Topic: anybody getting stung? (bee venom and melittin)
Dawn in VA
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9693
posted
I was doing a different search on Pubmed when this popped up. We've heard about folks using bee venom for various illnesses, but I never knew what was in it that did the trick. This was kinda interesting:
The antimicrobial agent melittin exhibits powerful in vitro inhibitory effects on the Lyme disease spirochete.
Lubke LL, Garon CF. Rocky Mountain Laboratories Microscopy Branch, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Hamilton, Montana 59840, USA.
Borrelia burgdorferi has demonstrated a capacity to resist the in vitro 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 monitored by dark-field microscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy, and
optical density measurements. Furthermore, at melittin concentrations as low as 100 microg/mL, virtually all spirochete motility ceased within
seconds of inhibitor addition. Ultrastructural examination of these spirochetes by scanning electron microscopy revealed obvious alterations
in the surface envelope of the spirochetes. The extraordinary sensitivity of B. burgdorferi to mellitin may provide both a research reagent
useful in the study of selective permeability in microorganisms and important clues to the development of effective new drugs against lyme disease
-------------------- (The ole disclaimer: I'm not a doctor.) Posts: 1349 | From VA | Registered: Jul 2006
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Tincup
Honored Contributor (10K+ posts)
Member # 5829
posted
That is interesting.
I know for some reason I feel better after getting a bee sting.
posted
Interesting. My guess has been the bee venom therapy works by shifting immune system action such that we don't get lyme's autoimmune-like symptoms.
The sad thing about this article is the year: 1997, and apparently nothing useful has come of it in the following 12 years.
Posts: 727 | From USA | Registered: Mar 2006
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posted
Isn't there something you can buy that contains bee venom or something? Is it just to ease symptoms or does it work to fight the Lyme? I never looked too much into it.
Wow, we need researchers bad. And the sad thing is, I doubt it will EVER be in time for any of us. There needs to be an easy way to treat this, but with the way bull's eye rashes don't pop up on most of us, it's hard to know to treat until it's so far gone. But still...it's dang bacteria....we should be able to outsmart it.
Posts: 63 | From Hell - Or at least it feels like it, Oh, I mean Tampa, FL. OOOps! :D | Registered: May 2009
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Dawn in VA
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9693
posted
Dguy and nessa- agreed!
-------------------- (The ole disclaimer: I'm not a doctor.) Posts: 1349 | From VA | Registered: Jul 2006
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Starfall1969
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 17353
posted
Hmmm. Too bad I'm allergic to beestings.
Do you think the little spirochete demons make you allergic so you can't take bee venom to kill them?
Wouldn't put it past them.......
Posts: 1682 | From Dillsburg, PA | Registered: Sep 2008
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posted
I was doing the BV injections but had to stop because they hurt like a MoFo. The guy in Canada, who supplies Dr K, says to work up to 10 shots 3x per wk. That was too much to handle at one time so I broke it down to 5 shots every day
But after a couple of months, from start to finish, I stopped all together. Can't really say it helped all that much, the pain wasn't worth it.
Posts: 315 | From USA | Registered: May 2005
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Dawn in VA
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9693
posted
10 shots thrice weekly?! You are a brave soul!
-------------------- (The ole disclaimer: I'm not a doctor.) Posts: 1349 | From VA | Registered: Jul 2006
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posted
check out Venex bee venom ointment. It contains the active ingredient, mellitin. I got mine at www.dancingbeeacres.com or you can buy it directly from the maker at www.beevenom.com. You apply it topically. If you're allergic to bee stings, you can't use it.
It's helped me a lot. There are a few threads about it here if you do a search.
Patti
Posts: 975 | From California | Registered: Apr 2007
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Pinelady
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 18524
posted
I got stung by a wasp on the foot about a year into
being sick. I was laying down and got up and
stepped on it. I had to run to the drug store and
sit out in the car while I called the pharmacy
and told them to give my daughter the strongest
they had for allergic reaction to stings. I
popped the benedryl tabs in the parking lot as I
was having chest tightness and foot was so big I
could barely walk. I know wasps are different but
use caution in case your system sets you up for
extreme allergic reactions from the borrelia.
-------------------- Suspected Lyme 07 Test neg One band migrating in IgG region unable to identify.Igenex Jan.09IFA titer 1:40 IND IgM neg pos 31 +++ 34 IND 39 IND 41 IND 83-93 + DX:Neuroborreliosis Posts: 5850 | From Kentucky | Registered: Dec 2008
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posted
i had the life threating allergic reaction to stepping on yellow jacket next when a child
was not stung again until last summer when red wasp got me 3x on upper thigh (nice place huh? was coming in from swimming..lol...talk about dropping ur pants at urgent care !!)
anyway...within 1mo. of that all the severe neuro stuff hit like ton of bricks. and all my dr's thought for sure was MS.
my mom thinks the wasp sting sent my immune system over the edge and let any semblece of my immune system trying to fight this lyme war- body defeated !! i do agree with her...funny though...all the dr's dismissed this as causitive. even LLMD. (but, maybe because we are nurses we just think different and realize the full body impact more?)
gonna say bee venom out for me
-------------------- i am not a Dr. any info is only for education, suggestion or to think/research. please do not mis-intuprest as diagnostic or prescriptive, only trying to help. **
dx in 08:lyme, rmsf, bart, babs, and m.pneumonia. Posts: 422 | From TX | Registered: Oct 2008
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posted
when i was 19 i landed on a nest of yellow jackets, i got close to 400 stings. after the first 100 it didnt hurt anymore,lol, felt like i was high for 4 days. 3 weeks ago i got stung by 1 yellow jacket right in the center of my back, right on the spine. i thought i got stabbed, it hurt more than any other sting i've ever got, felt like it would paralyze me. my buddy checked it like 2 hrs after and said it was a big blister with milky looking fluid leaking out.
its been 3 weeks now and it hasnt healed but i can honestly say alot of my pain and vision problems seem to have disappeared, my back and tailbone havent hurt since the sting.
Posts: 18 | From pittsburgh pa | Registered: May 2008
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TF
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 14183
posted
Dawn, you asked me for the name of a lyme doc who takes Medicare. I can't send it to you because your mailbox is full.
Let me know when you clean it out. Thanks.
Posts: 9931 | From Maryland | Registered: Dec 2007
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