Friday, June 26, 2020

Colorado Woman Treats Lyme Disease with Bee Venom Acupuncture


Woman with Lyme disease reveals she stings herself with BEES on her spine 30 times a week to treat her symptoms - after spending $1,000 a month on other options that didn't work

  • Brittany Elliott, 27, from Denver, Colorado, opened up about bee venom therapy (BVT), or apitherapy, earlier this week in a viral TikTok video 
  • The footage, which shows herself stinging herself with live bees that she orders online, has been viewed more than 1.1 million times
  • Brittany said she was bitten by a tick at the age of seven but didn't develop symptoms until she moved into a home with toxic black mold when she was 22 
  • Lyme disease can typically be treated by several weeks of oral antibiotics, though some patients still report symptoms, including fatigue and joint pain
  • It took her years to finally get diagnosed with Lyme disease, but the treatments she was paying nearly $1,000 a month for weren't helping 
  • Brittany, who now stings herself with 10 bees, three times a week, believes two to three years of the treatment will rid her of symptoms 

Monday, June 15, 2020

Black Seed (Nigella Sativa) Honey as Supplementation Medium

Use of Black Seed (Nigella Sativa) Honey Bee to Improve Sheep Oocyte Maturation Medium 

Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2020 Jun 13

Sheep are important livestock and a source of milk, meat, and wool globally. The increasing demand for animal protein requires increased productivity in sheep. In vitro fertilization and maturation can improve sheep productivity.

The aims of this study were to evaluate the effects of honey bee addition as a supplementation medium on in vitro maturation improvement, gene expression of matured sheep oocytes, and determine the optimum concentration from honey bee for in vitro maturation of sheep oocytes. Cumulus oocyte complexes were obtained from the ovaries of slaughtered female sheep. Grade A and B oocytes were cultured for 24 h in medium without honey bee (control, G1) or medium supplemented with 5% (G2), 10% (G3), or 20% (G4) honey bee. Oocyte maturation rate, glutathione concentration, and the expression of candidate genes (GDF-9, BAX, Cyclin B, C-MOS, IGF1) were determined in the matured oocytes. The maturation rate of sheep oocyte was better in the presence of 5% and 10% honey bee; the mean number of oocytes in metaphase II stage was higher than that in G1 and G4 groups. Glutathione concentration was highest in G2 (10.93 ± 0.57).

In general, gene expression levels were similar in G2 and G3, which were greater that in G1 and G4.

In conclusion, the optimal concentration of black seeds honey bee that can be added to the maturation medium is 5% to obtain the highest mean MII and glutathione concentration values, and to improve gene expression in in vitro matured sheep oocytes.

Wednesday, June 10, 2020

Does bee venom apitherapy prevent coronavirus/COVID-19 infection?

The Sangai Express

...When the Global number of confirmed COVID-19 case exceeded 2 million on the 15th April, 2020, Physicians of Johns Hopkins Corona Virus Resource Centre participated in the prevention and control of Corona Virus in China. The report of the discovery reflected of the discovery of Cowpox and the eventual victory of humans over the disease follows as in Hubei province, the epicentre of COVID-19 in China.

The local beekeepers were surveyed from February 23 to March 8, including 723 in Wuhan, the outbreak epicentre of Hubei. None of these beekeepers developed symptoms associated with COVID-19 and their health was totally normal. After that they interviewed patients in five apitherapy clinics. These patients had received apitherapy from October 2019 to December 2019 and all the five bee apitherapists have the habit of self-apitherapy for their health care (Apitherapy means making use of bee Venom from the honeybee’s sting to treat or prevent certain disease). Without any protective measures, two of the five apitherapists were exposed to suspected COVID-19 cases and others were exposed to confirmed COVID-19 case, but none of them were infected eventually...

Monday, June 08, 2020

Royal Jelly May Help Treat Depression

Chronic Royal Jelly Administration Induced Antidepressant-Like Effects Through Increased Protein Expression of sirtuin1 and OXPHOS in the Amygdala of Mice

Curr Mol Pharmacol. 2020 Apr 24

Background: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a common psychological disorder worldwide. However, one-third of patients with MDD are resistant to the present antidepressant medicine which regulates monoamine contents in the brain. Thus, another drug target is strongly required. Much evidence strongly suggests that sirtuin1, which is the key factor to regulate mitochondrial activity, may be implicated in MDD.

Objective: Since it is suggested that royal jelly (RJ) ameliorated depressive-like behavior and affected mitochondrial activity in mice, we hypothesized RJ could be an alternative medicine against MDD which acts via sirtuin1 signaling to improve mitochondrial activity.

Methods: In the present study, we applied a mouse model of MDD to investigate the effect of RJ on the depressive-like behavior and the sirtuin1 signaling on mitochondrial activity.

Results: Our results indicated that either the oral administration of RJ for 12 days or single intracerebroventricular (i.c.v.) injection decreased the duration of immobility in the tail suspension test, which suggested that RJ had an antidepressant-like effect. Moreover, sirtuin1 protein expression increased in mice following RJ treatment in the amygdala region, but not in the other brain regions. Similarly, the expressions of oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) related proteins increased in the amygdala regions, but not in the hippocampal regions.

Conclusion: The increase of sirtuin1 and OXPHOS protein expression may at least in part contribute to the antidepressant-like effect of the RJ pathway, and RJ may have the potential to be a novel antidepressant drug.