Bee sting
treatments buzzing in modern China
Ancient remedy believed to ease pain,
curb diabetes, even cure cancer
Reuters
Updated: 11:40 a.m. ET Jan. 23, 2007
BEIJING - With doctors urging amputation to stop the gangrene
spreading upwards from his toes, Liu Guorong was skeptical when a
friend said bee venom might save his foot.
I was doubting this place, the 58-year-old diabetes sufferer said
in a raspy voice during a visit to the Xizhihe Traditional Medicine
Hospital on the outskirts of Beijing.
When I got here, I had no idea what I was doing and what the bee
sting treatment was all about.
As Liu found out, it was painful.
Bees were placed on his foot and provoked to sting him in a bid to
rejuvenate the blackened, rotting flesh by flooding it with a rush
of protein-rich blood.
A folk remedy for treating arthritis, back pain and rheumatism for
3,000 years in China, practitioners say that such pinpointed stings
can repair damaged cells, stave off bacteria and ease
inflammation.
Doctors at Xizhihe hospital believe they can even cure liver
ailments, diabetes and cancers.
They admit, however, that they do not really know how it
works.
Our knowledge has increased over the years, said Xu Xiaowang,
Xizhihe hospital director.
But there are still large areas that are unknown to us all...
There are too many unanswered questions, Xu said.
Western-trained doctors dismiss the treatment as unscientific and
dangerous.
Its alternative medicine and has no basis in western medical
science... I would doubt its efficacy, Professor Christopher Lam,
a chemical pathologist at the Chinese University in Hong Kong
said.
People allergic to bee stings can develop hypersensitivity
reactions like a sudden drop in blood pressure, swelling of the
airways, cold sweats... it may be life threatening, Lam
said.
Hazy science notwithstanding, at 20 yuan (about $2.50) a sting, the
treatment offers a cheap alternative to mainstream medicine.
Doctors at other hospitals were telling me that they needed to cut
my foot off, Liu said. Id spent loads of money.
Liu has been to Xizhihe several times to get stung and is now on a
course of orally-taken bee venom medication. He now expects to keep
his foot.
The flesh is growing back ... Im feeling better, Liu said.
Dying
tradition
Bee venom is just one of an exhaustive catalogue of ancient folk
remedies involving bugs, herbs, animal parts and massage that make
up traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).
Incorporating elements of mysticism and based on a philosophy
developed several thousand years ago, TCM is regarded as an
alternative medicine in the West, but in China it remains a central
plank of modern health care.
About 3,000 private clinics provided TCM treatments to more than
230 million people in 2005. Health officials say it generated 95
billion yuan that year -- more than a quarter of the medical
industrys total income and revenues have grown an average 20
percent a year over the past decade.
The government, sensing an export-driven cash cow, ploughed 740
million yuan into research and development last year in a bid to
bolster TCMs scientific credistinbility and standing in Western
markets where alternative remedies are increasingly welcomed.
And yet, domestically, TCM is in free-fall.
Once the only player in the market, economic reforms have ushered
in foreign drugs and foreign-trained doctors, forcing a showdown
between modern Western practices and ancient Eastern
pragmatism.
Between 2000-2004, TCMs share of prescription drug income declined
by nearly a quarter, state media reported.
Increasingly spurned by Chinas time-poor youth, TCM is also under
siege from academics who deem it unscientific and of dubious
medical benefit.
Zhang Gongyao, a scientist at Central South University in Changsha,
capital of Chinas central Hunan province, created a media storm in
October after he posted an essay on his personal blog urging the
government to strike TCM from the official medical registry.
Patients swarming for cheaper care
Western medicine, however, let alone basic health care, is a luxury
many of the countrys 1.3 billion people cannot afford.
Fees at state-run hospitals, robbed of funding after deregulation
in the 1990s, have soared in recent years, while individual
spending on health care nearly doubled from 1978 to 2002, according
to health ministry statistics.
Beijing has pledged to spend more on basic health services, but
expensive public health care ensures a steady stream of customers
to small, private clinics like Xizhihe where relief may be as
cheap as a few beestings.
Lu Jiumei, a middle-aged woman with rheumatism, made the three-hour
journey to Xizhihe from her home-town in Hebei province to get bee
venom therapy.
I dont think this could be harmful to the body in terms of side
effects. I have been treated a few times now, she said.
She grimaced as an angry bee deposited its salutary sting into her
leg. But a few moments later, a smile broke out on her face.
My pain is relieved a lot and its going away, she said, patting
a freshly swollen mound on her thigh.
Copyright 2007 Reuters Limited. All rights
reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is
expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of
Reuters.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16751949/
