Bee Venom Therapy – or “BVT” is the therapeutic application of honeybee venom, through live bee stings, to bring relief and healing for various spinal, neural, joint, or musculo-skeletal ailments.

This treatment is not to be confused with oral products which have a very small therapeutic benefit, but actual venom which can also be administered by injection and homeopathic – with each treatment weaker than the one listed first.

According to Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt, a leading medical doctor on Lyme disease (currently practicing in Washington State), The pain relieving effect of bee venom in the treatment of clinical conditions similar to Lyme disease has been established a long time ago.

Bee venom contains a number of potent peptides which are responsible for its healing effect, in fact recent research proved that one of the peptides in bee venom, melittin, seems to be the hero in this story.

Melittin has a strong inhibitory effect on the Lyme spirochete at very low doses (“Bee Stings as Lyme Inhibitor” by L. L. Lubke and C. F. Garon, J. Clin. Infect. Diseases, July 1997, 25 Suppl. 1, pp. 48-51).

When the spirochete is inhibited it does not multiply and is vulnerable to the host’s own immune system and to medication. (Melittin Effective Against Infections Organism. By Drs. L Lubke & C. Garon)

The anti microbial agent melittin exhibits powerful in vitro inhibitory effects on the Lyme disease spirochete.

Even though Lyme has demonstrated a capacity to resist the in virto effects of powerful eukaryotic and prokaryotic metabolic inhibitors.  However, treatment of laboratory cultures on Barbour-Stoenner-Kelly medium with melittin, a 26 amino acid peptide contained in honeybee venom, showed immediate and profound inhibitory effects when they were monitor by dark field microscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy, and optical density measurements.

Furthermore, at melittin concentrations as low as 100 mcg/ml, virtually all spirochete motility ceased within seconds of inhibitor addition.

Ultra structural examination of these spirochetes by scanning electron microscopy revealed obvious alterations in the surface envelope of the spirochetes.

The extraordinary sensitivity of Lyme to melittin may provide both a research agent useful in the study of selective permeability in microorganisms, and important clues to the development of effective new drugs against Lyme. This abstract appeared in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases July 1997. The CID home page is:  http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/CID/

The dosage and frequency of treatment is determined by the patient’s clinical response. Patients with Babesia or Mycoplasma infections require higher dosages then those with only a Lyme infection.

Dr. Klinghardt also successfully combines bee venom with a treatment called Neural Therapy to cure many ailments.  He writes in a paper on his website:

“Neural Therapy (NT) is a treatment of dysfunction(s) within the autonomic nervous system (ANS). NT was developed in Germany in the early part of this century by two physicians, Walter and Ferdinand Huneke.

Historically it involves the injection of scars, glands, trigger points, acupuncture points, vascular structures, ligaments and autonomic ganglia with procaine.

“BVT” is a treatment modality which may be thousands of years old. It involves either the application of live bee stings to the skin of a patient or in more recent years the injection of bee venom into the skin with a hypodermic needle.”

Dr. Klinghardt began using bee venom in his practice more than 12 years ago and found the combination of “BVT” and “NT” a powerful and effective treatment modality. This combination appears in properly selected cases (clearly more effective than either “BVT” or “NT” alone.)

Method: the safe parameters for this treatment are the same as for the single modalities: in the first treatment no more than 0.4ml of BV* are used in a syringe together with the desired amount of Procaine solution. No more than 25 ml of 1 % preservative free Procaine are used per treatment.

The amount of BV can be gradually increased, if the patient is seen twice/week regularly up to 2.5 ml/treatment. The upper limit for the use of Procaine does not change. With the use of BV in NT it is usually quite effective, to use only small amounts of BV (0.1-0.2ml) with each treatment. In order to reduce the stinging sensation during the injection, 1 ml of 8.4% Sodium Bicarbonate can be drawn up per 10 ml of Procaine. This reduces the effect of the injection somewhat but enhances the compliance of the patient because it makes the treatment less painful and therefor easier tolerated.

The following NT procedures are clearly enhanced by adding BV to the solution:

1. Scar injections
2. Segmental Therapy injections ( i.e. liver, kidneys, thyroid etc.)
3. Skin injections over painful joints (bunion, jaw-joint, etc.)
4. Skin injections over painful areas
5. Skin injections for hair loss

We found no benefit, when injecting BV into any structure below the skin, such as autonomic ganglia, joints, trigger points, intravenously etc.

Clinical observations: the following conditions appeared to respond most dramatically and often lastingly to the combination of NT with BV:

1. Acute or chronic joint pain (segmental therapy and all scars)

1. Post-herpetic neuralgia (Herpes zoster in the chronic stage, not in the acute stage)
2. Post 3^rd degree burn pain (segmental therapy)
3. Fibromyalgia (injections over the areas of tenderness, all scars, adrenals, thyroid)
4. Kidney failure (segmental therapy over the kidney area twice/week)
5. Depression and chronic fatigue(segmental therapy to scars, skull, thyroid and adrenal area)
6. Facial pain (“TMJ” or “TMD”)
7. Premature aging and hormonal imbalances (same treatment as 6.)

The healing potency of bee venom is initiated after a sting,when it stimulates the adrenal glands to produce cortisol, a natural human hormone that has anti-inflammatory properties. In addition, BVT jump starts the immune system to produce a healing response through the hypothalamus, pituitary, and adrenal glands, and spurs the production of endorphins, the body’s natural pain killer. The antibacterial and antiviral properties of bee venom make it a unique weapon in fighting bacterial and viral ailments of the central nervous system and elsewhere.

Furthermore, recent research with laboratory rats in South Korea has shown that melittin, the primary peptide in bee venom, can block inflammatory genes that are inherent with degenerative diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis.

The most remarkable characteristic of bee venom is the presence of the neurotransmitters dopamine, serotonin and norepinephrine, which along with the peptide apamin, facilitate nerve transmission and healing in conditions involving nerve disorders. This gives bee venom the ability to travel along neural pathways from the spine, to various trigger points, and injured areas to help repair nerve damage and restore mobility.

Contrary to what is stated on the Internet and elsewhere, you cannot get the complete relief  you are seeking for the ailments listed above from topical or oral products containing bee venom.  In fact, according to Charles Mraz, it is impossible to derive any benefit at all from ingesting bee venom because digestive enzymes will break it down and render it useless.

This includes bee venom mixed with other bee products such as honey.   Topical creams and ointments with bee venom may offer mild relief for strained and overused muscles, but will not be useful in healing more serious injuries.

On the PBS television show Nature, it was reported in the summer of 2005 that venom from a variety of animals has the capacity to kill cancer cells. This would include venom from bees, snakes, spiders, scorpions, gila monsters, sea urchins, and sea coral. Pharmaceutical companies are researching the potential of these venoms as the next generation of cancer fighting drugs. New York-Presbyterian Hospital has completed a Phase II clinical trial using scorpion venom to kill brain cancer cells. Today, the promise of this remedy exists with live honeybees, which can be used to sting malignant tumors close to the skin surface, and make them disappear by killing the cancer cells that feed them.

According to the Wall Street Journal, a study recently released by the Whittemore Peterson Institute for Neuro-Immune Disease, the National Cancer Institute, and the Cleveland Clinic found the virus, XMRV, to be linked to chronic fatigue syndrome, some cases of prostate cancer, autism, atypical MS, and fibromyalgia, in the similar way that HIV is associated with AIDS.  The antiviral potential of bee venom, along with its ability to travel over neural pathways, may explain why it has been useful in fighting some of these diseases.

My mission with BVT is to facilitate believers … not to persuade skeptics.