disorders like fibromyalgia with bee venom using upwards of 36 injections per treatment with good effect.

Maiella’s protocol for Lyme patients involves treatment three times a week, and the “stings” are applied down both sides of the spine. After first doing a shallow subdermal test “sting” to make sure there is no allergic reaction, Maiella starts with the equivalent of one-fourth of a bee sting for the first two treatments. 

If everything looks okay and the reaction isn’t too big or too small, she bumps up to half a sting for the next treatment. She keeps increasing the dosage, rotating the sites along the spine, working up to 13 bee sting equivalents per treatment for a 150–170-pound (68–77-kg) person. 

Procaine, a topical anesthetic, is added to the serum to reduce the itching and swelling, and actually has medicinal properties in and of itself, says Maiella. “But you want the itching and the burning,” she adds. “If you don’t have any itching and burning, you really worry that the patient’s immune system is so deactivated it doesn’t even react. If you have too much itching and burning, it’s not necessarily a sign that they have an allergy. Most often it means their immune system is just more sensitive, and you apply the therapy more slowly.”

For systemic conditions, Maiella says that a year’s commitment to weekly therapy is not unusual. 

And then there’s the flip side. Some bee venom advocates, including Dr Dietrich  Klinghardt MD, PhD, a specialist in the role of the nervous system in autoimmune disorders, believe that injectable venoms ultimately won’t cure a systemic disorder because they are not as strong as venom from the live source. 

“When you make a natural substance sterile and heat it, there are changes in structure. You lose enzymes and other nutrients,” says Kris Rossi, a beekeeping nurse who treats herself on an ongoing basis for Lyme. “The bee venom from actual bees gives a much larger dose and you get a stronger response.”

Snakes and spiders, snails and scorpions

“Pharmaceutical gold,” that’s what venoms produced by a vast array of creatures—cobras, vipers, scorpions, spiders, tarantulas, centipedes, snails and toads—are being called. More and more powerful peptides and enzymes in toxins used by nature for killing prey and for bodily defense are undergoing preclinical and clinical development for treating everything from diabetes to multiple sclerosis, cancer and cardiovascular disease.1 

Venom peptides target a wide variety of protein channels and receptors in the human body. Cone snail venom peptides, for example, affect a wide range of mammalian ion channels and receptors associated with pain signaling. Chlorotoxin isolated from the deathstalker scorpion binds to calcium-chloride channels affecting certain tumors.

The peptide toxin from the earth tiger tarantula irreversibly activates the capsaicin (heat-sensitive) ion channels in the human body and is a possible candidate for pain relief. Doctors are giving a drug derived from the venom of the Malayan pit viper, ancrod, to mitigate the damage caused by acute ischemic stroke.2 

But not all venom applications are for dreaded diseases. Donese Worden, NMD, from Mesa AZ, also uses cobra venom as a replacement for Botox for patients worried about pesky wrinkles. “Botox is the most potent neurotoxin known to man,” says Worden, “There’s nothing that will kill brain cells faster than Botox, and now studies show that it circulates from cell to cell, going across the blood brain barrier. 

“I started doing research to keep my patients off of Botox, and I found a cobra venom that was being used topically to relax muscles just like Botox does. This particular venom is actually being used in clinical trials as an agent protecting neurons in the brain. So, if you want to fight wrinkles, it’s a lot better to use a topical cobra venom cream than Botox!”

RESOURCES

Emily Maiella, ND:  www.windhorsenaturopathic.com

Donese Worden, NMD: www.drworden.com

Snakes and spiders, snails and scorpions

The venom

 
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