Behind the buzz of this hot new ingredient
By Marygrace Taylor, Prevention, August 2013
Bee venom’s been getting major buzz (sorry, couldn’t help
it!) in the beauty world for its purported abilities to make your lips look
like Angelina Jolie’s and give your skin that smooth suppleness you haven’t
seen since your twenties. But where the heck is the stuff actually coming
from—and does it spell bad news for our hive-dwelling friends?
First, a little background for the uninitiated. Bee venom,
(scientific name: apitoxin) is the clear, odorless liquid that’s injected into
your skin when a honeybee stings you. It consists of more than 20 known
compounds, the most prominent being melittin, a protein that boasts powerful
anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, and anti-viral properties. In the case of
enhancing your epidermis, lip boosters and anti-aging creams use bee venom to
trick skin into thinking it’s actually been stung, says Purvisha Patel, MD, a
Memphis dermatologist and owner of Advanced Dermatology & Skin Cancer
Associates. “This causes the body to direct blood toward the area, stimulating
the production of collagen, which strengthens tissue, and elastin, which helps
the skin to remain taut and bounce back into shape,” she says…
2 comments:
It's not just bee venom which is anti-bee. Royal Jelly is probably worse:
http://www.beeswing.net/2013/08/royal-jelly-production-heartless.html
Apitherapy needs to take a long hard look at the way it produces products.
I am so heartened by this post.It is indeed time now to consider carefully whether we can continue harvesting products from the bees, and the hive, when the bees are in such a critical situation wordwide. It would be very good if each product from the hive could be looked at from the bee's welfare point of view; in the final analysis ist will be healthier for us all to engage with the bees on the level of bee guardianship rather than exploiters. They are truly vital to our survival, and the more we learn to care for them the better all round.
With best wishes
Heidi Herrmann
Natural Beekeeping Trust UK
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