Can Bee Venom Cure Lyme Disease?

Killer Bee Attack Saves a Woman’s Life and Inspires Amazing Product

WASHINGTON TIMES, November 23, 2013—What do Lyme disease, bees, and face cream have in common? This is the remarkable story of Ellie Lobel, how a killer bee attack cured her Lyme disease, saved her life and inspired the first U.S.-made bee venom beauty cream…

Ellie Lobel was one of the disease’s chronic victims, as she was initially misdiagnosed several times with lupus, MS, chronic fatigue, and fibromyalgia. The multiple misdiagnoses allowed the Lyme bacteria time to spread through her body.

Suffering from multiple organ failure, low cell counts, and doctors telling her they had done all they could for her, after 15 years Lobel moved to California for end of life care.

“I was ready to go,” Lobel says. “I was able to see my children into young adulthood and had made my peace with life.”

But life had other plans for Lobel.

During her first week in California, Lobel and her caretaker were attacked by killer bees while on a short walk. This terrified Lobel, as she had been stung once as a child and had a severe allergic reaction (anaphylaxis).

Her caretaker was forced to run and look for help, but Lobel was too weak to run or even walk away from the thousands of stinging insects.

“The pain was excruciating,” she told Communities. “I was terrified.”

The bees finally stopped when Lobel, accepting her fate, held her body completely still. “I thought I was going to die right there,” she said.

Blinded by pain, Lobel asked not to be taken to the hospital. She knew she was going to die and did not want to do it in an unfamiliar place. She was helped back to her room and quietly waited anaphylaxis—the body’s reaction to a large doses of bee venom—to take her life.

Instead of anaphylaxis, however, within a few hours of the attack she began to feel a familiar pain. Lobel was sure she was feeling the same pain associated with Lyme disease treatment, known as a Jarisch-Herxheimer reaction, that occurs when harmful bacteria inside the body die off and release endotoxins.

By the beginning of the third night, Lobel was sure she wasn’t going to die. In fact, she was doing things the disease had prevented her from doing for many years.

“For the first time in years I was online, laughing and watching funny videos,” she says. “By the next day, I could actually remember the words to an old song I’d heard the night before, something that I hadn’t been able to do for so long.”

In the days following the attack, Lobel began to feel significantly better. After living in a “mental fog” for years, where she could not concentrate, read a book, watch a movie, or even have a detailed conversation, Lobel began to regain her previously brilliant mind. Her mental changes were mirrored by a marked improvement in her physical health.

Two years after the attack, Lobel feels completely healthy. She believes that she is currently free of the disease that almost took her life two years ago…