BEE VENOM FOR RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS
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What Is Rheumatoid Arthritis?
We can define rheumatoid arthritis, as a condition during which the joint remains in a constant state of inflammation. Rheumatoid arthritis is mostly found in older men and women and rarely affects young men and women. The underlying cause of rheumatoid arthritis is still unclear but it falls under the category of autoimmune diseases. An autoimmune disease is one in which the immune system of the body breaks down and starts attacking its tissues. We cannot say that rheumatoid arthritis is a hereditary disease, but in some cases, it can be due to hereditary reasons. What Factors Can Lead To Or Aggravate Rheumatoid Arthritis? According to health experts, smoking is one of the severest external risk factors that can cause rheumatoid arthritis. And for women, who are obese, it is very easy to become a victim of this disease. There are also certain mental factors, joint injuries, and infections that can aggravate or initiate arthritis. There is also a role of poor diet and an inactive lifestyle when it comes to exploring factors that can cause rheumatoid arthritis. |
How Is Rheumatoid Arthritis Diagnosed?
For some people, this disease can bring forward multiple symptoms. Those patients who have multiple joint issues can get checked for rheumatoid factors through their blood samples. This will help in analyzing the extent to which different joints can receive damage shortly. A joint affected by rheumatoid arthritis will have swelling and thickness and fresh blood vessels around it.
Clinical Randomized Study of Bee-Sting Therapy for Rheumatoid Arthritis
Objective
The main purpose of this clinical study was to examine the therapeutic effect of bee venom for treating RA (rheumatoid arthritis). For this study, a special regime was adopted to determine the efficiency of different bee venom components.
Method
100 patients of rheumatoid arthritis were chosen for this examination and they were divided into two different groups, each group had 50 patients. The first group was the bee venom group and the second group was the control group. Patients belonging to bee venom group were administered bee venom of ashi-points and Meloxicam (Mobic, 7.5mg, b. i. d.), Sulfasalazine (0.5g, t. i.d.) and Methotrexate (MTX, 7.5mg/w). And the second group was orally administered Meloxicam (Mobic, 7.5mg, b. i. d.), Sulfasalazine (0.5g, t. i.d.) and Methotrexate (MTX, 7.5mg/w).
In the first group, ashi-points were chosen according to the part affected by rheumatoid arthritis and were defined as the main acupoints. They were further augmented with additional acupoints by syndrome differentiation. This treatment was based on a period of 3 months in total and the dose was administered after a gap of one day. Only a single dose was given.
Result
After the period of experimental treatment came to an end, various comparisons were carried out. It was found that the scores of morning stiff duration, a 15-meter walk, grasp force, joint swelling number, pressing pain, joint activity, and joint swelling degree after the bee venom treatment had significantly improved. This was noticed in the medication group and bee venom group both (P<0.05, 0.01). A further comparison between these groups revealed that the scores of morning stiffness duration, joint swelling number, pressing pain and joint swelling and doses of Mobic and MTX administered, were all low when compared with the medication group (P<0.05, 0.01). Grasp force was also higher in the bee venom group than of the medication group (P<0.05). In the end, the relapse rate of the BV group was significantly lower than that of the medication group and stood at P<0.05, 12% vs. 32%.
Decision
It can be said that a combined effect of medication and bee venom is far effective than that of simple medication. When used with bee venom the number of other medicines can be brought down and hence fewer side effects. Bee venom can help in dealing with rheumatoid arthritis and control the relapse rate.
Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18807725
Bee Venom Acupuncture for Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Systematic Review of Randomized Clinical Trials
Introduction
RA (rheumatoid arthritis) is a severe inflammatory autoimmune disorder, which results in deformity, swelling, stiffness, and pain in the joints. It can also lead to the development of ankylosis – stiffness caused due to abnormal rigidity and adhesion of a joint due to any disease or injury. This complex nature of arthritis makes the treatment challenging, as it involves different approaches. Treatment is based on reducing inflammation and thus brings relief to swelling and pain in the joint. This eventually helps in improving a patient's condition and also prevents any sort of permanent disability. If rheumatoid arthritis is not treated on time, it can lead to severe disability, functional limitations and chronic joint destruction.
BV (bee venom) has been used for a long time in the form of BV injections, BV acupuncture, and live bee stings. For acupunctural treatment, bee venom is used in a diluted or its pure form in the acupoints. Bee venom acupuncture possesses multiple pharmacological activities that include anti-cancer, anti-arthritic, anti-inflammatory and analgesic actions through a sophisticated mechanism that activates the excitatory and central inhibitory system and modulates the immune system.
Various lab studies conducted on animals have reported analgesic effects of bee venom acupuncture under special clinical settings and trials. Animal studies have also shown that bee venom exhibits analgesic, anti-inflammatory and anti-arthritic effects caused by suppression of phospholipase A2 and cyclo-oxygenase2 expression and a reduction in the level of oxygen reactive species, nitric oxide, IL6, IL, and tumor necrosis factor α. Bee venom compounds that include amines, peptides and enzymes are all involved in these actions. Though bee venom acupuncture is used to treat rheumatoid arthritis and it works effectively to improve functions by controlling symptoms, but there is no clinical evidence available that establishes the level of effectiveness and safety of bee venom acupuncture for rheumatoid arthritis from a meta-analysis or systematic review. So it was important to perform a systematic review to determine the efficacy and safety of bee venom acupuncture for treating rheumatoid arthritis.
Discussion
Currently, there are only clinical experiments available that help determines, effects of bee venom acupuncture for rheumatoid arthritis. Though the evidence present is of low quality, it can be declared for sure that bee venom acupuncture significantly reduces swollen joint counts, tender joint counts, and morning stiffness and also reduces pain and it also helps in improving the quality of life of patients having rheumatoid arthritis when compared with normal saline injection.
It is to be noted that even a systematic review is under the influence of several limitations. There was only one suitable study done to determine, the role of bee venom acupuncture for rheumatoid arthritis. And secondly, the randomized controlled clinical trial was carried out in East Asia and studies from this part of the globe cannot be applied on an international level due to lack of external rationality.
Thirdly, the Korean researchers can acquire positive results but due to lack of methodology, the results could not be condensed. And fourthly, there was no sort of follow up observed even after the occurrence of cyclical delayed hypersensitivity in the selected subjects.
The randomized clinical trial, included here, make use of saline injection at those acupoints where bee venom acupuncture was administered in the placebo control treatment. Placebo is important for establishing a differential effect between specific and non-specific forms of treatment. If it can be supposed that effects of bee venom acupuncture can be experienced by stimulating the acupoints through the immune-modulatory effect of bee venom, then it is also important to conduct further randomized controlled clinical trials, which can make use of a proper placebo administration.
When there is no adequate number of randomized clinical trials available then other evidence can be helpful. According to another observational study, the positive effects of bee venom acupuncture for symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis were observed. But this study had its flaws. It lacked certain controls and hence was open to the selection bias that could eventually lead to false-positive outcomes.
In traditional bee venom acupuncture treatment, patients of rheumatoid arthritis are given a live bee sting and this practice is much common in China. Four different studies were found in this regard in which, live bee venom acupuncture was given with conventional treatments and drugs to treat symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis. Out of 4, 3 randomized controlled clinical trials demonstrated a favorable effect of bee venom acupuncture on the overall condition of the subject. It was found that morning stiffness, joint pain and joint swelling were not as severe as it was before the treatment of bee venom acupuncture. All of the above clinical trials did not report any sort of serious adverse effects of bee venom acupuncture therapy.
Final opinion
In the end, it can be said that only a few clinical trials have determined the effects of bee venom acupuncture for managing rheumatoid arthritis. And the evidence available is also insufficient to declare that, bee venom acupuncture is the best and most effective therapy for suppressing symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis. Further clinical studies are required that should be of the high-quality system, having a special emphasis on developing a design that is appropriate and adequate for the control groups.
Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4225238/
Bee Venom Produces Antinociceptive And Anti-Inflammatory Effects On Rheumatoid Arthritis
Introduction
It was recently demonstrated that a BV (bee venom) injection at ST36 (Zusanli acupoint) yielded a more viable anti-nociceptive and anti-inflammatory effect if compared with an injection administered at a non-acupoint. This clinical study was carried out on the Freund’s adjuvant-induced rheumatoid arthritis model. It has been observed that the particular bee venom constituents, that are responsible for delivering this anti-inflammatory and anti-nociceptive effect, have not been fully understood yet.
Method
Whole Bee venom was extracted and divided into two fractions depending on solubility – one was BVE (ethyl acetate soluble fraction) and the second one was BVA (water-soluble fraction). BVA fraction was further tested to determine the role of soluble fractions in generating anti-arthritic effects on the subjects of rheumatoid arthritis.
Discussion
A subcutaneous bee venom acupuncture injection having a dose of 0.9mg/kg was administered into the ST36 acupoint on daily basis and was found to significantly inhibit radiological and paw edema changes (soft tissue swelling and new bone proliferation) due to Freund’s adjuvant injection. It was also noticed that bee venom treatment reduced the serum interleukin-6, which is caused by the rheumatoid arthritis induction, to a level detected in the non-arthritic models. Bee venom therapy also reduced arthritis brought nociceptive behavior, like nociceptive scores for the thermal hyperalgesia and mechanical hyperalgesia.
In the end, bee venom acupuncture treatment notably suppressed the adjuvant persuaded c-Fos expression in the lumbar spinal cord after three weeks of the injection treatment. Whereas, the BVE treatment administered at 0.05mg/kg per day did not show any sort of anti-nociceptive or anti-inflammatory effects on the models of rheumatoid arthritis. Results obtained from this clinical study indicate that: bee venom acupuncture is the only effective fraction extracted from whole bee venom that leads to anti-inflammatory and anti-nociceptive effects.
Judgment
Hence, it is highly recommended to make use of this particular fraction of bee venom in the long run to treat symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis-like inflammation and pain.
Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12031688
Bee Venom Acupuncture for Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Systematic Review Protocol
Abstract
Systematic reviews are quite extensive, as they are conducted on an unbiased search of different databases related to BVA without considering any language barrier. Two researchers, carry out an independent screening and extraction of data. As few clinical studies are not competitive hence, it gets difficult to come up with a proper review.
A systematic review is important because it investigates in-depth, different clinical studies that have been conducted to determine the role of BVA for RA. For this review 14 different databases were explored and they included: The Wanfang, VIP, CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure), Korean Medical Database, DBPIA, KoreaMed, Korean Studies Information Service System, Korean Traditional Knowledge Portal, OASIS, CINAHL, AMED, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), EMBASE and MEDLINE.
Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4010843/
Conclusion
It was established at the end that bee venom acupuncture could help alleviate symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis if administered under a controlled dose and cycle plan. Still further clinical studies are required, in-depth, to clarify the role of different components of bee venom acupuncture that possess these anti-arthritic effects.
For some people, this disease can bring forward multiple symptoms. Those patients who have multiple joint issues can get checked for rheumatoid factors through their blood samples. This will help in analyzing the extent to which different joints can receive damage shortly. A joint affected by rheumatoid arthritis will have swelling and thickness and fresh blood vessels around it.
Clinical Randomized Study of Bee-Sting Therapy for Rheumatoid Arthritis
Objective
The main purpose of this clinical study was to examine the therapeutic effect of bee venom for treating RA (rheumatoid arthritis). For this study, a special regime was adopted to determine the efficiency of different bee venom components.
Method
100 patients of rheumatoid arthritis were chosen for this examination and they were divided into two different groups, each group had 50 patients. The first group was the bee venom group and the second group was the control group. Patients belonging to bee venom group were administered bee venom of ashi-points and Meloxicam (Mobic, 7.5mg, b. i. d.), Sulfasalazine (0.5g, t. i.d.) and Methotrexate (MTX, 7.5mg/w). And the second group was orally administered Meloxicam (Mobic, 7.5mg, b. i. d.), Sulfasalazine (0.5g, t. i.d.) and Methotrexate (MTX, 7.5mg/w).
In the first group, ashi-points were chosen according to the part affected by rheumatoid arthritis and were defined as the main acupoints. They were further augmented with additional acupoints by syndrome differentiation. This treatment was based on a period of 3 months in total and the dose was administered after a gap of one day. Only a single dose was given.
Result
After the period of experimental treatment came to an end, various comparisons were carried out. It was found that the scores of morning stiff duration, a 15-meter walk, grasp force, joint swelling number, pressing pain, joint activity, and joint swelling degree after the bee venom treatment had significantly improved. This was noticed in the medication group and bee venom group both (P<0.05, 0.01). A further comparison between these groups revealed that the scores of morning stiffness duration, joint swelling number, pressing pain and joint swelling and doses of Mobic and MTX administered, were all low when compared with the medication group (P<0.05, 0.01). Grasp force was also higher in the bee venom group than of the medication group (P<0.05). In the end, the relapse rate of the BV group was significantly lower than that of the medication group and stood at P<0.05, 12% vs. 32%.
Decision
It can be said that a combined effect of medication and bee venom is far effective than that of simple medication. When used with bee venom the number of other medicines can be brought down and hence fewer side effects. Bee venom can help in dealing with rheumatoid arthritis and control the relapse rate.
Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18807725
Bee Venom Acupuncture for Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Systematic Review of Randomized Clinical Trials
Introduction
RA (rheumatoid arthritis) is a severe inflammatory autoimmune disorder, which results in deformity, swelling, stiffness, and pain in the joints. It can also lead to the development of ankylosis – stiffness caused due to abnormal rigidity and adhesion of a joint due to any disease or injury. This complex nature of arthritis makes the treatment challenging, as it involves different approaches. Treatment is based on reducing inflammation and thus brings relief to swelling and pain in the joint. This eventually helps in improving a patient's condition and also prevents any sort of permanent disability. If rheumatoid arthritis is not treated on time, it can lead to severe disability, functional limitations and chronic joint destruction.
BV (bee venom) has been used for a long time in the form of BV injections, BV acupuncture, and live bee stings. For acupunctural treatment, bee venom is used in a diluted or its pure form in the acupoints. Bee venom acupuncture possesses multiple pharmacological activities that include anti-cancer, anti-arthritic, anti-inflammatory and analgesic actions through a sophisticated mechanism that activates the excitatory and central inhibitory system and modulates the immune system.
Various lab studies conducted on animals have reported analgesic effects of bee venom acupuncture under special clinical settings and trials. Animal studies have also shown that bee venom exhibits analgesic, anti-inflammatory and anti-arthritic effects caused by suppression of phospholipase A2 and cyclo-oxygenase2 expression and a reduction in the level of oxygen reactive species, nitric oxide, IL6, IL, and tumor necrosis factor α. Bee venom compounds that include amines, peptides and enzymes are all involved in these actions. Though bee venom acupuncture is used to treat rheumatoid arthritis and it works effectively to improve functions by controlling symptoms, but there is no clinical evidence available that establishes the level of effectiveness and safety of bee venom acupuncture for rheumatoid arthritis from a meta-analysis or systematic review. So it was important to perform a systematic review to determine the efficacy and safety of bee venom acupuncture for treating rheumatoid arthritis.
Discussion
Currently, there are only clinical experiments available that help determines, effects of bee venom acupuncture for rheumatoid arthritis. Though the evidence present is of low quality, it can be declared for sure that bee venom acupuncture significantly reduces swollen joint counts, tender joint counts, and morning stiffness and also reduces pain and it also helps in improving the quality of life of patients having rheumatoid arthritis when compared with normal saline injection.
It is to be noted that even a systematic review is under the influence of several limitations. There was only one suitable study done to determine, the role of bee venom acupuncture for rheumatoid arthritis. And secondly, the randomized controlled clinical trial was carried out in East Asia and studies from this part of the globe cannot be applied on an international level due to lack of external rationality.
Thirdly, the Korean researchers can acquire positive results but due to lack of methodology, the results could not be condensed. And fourthly, there was no sort of follow up observed even after the occurrence of cyclical delayed hypersensitivity in the selected subjects.
The randomized clinical trial, included here, make use of saline injection at those acupoints where bee venom acupuncture was administered in the placebo control treatment. Placebo is important for establishing a differential effect between specific and non-specific forms of treatment. If it can be supposed that effects of bee venom acupuncture can be experienced by stimulating the acupoints through the immune-modulatory effect of bee venom, then it is also important to conduct further randomized controlled clinical trials, which can make use of a proper placebo administration.
When there is no adequate number of randomized clinical trials available then other evidence can be helpful. According to another observational study, the positive effects of bee venom acupuncture for symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis were observed. But this study had its flaws. It lacked certain controls and hence was open to the selection bias that could eventually lead to false-positive outcomes.
In traditional bee venom acupuncture treatment, patients of rheumatoid arthritis are given a live bee sting and this practice is much common in China. Four different studies were found in this regard in which, live bee venom acupuncture was given with conventional treatments and drugs to treat symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis. Out of 4, 3 randomized controlled clinical trials demonstrated a favorable effect of bee venom acupuncture on the overall condition of the subject. It was found that morning stiffness, joint pain and joint swelling were not as severe as it was before the treatment of bee venom acupuncture. All of the above clinical trials did not report any sort of serious adverse effects of bee venom acupuncture therapy.
Final opinion
In the end, it can be said that only a few clinical trials have determined the effects of bee venom acupuncture for managing rheumatoid arthritis. And the evidence available is also insufficient to declare that, bee venom acupuncture is the best and most effective therapy for suppressing symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis. Further clinical studies are required that should be of the high-quality system, having a special emphasis on developing a design that is appropriate and adequate for the control groups.
Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4225238/
Bee Venom Produces Antinociceptive And Anti-Inflammatory Effects On Rheumatoid Arthritis
Introduction
It was recently demonstrated that a BV (bee venom) injection at ST36 (Zusanli acupoint) yielded a more viable anti-nociceptive and anti-inflammatory effect if compared with an injection administered at a non-acupoint. This clinical study was carried out on the Freund’s adjuvant-induced rheumatoid arthritis model. It has been observed that the particular bee venom constituents, that are responsible for delivering this anti-inflammatory and anti-nociceptive effect, have not been fully understood yet.
Method
Whole Bee venom was extracted and divided into two fractions depending on solubility – one was BVE (ethyl acetate soluble fraction) and the second one was BVA (water-soluble fraction). BVA fraction was further tested to determine the role of soluble fractions in generating anti-arthritic effects on the subjects of rheumatoid arthritis.
Discussion
A subcutaneous bee venom acupuncture injection having a dose of 0.9mg/kg was administered into the ST36 acupoint on daily basis and was found to significantly inhibit radiological and paw edema changes (soft tissue swelling and new bone proliferation) due to Freund’s adjuvant injection. It was also noticed that bee venom treatment reduced the serum interleukin-6, which is caused by the rheumatoid arthritis induction, to a level detected in the non-arthritic models. Bee venom therapy also reduced arthritis brought nociceptive behavior, like nociceptive scores for the thermal hyperalgesia and mechanical hyperalgesia.
In the end, bee venom acupuncture treatment notably suppressed the adjuvant persuaded c-Fos expression in the lumbar spinal cord after three weeks of the injection treatment. Whereas, the BVE treatment administered at 0.05mg/kg per day did not show any sort of anti-nociceptive or anti-inflammatory effects on the models of rheumatoid arthritis. Results obtained from this clinical study indicate that: bee venom acupuncture is the only effective fraction extracted from whole bee venom that leads to anti-inflammatory and anti-nociceptive effects.
Judgment
Hence, it is highly recommended to make use of this particular fraction of bee venom in the long run to treat symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis-like inflammation and pain.
Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12031688
Bee Venom Acupuncture for Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Systematic Review Protocol
Abstract
Systematic reviews are quite extensive, as they are conducted on an unbiased search of different databases related to BVA without considering any language barrier. Two researchers, carry out an independent screening and extraction of data. As few clinical studies are not competitive hence, it gets difficult to come up with a proper review.
A systematic review is important because it investigates in-depth, different clinical studies that have been conducted to determine the role of BVA for RA. For this review 14 different databases were explored and they included: The Wanfang, VIP, CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure), Korean Medical Database, DBPIA, KoreaMed, Korean Studies Information Service System, Korean Traditional Knowledge Portal, OASIS, CINAHL, AMED, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), EMBASE and MEDLINE.
Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4010843/
Conclusion
It was established at the end that bee venom acupuncture could help alleviate symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis if administered under a controlled dose and cycle plan. Still further clinical studies are required, in-depth, to clarify the role of different components of bee venom acupuncture that possess these anti-arthritic effects.
Sources:
Clinical randomized study of bee-sting therapy for rheumatoid arthritis.
Bee Venom Therapy: Bee Venom, Its Nature, and Its Effect on Arthritic and Rheumatoid Conditions.
Bee venom acupuncture for rheumatoid arthritis: a systematic review of randomized clinical trials
Bee venom acupuncture for rheumatoid arthritis: a systematic review protocol
Bee Venom for Rheumatism
Bee venom produces antinociceptive and anti-inflammatory effects on rheumatoid arthritis.
Also see: Arthritis
Clinical randomized study of bee-sting therapy for rheumatoid arthritis.
Bee Venom Therapy: Bee Venom, Its Nature, and Its Effect on Arthritic and Rheumatoid Conditions.
Bee venom acupuncture for rheumatoid arthritis: a systematic review of randomized clinical trials
Bee venom acupuncture for rheumatoid arthritis: a systematic review protocol
Bee Venom for Rheumatism
Bee venom produces antinociceptive and anti-inflammatory effects on rheumatoid arthritis.
Also see: Arthritis
