Title: Bee Sting Therapy: Health Benefits + Side Effects - SelfHacked
Headings: Bee Sting Therapy: Health Benefits + Side Effects
Bee Sting Therapy: Health Benefits + Side Effects
What Is Bee Sting Therapy?
Components of Bee Venom
Snapshot
Proponents
Skeptics
Health Benefits
Effective
Venom Immunotherapy
Insufficient Evidence
1) Arthritis
2) Skin Health
3) Parkinson’s Disease
4) Chronic Pain
5) Adhesive Capsulitis
Animal and Cell Research (Lack of Evidence)
Lupus
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)
Asthma
Lyme Disease
Cancer
Possibly Ineffective
Multiple Sclerosis
Side Effects
Stay Away From Anything That Causes Inflammation!

Content: Pretreatment with antihistamines such as terfenadine and fexofenadine enhanced the effectiveness of the therapy and reduced the incidence of adverse reactions in 2 clinical trials on over 100 people (one of them followed up for an average of 3 years) [ 19, 20, 21 ]. This therapy can be used in both adults and children. A clinical trial on 134 children and 207 adults found that it was relatively safe in both cases, with children experiencing fewer adverse reactions [ 22 ]. Insufficient Evidence
1) Arthritis
Bee sting therapy on acupoints has been traditionally used for arthritis in Asian folk medicine, especially in the case of rheumatoid arthritis [ 2 ]. Two trials found that it reduced joint swelling, tenderness, and stiffness, and improved health assessment. The inflammatory markers CRP and ESR were only reduced in one of them, possibly because the venom itself is also inflammatory [ 23, 24 ]. Two Chinese trials on over 200 people found that bee venom (either injected into acupoints or administered with bee sting therapy) showed similar effectiveness to drugs for rheumatoid arthritis, such as methotrexate and celecoxib, and worked in synergy with them to relieve the symptoms [ 25, 26 ]. Importantly, none of these studies has been translated from Korean or Chinese and we couldn’t access their specifics, making it difficult to analyze them critically. A meta-analysis of 15 trials concluded that bee venom therapy might be effective to relieve rheumatoid arthritis and merited further research but pointed out that the evidence was still insufficient [ 27 ]. In another trial on 60 people with osteoarthritis, bee venom injected into acupoints was more effective than conventional acupuncture at relieving the pain.