1. Health Notes & Arthritis & rheumatism eesc | 19 Oct 2008 08:59 am
Aeta People say wild bee stings is a cure for rheumatism / arthritis
We visited an Aeta settlement in the mountains of Kanawan Morong Bataan. They were preparing a demonstration of their wild honey collection techniques for documentation of the National Commission for Culture and Arts. We got into the discussion of bee stings. They were jokingly serious that if you suffered from rheumatism and got stung by the bees, you would be cured of rheumatism. But if you were healthy and got stung by the bees you would get rheumatism.
It was very simple, the Aeta representative said, you get a bee, hold it in your fingers and you let it sting you in the affected part. I really don’t know the dosage you need for this, but I’m sure their local healers would know. If you suffer from some form of rheumatism and you are not cured yet, why not try visiting some friendly Aetas in the mountains and ask for their help. Maybe all you need are a couple of bee stings?
Now I did a simple search on the internet for “rheumatism + bee + sting” and it turned up quite a good number of texts pointing to the popularity of this treatment. This treatment ancient… more than ancient… it is pre-historic. I would bet it is pretty darn effective.
The term the Aeta used was “rayuma” for “rheumatism” which in western medical definitions could be:
* Ankylosing spondylitis
* Back pain
* Bursitis/ Tendinitis, Shoulder pain, wrist, biceps, leg, knee (patellar), ankle, hip, and Achilles
* Capsulitis
* Fibromyalgia
* Neck pain
* Osteoarthritis
* Psoriatic arthritis
* Rheumatic fever
* Rheumatic heart disease (a long-term complication of Rheumatic fever)
* Rheumatoid arthritis
* Systemic lupus erythematosus
* Temporal arteritis and Polymyalgia rheumatica
* Tenosynovitis.
According to Wikipedia entry for rheumatism.