New Book Analyses the Body’s Response to a Bee Sting

The Pain Event
By Katherine Pushkar, The New York Post (USA), 3/1/2007

March 1, 2007 -- 'Grey's Anatomy" may be sexy but - in spite of its textbook title - it's hardly educational. If you actually want to learn something about the human - as opposed to the Hollywood - body, pick up a copy of "Ouch!: How Your Body Makes It Through a Very Bad Day."

The meticulously and disturbingly detailed book illustrates what happens to the body experiencing a sneeze, a sunburn, a cut. "We wanted to look at things a bit differently," says author Richard Walker by phone from his London home. "We wanted to show how the body defends itself and fights against attack."…

Bee sting

A humble bee sting produces nothing short of chemical warfare. The sting cuts through the top layer of skin, where pain receptors spring into action. The receptors trigger nerve impulses that travel quickly to the brain along tiny cables called nerve fibers. This is when you feel pain. At this point, the arteries, which carry oxygen-rich blood to the skin, widen to increase blood flow to the wound, and this extra blood brings germ-killers and healing properties, diluting the bee venom.