Bee therapy? Ouch!

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - Scott Shurman and Jean Vasicek’s love is as sweet as the raw and unfiltered honey the married couple sells from their truck.

“The honey tastes great and the medicinal value comes through when you don’t take anything out of it,” says Shurman.

In fact, he says honey helps allergy victims.

“Take a tablespoonful a day,” submits Shurman.  But to Jean Vasicek, there’s more to the bee’s short lifecycle than a tasty treat.

“I was very sick,” Vasicek remembers.

She was diagnosed with the ultra-rare illness, pudendal neuralgia. It causes chronic pelvic pain.

“I was probably never going to be able to walk very far again. I was going to pretty much be bed ridden the rest of my life,” says Vasicek.

That was 5 years ago. Defying doctors? You bet. Jean feels bee stings might be relieving that pain. She gets voluntarily stung once a week.

“At the base of my spine. Oh, oh so painful,” winces Vasicek.

Jean is part of growing movement of people who feel bee venom is the way to go. Her friend Beth Fox also practices what’s called “apitherapy.”

She treats herself for arthritis.

“It’s an anti-inflammatory. That’s why it works really well for people with rheumatoid arthritis, or osteoarthritis, or multiple sclerosis. A lot of MS patients get stung by bees,” says Fox.

When a person gets stung, parts of the bees’ guts remain on the stinger.

And it’s pumping that venom into the body. Beth likes to keep it in the skin for a good two minutes.

“I’m going to sting her in the back of her thigh where she fell off her roof,” says Fox who has a bee in her pincers pressed against Jean’s leg.

Jean fell 16 feet recently and bruised the back of her thigh, another spot on her body where Beth injects a weekly sack of venom.

“Jean’s a screamer" says Fox. "WHOO HOO. AHH!" screams Jean.  "I’m just holding the bee next to her skin to make sure that I get all that venom in," said Fox. "OW!  She’s just jabbing it in there more! AHHH!" " Jean responds. "Now we got her good," Fox replies.

Apitherapy is not for everyone.

“There’s about 2 percent of the population that’s allergic to bee stings. If you’re going to do something like this, you need to consult your doctor,” says Vasicek.

The American Medical Association has no information on bee sting therapy. And the Orange County Medical Society hasn’t even heard of it. So the evidence that bee venom works is purely anecdotal.

http://winterparkhoney.com

http://orangeblossombeekeepers.org