Howland Blackiston

Honey For Dummies


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to sting someone on purpose. Would the speaker release a handful of live honey bees into the room with hopes they would only sting the volunteer? I would quickly learn that bee stings are administered by a controlled procedure that requires specialized training and the use of a tool similar to a tweezer to direct the bee. A micro-sting would be given to the patient in a precise area on the body along a meridian similar to acupuncture points as a test. Later, I learned that the volunteer was not so random and had been receiving bee venom therapy (BVT) for pain. The conference ended with audience members sharing their personal stories about how they found relief in bee venom when traditional medicine had failed them. That’s when I became teary eyed with a new appreciation of honey bees.

      In this chapter, I discuss products of the beehive and how they have been used for health and healing.

Photo depicts Charles Mraz stinging a patient with a live honeybee to deliver bee venom offering relief from chronic arthritis pain.

      Courtesy of Champlain Valley Apiaries

      FIGURE 4-1: Charles Mraz stinging a patient with a live honey bee to deliver bee venom offering relief from chronic arthritis pain.

      Generally, BVT is not recognized in the United States; however, the Winchester Hospital in Massachusetts has a BVT clinic if you are looking for alternative treatments.

      ANAPHYLACTIC SHOCK

      Most of us associate pollen with the unwelcome start of allergy season. Pollen is the male sex cells of a flowering plant, which is necessary to fertilize it so it can bear fruit and reproduce. If you are allergic to pollen, you are familiar with the typical symptoms, including headaches, sinus stuffiness, fatigue, and general aches and pains.

      Honey bees are hairy creatures that naturally attract pollen while gathering nectar for honey making. They use their feet to comb the tiny pollen granules off their hairy bodies and mix it with nectar and their own enzymes to form it into tiny balls now called bee pollen. Bees will carry the bee pollen balls back to the hive on their hind legs in their pollen baskets. Beekeepers can collect pollen by placing a piece of equipment at the entrance of the hive called a pollen trap. As the bees return back to the hive with pollen in their pollen baskets, they are encouraged to crawl through a narrow hole in the pollen trap, which separates the pollen from their legs. Pollen comes in a rainbow of colors, like honey, depending upon the type of flower it was gathered from. The granules are commonly sold in jars in health-food shops or farmers’ markets.

      Bee pollen is said to be nature’s most complete food, containing every nutrient needed to sustain human life. It is a complete source of protein that contains all the basic elements in the human body, including 22 amino acids, 18 vitamins, 25 minerals, 59 trace elements, 11 enzymes or co-enzymes, fatty acids, and carbohydrates. Chock-full of B-complex vitamins and C, D and E, many people consume bee pollen orally for nutrition value similar to a daily vitamin.

      Probably the most mysterious substance produced by honey bees is a milky white liquid called royal jelly. You may have seen royal jelly as an ingredient in power drinks, facial creams, or even supplements at your natural food shop and had no idea what it was. Secreted by the hypopharynx glands of young nurse bees to feed young growing larvae inside their cells, royal jelly is best known as the magical food of the queen. It is what gives her fertility and the supernatural ability to lay up to 2,000 eggs a day. It is also why she lives three to five years longer than any other bees, essentially increasing her longevity.

      To gather one ounce of royal jelly, you would have to visit 120 queen cells, and in fact it is not always present in every hive unless the colony is actively rearing a new queen. For this reason royal jelly is extremely rare, labor intensive to harvest, and costly.

      Royal jelly is another superfood chock-full of amino acids; vitamins A, C, D, E, and B-complex; and trace minerals, as well as calcium, copper, iron, potassium, phosphorus, silicon, and sulfur, essential fatty acids, sugars, sterols, and acetylcholine, a neuronal transmitter. These elements are necessary for human survival and maintaining a healthy the immune system.

      Royal jelly also contains collagen that benefits the skin, hair, and nails, making it a popular ingredient in personal care products. A potent antimicrobial protein called royalisin has also been found in royal jelly. In addition, royal jelly has been touted to aid in mood disorders and insomnia, repair nerve cells, strengthen liver function, and aid in digestive disorders. Considering all the benefits that royal jelly offers, I can tell you from experience that royal jelly is extremely sour and tastes like a seriously stinky cheese, but many things that are good