Zzzz.

If you listened closely you could hear the buzz of the yellow and black striped insects rapidly flapping their wings up to 230 beats per second.

With a pair of tweezers, Kate Hinkens gently selected one of the honey bees from the wooden octagon jar inside her house.

She lifted up her T-shirt and exposed a back covered with tiny red welts. Without much thought, she guided the stinger one inch off to the right side of her spine. This wasn’t the first time Hinkens would willingly sting herself.

Kate Hinkens visiting her beehives. Photo credit: Kate Hinkens.

If you have ever been stung by a bee, it’s likely the memory still stings. But for Hinkens, 10 bee stings a day, three times a week, off to the right and left of her spine, quickly became the norm. A regular injection of bee venom was her lifeline to suppress her battle with Lyme disease.

Now Hinkens is administering this niche form of apitherapy, right from the bees buzzing in her home.

“I've been doing it for about a year where I've been teaching people and it started just very organically with like friends,” says Hinkens about bee venom therapy.

While the thought of self-inflicted bee stings might seem outlandish, Hinkens isn’t the first to deep dive into this up and coming therapy. Some research studies like, Antimicrobial Activity of Bee Venom and Melittin against Borrelia burgdorferi, suggest this form of apitherapy might actually inhibit the Lyme bacterium and help relieve symptoms.

Bees’ healing power dates back thousands of years to ancient China, Egypt and Greece, for their antioxidant, antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory properties. As people become more conscious and invest in their health, it’s spurring interest in what might seem less conventional wellness hacks.

The three kinds of honey bees work together to create and mantain the colony.

The global bee market is expected to continue to grow as research unveils potential health benefits of products like bee venom, honey, propolis, royal jelly and bee pollen.

Hinkens is among many exploring the alternative medicine market, or apitherapy. Apitherapy uses beehive products for prevention, healing and longevity.

Despite the growing interest in bee venom therapy it remains controversial. Hinkens and others face skepticism and critique as more research is needed to confirm its effectiveness.

“I'm open minded to a variety of different therapies but anytime any type of new intervention has to go through the rigorous evaluation process,” says Dr. Jeffrey D. Klausner, MD, MPH. “Before anyone uses it, recommends it or pays for it, we really would need to see the evidence.”

Currently, the United States Food and Drug Administration only approves purified bee venom therapy for under-the-skin injection as a standard allergen extract. The sole purpose is for desensitization to allergies. Otherwise, this apitherapy is still seen in its experimental phases.

THE POWER OF A BEE STING

Hinkens was diagnosed with Lyme disease in 2019. Spending most of her summers in a Minnesota cabin, it made sense that a bite from most likely a blacklegged tick transmitted the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi.

Almost 476,000 people in the United States are affected per year by Lyme disease. An anesthetic in a tick’s saliva makes the flesh go numb with a bite and leaves the victim unaware they were actually bitten. Some people might experience a rash after a bite. But most like Hinkens don’t even realize they are infected until strange symptoms start to arise.

Hinkens experienced fever and chills, brain fog, fatigue, joint and muscle pain, to name a few. If untreated, serious cases of Lyme can cause heart, joint and nervous system complications.

The standard cure is a round of more than just one kind of antibiotics. The bacteria exists in three different forms and the sexual reproduction is rather slow which requires a multitude of antibiotics for a prolonged time. Plus, the parasite most likely transmitted other bacteria from previous hosts, making treatment an individual case.

An aggressive 30 different antibiotics failed to relieve Hinkens of her chronic pain. In fact, she was feeling worse. After trying almost every possible Western medicine, Chinese medicine and any other mainstream alternative, in 2020 she decided to explore what sounded like a rather bizarre approach.

“I had heard about bee venom therapy. But I thought it sounded kind of off the deep end,” says Hinkens. “And even for me. And I'm pretty open minded.”

BEE VENOM THERAPY

Hinkens found just enough research to convince her that bee venom might reap beneficial antimicrobial properties to fight diseases such as Lyme.

Bee venom, also known as apitoxin, is a clear liquid. It is produced by worker bees as a defense mechanism and is generally only released if the hive is in danger.

After a box of buzzing bees showed up on the doorstep, Hinkens self-taught herself how to sting. The bee’s stinger punctures the skin and superficial muscle layer. The venom floods into the bloodstream with anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, central nervous system inhibiting, radioprotective, antibacterial, antiviral and antifungal properties.

Venom is composed largely of the peptide melittin which has an inhibitory effect and helps to break down bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi.

“I was sleeping at that point, like I was in bed 18 hours a day, I wasn't able to work, I couldn't walk more than like 15 feet at a time, like I was entirely incapacitated and not a functioning person,” says Hinkens prior to stinging herself. “Within a few weeks, I started to get little glimpses of having my brain back where I can think clearly again.”

Hinkens body might have responded positively to bee venom therapy but a round of stings doesn’t work for everyone. Apart from people who might have allergic reactions to bees, Dr. Erica Lehman, a California-based tick disease specialist says many factors can dictate the success.

“How long were you sick before you did bee venom therapy? What kind of infections do you have? Is it embedded into your central nervous system? Do you have seizures and tremors? The sicker you are and the more symptoms you have, the more debilitated you are, it's less of a likelihood of success,” says Lehman.

Lehman notes that a lot of people performing bee venom therapy have also explored other alternatives to balance the healing process.

“It's a cumulative effect. It's never just one thing that gets you better. Never. It's a combination of many things,” she says. "Because it affects your body in so many different ways you need multiple modalities to ensure successful treatment. Not everybody tolerates antibiotics, not everybody tolerates the venom therapy.”

After a year and half of treatment, Hinkens tested negative for Lyme disease.

Unfortunately there is a gray area when it comes to testing negative.

“You can still have Lyme disease and test negative because it goes into hiding. So you don't necessarily test positive for it. You can still have Lyme disease,” says Lehman.

The bee venom puts the bacteria into remission, helps control the symptoms and the regeneration of what has been damaged. If you don’t catch the disease within the first few weeks of the bite you still have the disease. It doesn't mean you are still sick but the bacteria still exists in the body.

APITHERAPY FOR OTHERS

Hinkens holding bee screen covered in bees. Photo credit: Kate Hinkens.

In her healing journey Hinkens fell in love with honey bees. Through more studying she understood the broader implications of bees to agriculture, the ecosystem and human health.

“I started to realize that helping other people do the same thing and heal themselves was actually like the completion of this circle,” says Hinkens.

Now she tends to four bee hives in Topanga, California and runs her new business, Sting Lab. Some of her bees started as a baby colony and other bees she rescued. She even has caught swarms before in a trap.

THE STINGLAB

For about a year now Hinkens has been teaching about the medicinal healing properties of bees and administering care.

“Wow, why is this not something that people don’t know about? Why is this so niche and so weird? I realized it had to be my mission to make it more mainstream because there is so much power in it and I’ve seen it help so many people,” says Hinkens.

Hinkens works with clients with a number of issues - lyme disease, elevated Epstein-Barr, joint pain, brain fog, IBS and colitis.

She meets with people for about six weeks at a time. They dive deep into the patient’s medical work, she teaches them about bee venom therapy and most importantly how to sting. Because the stinging becomes part of a daily routine, patients are responsible for administering the therapy to themselves.

RISKS OF BEE VENOM THERAPY

Bee venom is not toxic and usually only causes pain and swelling. But one still can’t start stinging themselves everyday right away. The risk is too large.

“If you have high histamine levels in your body, you can do bee venom therapy and your throat can close off or you can have a full body hive. So you have to have a low histamine diet,” says Lehman.

Lehman recommends her patients to prepare up to several years before their first sting. It is also imperative that they eliminate all levels of histamine in the body, review inflammation markers, examine the gut, undergo several blood tests and check for black mold in their household.

Because there is the chance of an anaphylactic allergy and histamine allergy, Hinkens always has an epinephrine-auto injector device on hand.

POTENTIAL SIDE EFFECTS OF BEE VENOM THERAPY

Alan Lorenzo has been running Bee Well Therapy since 2003 and says it's not uncommon for his patients to experience initial negative side effects in the first round of stings but then be fine after.

“When people are building up their immunity to be venom, starting out with only a few stings, they could suffer symptoms like hives or flu like symptoms with fever, or nausea, dizziness, or diarrhea or extreme swelling, or extreme itching,” says Lorenzo.

Many possible side effects include itching, anxiety, trouble breathing, chest pain itching, anxiety, trouble breathing, chest tightness, heart palpitations, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, sleepiness, confusion, fainting, and low blood pressure.

Hinkens always starts with only a few seconds of a sting. She monitors the stinger which can continue to contract for up to 10 minutes after it detaches from the bee’s body. This allows her to control how much venom goes in by how long the stinger remains inside the skin.

Repeated and controlled injections gradually introduce the immune system to the venom. This helps lessen a potential allergic reaction.

Klausner thinks the risks are too high.

“Bee venom therapy can be particularly painful and can potentially cause additional skin infections. So, you know, I wouldn't really consider it routinely safe and you know, certainly as a physician, I would advise against it,” says Klausner.

THE PAIN IS WORTH IT

The average person would flinch at the thought of a bee sting. The burn of the sting never lessens for StingLab patients. But the pain of a few daily stings outweighs chronic pain.

“Yes it hurts. But people who are chronically ill are so used to things that are painful, that it honestly starts to feel good in some way because you start to crave how good it feels,” says Hinkens.

At first shock, the sympathetic nervous system perceives a sting as a threat. To combat the invader, hormones release more adrenaline and cortisol. As a result, clients perceive a boost of energy the day of stinging. The downside is the following day they may experience dieoff symptoms.

STINGING FOR PERSONAL USE

When a honey bee stings it loses not only its stinger but the abdomen also ruptures. Honey bees only live on average six weeks, except for the queen who lives four to five years. For this reason, Hinkens uses honey bees in the last two weeks of their life.

In a commercial setting for bee venom therapy, an electrical current is run over a pane of glass. The bees sting the glass and release venom without being harmed.

Hinkens injects straight from the stinger. She often gets aggressive pushback on her social posts about the killing of bees for personal use.

Among many reasons she argues, “In an entire course of bee venom therapy you use a couple thousand bees. In a single day in the summer, a queen bee lays 1,500 eggs.”

Honey bees are no longer endangered and more honey bees exist on the planet than ever before. People using bee venom therapy are not the reason for any decline in honey bee colonies.

Instead, Hinkens and other Los Angeles beekeepers' hives are more threatened by exotic pests like the varroa mites, pathogens like foulbrood and climate issues like flooding and fires.

“If you do everything right, you're losing more than 40% of your hives. That is if luck is on your side,” says Keith Roberts, founder of The Valley Hive. “The honeybee is not in danger of going extinct…managing them has just become very difficult.”

Hinkens reminds that bees are not a domestic animal and can leave whenever they want. It’s up to the beekeeper to create an inviting home because they will usually return after a day of foraging.

“It’s a really beautiful symbiotic relationship where you’re giving them a place to live and you’re caring for them and you’re giving them a place to stay,” says Hinkens.

OTHER POTENTIAL FOR BEE VENOM THERAPY

Despite controversy, researchers are intrigued by bee venom’s complexity. The power of bee venom therapy goes beyond Lyme disease treatment.

Lorenzo, the founder of Bee Well Therapy, treats himself for rheumatoid arthritis and sees people with ailments such as MS, Lyme disease, prostate and breast cancer.

Kate Hinkens wears her beekeeper veil to protect her face from swarms of bees. Photo credit: Emma Jenkinson.

This unique substance might be able to treat Alzeihmer’s disease by preventing neural degeneration of the hippocampus and reducing neuroinflammation. This would lead to improved working memory and long-term memory.

A study showed that bee venom and its component, apamine, are able to slow down the loss of dopaminergic neurons in Parkinson’s patients. Hinkens notes that apamine is actually the reason why one so vividly remembers their first bee sting.

More recently, the use of bee venom for breast cancer is being heavily researched. The variety of peptide compounds in venom show the capability to stop cancer cell growth, increase apoptosis and impede cell invasion.

This therapy is attractive in the wellness space because injections are considered rather safe and simple. Bee venom as an ingredient is even making its way into skin care treatment and products.

WHO CAN ADMINISTER BEE VENOM THERAPY?

Bee venom therapy is not recognized as a form of medicine and therefore does not require any kind of certification, degree or formal training to administer. Dr. Klausner suggests people do extensive research before choosing this treatment.

“Typically, that fits into complementary or alternative medicine,” says Klausner. “None of those are considered the practice of medicine. So you don't necessarily need to be licensed. There's no regulatory oversight and it's really just buyer beware.”

Kate Hinkens uses a bee smoker to calm the bees' alarm pheromones. Photo credit: Megan Cody.

Regardless of the growing interest and research in alternative medicine from the apiary, Klausner and others remain unconvinced.

“I mean, that type of, what some people might call quackery has been around for hundreds and hundreds of years, if not longer,” says Klausner.

Hinkens thinks otherwise and will continue to hype up the buzz. She is currently working on a consumer products brand using bee venom for topical and internal uses, which she plans to eventually turn into a biotech brand.