Hey all,
After reading the basic science article about treating MS with bee stings, I was curious to find more about the people advocating for such a treatment. When you Google bee therapy for MS there are over 6 million links that pop up. Most of the popular ones are articles from places like Discovery which are good about showing the doubts of the treatment. Some websites however are blogs written by people with MS. These two, http://www.howstuffworks.com/framed.htm?parent=medicine/tests-treatment/bee-sting-therapy.htm&url=http://www.olg.com/beelady and http://www.angelfire.com/va/honeybeeangel/index.html have nothing but praise for the therapy, and the first even has a "products" section where you can buy bee venom. This has some obvious issues, including practicing medicine without a license and sending bio-material through the mail. I also found a video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe2h0vkp1mA&lr=1)
that discusses people in Taiwan who use bee stings to treat almost
anything. The doctor even claims that 600 bee stings will make you look 5
years younger.
Do you guys think that it is morally wrong to promote a treatment like this? If the authors of the blogs actually have MS and do actually use bee therapy as treatment, then they clearly believe in it's effects, so is there a problem with them encouraging others to try it?
While I don't think that it is morally wrong for these patients to be promoting the treatment, I am concerned as to how this information will be received. MS patients are told that there is no cure for their disease upon diagnosis, and when pages like this pop up and offer a miracle cure I can just imagine patients or their families getting their hopes up and buying all the bee-venom products they can get their hands on. There is a reason for the rigorous and extensive testing of drugs before they are approved for use. Some individuals may benefit from the treatment, but that does not mean it should be marketed to all patients. Bee venom does contain a potent anti-inflammatory agent, which gives some direction for further study. However, if I knew someone who was diagnosed with MS I wouldn’t tell them to run into a beehive quite yet.
ReplyDeleteI feel that people are allowed to make their own informed medical decisions, however I would definitely encourage get info from more than just one source, such as that physician advocating 600 bee stings (which I can't help but feel would be potentially fatal, in which case the funeral home could potentially make you look younger.) Also, if it works for you that's great, but I would still encourage caution in others, since a number of people are allergic to bee stings, and they may not necessarily know it.
ReplyDeleteI personally did get this therapy to cure my ear infection and acne treatment. First, for my ear infection, some therapist placed 4-5 bee stings on my right ear.. mostly ear not my side of face. However, neither got cured or got worsen. My right ear got huge. So I did not trust it after all.
ReplyDeleteSecond, this time I did not get to use bee stings directly. Apparently bee venom is good way to treat the acne. (I still disbelieve what they said but my MOM wanted me to get that treatment) So I bought this bee venom facial spray that contains 1% bee venom+99% of water+vitamins+ etc. The way it works is bee venom stays on the surface of the skin, and prevents any bacteria or acne-causing substances. So I gave a chance to this spray, and it did some job on my acne. I guess bee venom has some effect on prevention of bacteria on my skin.
SO my conclusion is that we should not directly use bee stings/venom onto your skin or any part of your body because you may get allergic reaction or it can cause some ugly results. Therefore, researchers should investigate/research on how bee venom actually induces any result in safe way.
P.S. I am not saying western medicine is the best; there are some good medicine from Asian countries, that they still perform. But they should get to prove with scientific base and knowledge to develop in better way.
I agree with Jons comment that people can make their own decisions especially when it comes to medical issues but it is just difficult for me to think encouraging bee sting therapy is okay when in my point of view there is not much proof it works. And I do not think its a suitable treatment for everything. If it does work on people thats great but personally I think more research and evidence is needed before encouraging people to receive such a multitude of bee stings
ReplyDeleteI do not feel that this is morally wrong because its a personal choice. I do however worry about how extreme some people may become on such therapies. I feel that if one person says 600 bee stings will reduce 5 years off your age then there is someone out there that will do 1200 just to reduce 10 years. Also I do not feel that bee venom is a tightly regulated product like many natural remedies there is not much regulation. We will have to wait and see how this turns out with its growing popularity.
ReplyDelete