Title: Bee Venom Therapy - Consumer Health News | HealthDay
Headings: Bee Venom Therapy
Bee Venom Therapy
Chris Woolston
What is bee venom therapy?
Does bee-venom therapy really work?
Is bee-venom therapy dangerous?
References

Content: The lead researcher called the results "very discouraging," and no human trial since has led to a different conclusion. With the recent arrival of several effective drugs for both osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis, research on bee venom as an arthritis remedy has slowed to a trickle, and we may never be sure whether many stings are better than no stings at all. When it comes to multiple sclerosis, the picture is still hazier. Nobody knows how bee venom affects the disease in humans, and studies on laboratory animals have only just begun. One very small human study was published in 2005 in the journal Neurology, but scientists concluded that bee sting therapy did not reduce disease activity, disability, or fatigue and did not improve quality of life. Researchers at M.C.P. Hahnemann University in Philadelphia recently started giving bee venom to mice with a disease similar to MS. The preliminary results suggest that the venom doesn't diminish any MS symptoms in mice; in fact, some of the mice treated with bee venom displayed symptoms more severe than those of mice that got no treatment at all. Claims that bee venom can ameliorate other diseases, including fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, and depression, are based entirely on personal observation and not on science. Is bee-venom therapy dangerous?