Bee Venom Therapy: An Alternative Treatment

Abstract

Herein, it is proposed and hypothesized that bee honey and venom regimens which had been used in the Ayurvedic treatment of arthritis, eczemas and dermatitis would be a possible treatment option for psoriasis which is a common, chronic, and recurrent inflammatory disease of the skin characterized by erythematous and scaling plaques. The etiopathogenesis of psoriasis is not exactly known but it has been shown that Th2 cell activity and IL-2 production are reduced in the disease. Elevated levels IL-1 α and β mRNA were found to be expressed in the keratinocytes cultured from the psoriatic lesions. Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic, autoimmune and systemic inflammatory disease of unknown etiology characterized by progressive destruction of synovial membranes and articular surfaces. CD4+ T cells have a major role in the inflammation of the disease with release of various inflammatory cytokine production such as tumor necrosis factor alpha and interleukin-1. The authors propose that bee venom therapy may be an alternative therapeutic option in the treatment of psoriasis that shares the same pathway with rheumatoid arthritis. Further multicenter and controlled studies should be carried out to clarify this hypothesis.

Keywords: Bee honey, bee venom, honey, Ayurveda, Ayurvedic, treatment, psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, therapy