bejoy
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 11129
posted
I've recently heard that the honeybee poulation is dying due to a strange undiagnosed problem that looks like an autoimmune disease.
We're going to have a short supply of fruit and nuts because they need bees for polination.
My current understanding is that much of autoimmune disease is caused by mycoplasma that gets inside of cells and causes the body to attack its own cells.
I've read the hypothesis that the reason mycoplasma illness is becoming so much more prevalent is due to the lower level of oxygenation in our environment, due to deforrestation and global warming.
Our planet has half the oxygen we once had. This problem is going to get worse before it gets better.
If bees could be treated with some of the remedies that humans are "not allowed" to use or research, we might find out something more about what mycoplasma responds to.
I'm all for antibiotics because they are researched, and documented, and they work. With the rate at which these kinds of diseases are spreading, I want to see new alternative treatments researched that can have confidence in other effective and less expensive treatments.
When alternative and less expensive treatments are proposed for humans, they get supressed by the pharmaceutical cartels.
How about finding some bee keepers to do research on microcurrent, colloidal silver, homeopathics, etc. What about finding a gulf war syndrome microbiologist to look at the bees for mycoplasma.
All of this is purely hypothetical, but it gets my wheels turning. Does any of it spark your interest? Do you have contacts with microbiologists or bee keepers who might want to play with this.
bejoy
-------------------- bejoy!
"Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." -Ralph Waldo Emerson Posts: 1918 | From Alive and Well! | Registered: Feb 2007
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Marnie
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posted
Did you ever wonder where apples come from or how an apple tree makes apples? Actually, apples start as flowers on the apple tree.
Without the help of bees though, the flowers would bloom and then wither and drop without ever having a chance to become an apple.
I heard about the bee die-off on TV and it is scary! So far it looks like an assortment of infectious pathogens, not merely mites. Bees are very sensitive to pesticides which may hurt their immune systems and make them more vulnerable to massive assorted infections. The pesticide use on the farming and lumber industries are under scrutiny.
We won't know until spring what is causing this alarming die-off.
It is a "catch 22"....we need to produce a lot of food to feed the masses, and pesticides help prevent damage to crops. Pesticides also reduce the nutrient levels in those crops. Organic food is expensive, but you get more "bang for your buck" from a nutritional standpoint.
Posts: 9435 | From Sunshine State | Registered: Mar 2001
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luvs2ride
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Member # 8090
posted
Very interesting.
Looking for alternative resolutions that are generally safer, with less side effects and do not create the superbugs, is always of interest to me.
The mycoplasma theory is of interest also as it is the #1 suspected bacteria by those who believe in an infectious cause to RA. Lyme and Strep are the other two.
Thanks for this post.
Luvs
-------------------- When the Power of Love overcomes the Love of Power, there will be Peace. Posts: 3038 | From america | Registered: Oct 2005
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hardynaka
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posted
Was not Einstein who said that if all bees die, it's the end of human beings on this planet?
Posts: 1086 | From Switzerland | Registered: Oct 2005
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MariaA
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Member # 9128
posted
Hmmm, well, in the US, they're not native to begin with (of course neither are the European and Asian food crops that we grow)... some of the native pollinators are gone, but some remain.
I do organic beekeeping and I"m part of a very opinionated school of thought that much disease in bees is connected to overmedicating and other types of management. Once you get them off the meds (which do include tetracycline and other human meds- horrible waste of antibiotics!!!!) and change a few other things that cause them to be more hygienic, most diseases disappear. The organic beekeeping movement is watching this new announcement about 'bee die-off' carefully- since no one knows what's causing it, and we hobbyists haven't seen the effects yet, it's unclear whether our disease-preventing methods are going to help against this new problem.
Offtopic minutea for beekeepers: One of the management methods I"m talking about us organic beekeepers doing includes cycling brood comb out of the hive rather than trying to preserve it from season to season, and forcing the bees to build smaller and smaller cells until the cells and the next generation of bees are back to the 'natural' size that they naturally want to build some of the year.
Modern foundation used in Langstroth beekeeping forces bees to build unnatural, uniformly large brood cells which has been shown to cause some disease/immunity problems in larvae and adult bees.
bejoy
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 11129
posted
Thanks for all the interesting information!
I'm glad we have antibiotics that are giving people relief from Lyme. I am also very interested in understanding more about preventatives, immune system support, and alternatives that can help us avoid the creation of superbugs.
With the rate at which Lyme is spreading and people are getting reinfected, the idea of long term antibiotic treatment for the world is quite staggering.
Thus the denial by medical authorities that lyme exists at all to the degree that it already does.
I do look forward to learning more about what organic beekeepers discover about their bees resistence to disease compared to the more medicated and less natural variety.
Best of luck to the organic beekeepers. Please let us know what you continue to learn that may benefit us two legged creatures!
bejoy
-------------------- bejoy!
"Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." -Ralph Waldo Emerson Posts: 1918 | From Alive and Well! | Registered: Feb 2007
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MariaA
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9128
posted
Well, as for a discussion of antibiotic resistance, there's a FANTASTIC, and very, very scary book by Stephen Buhner called The Lost Language of Plants (he has a different, more recent book with a similar title called the secret teachings of plants).
It's got me scared witless about the future of medicine as bacteria develop antibiotic resistance.
I also read a couple of herbal books dealing with the 1918 worldwide fatal influenza epidemic (where the only good results were from physicians using herbs, since no antiviral chemical drugs existed yet and 'the ducks' of the era were prone to treating with things like orally administered mercury!. I'm doing this research because I"m involved with some disaster preparedness groups, and bird flu is likely to be one fo the disasters that can shut down a city for a few months- and, that, too, has me quite frightened.
-a very frightened beekeeping Maria
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