Bee venom therapy is a traditional therapy with bee venom that originated in Greece and China and popularly used in several Asian countries and is becoming more and more popular all over the world. Proponents claim that it helps relieve chronic pain, inflammation, and more. However, are its claimed benefits supported by science?
In Asian folk medicine, acupoint bee sting therapy is traditionally used to treat arthritis. The NCBI article is titled “Therapeutic Effects of Bee Venom on Immunological and Neurological Diseases”
The effect of bee venom is explained in detail.
（Link:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4516920/）
Two other trials found that bee venom therapy can reduce joint swelling, tenderness and stiffness, and effectively improve health.
link:1.https://www.koreascience.or.kr/article/JAKO200326662305853.page?&lang=en 2.koreascience.or.kr/article/JAKO200326662306234.page)
According to the “BMJ Open” research report published in 2014, bee therapy may help treat rheumatoid arthritis. The trial compared bee venom acupuncture therapy with a placebo. The bee treatment was more effective in reducing pain, morning stiffness, joint pain and joint swelling, and also improved the quality of life of arthritis patients.
(Link:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/4/11/e006140)
Christopher Kim, medical director of the Monmouth Pain Institute in Red Bank, N.J., said that bee venom therapy has existed for thousands of years. References on treatment can be found in ancient Egyptian and Greek medical writings. Also known as apitherapy, this technique is more widely used in Eastern Europe, Asia and South America.
All in all, the results are encouraging, although bee venom therapy is largely unproven,
But it is also enough to prove that patients with rheumatoid arthritis or osteoarthritis can use bee venom therapy. We also need more and more robust clinical trials to confirm these preliminary results.
