PRO: 40 Percent of MS Patients Benefit From BVT

Treasure Coast MS Patients Endure Stings to Ease Pain
Katie Campbell, Fort Pierce Tribune (Fort Pierce, FL), 2/24/2004

"There's an underground movement in this country that says bee venom helps treat MS (multiple sclerosis)," said Joseph A. Bellanti, director of the Immunology Center at Georgetown University, who since 2000 has been conducting the first controlled study of the therapy.

For the past half-century, theories of bee venom relieving multiple sclerosis symptoms have been floating around folk medicine circles. Advocates maintain that bee venom contains an anti-inflammatory substance that activates the body's adrenal glands to boost the immune system.

With multiple sclerosis the immune system and nervous system progressively deteriorate. Conventional medical doctors say there is no cure.

So far the bee venom treatment has not been scientifically proven to effectively treat multiple sclerosis, but Bellanti's initial findings in the Multiple Sclerosis Association-backed study show that more than 40 percent of the small group of people he studied experienced significant improvement.

"They swore by it," he said.