4 Medical Magic From The Beehives

The passion for natural remedies just keeps growing. In the United States alone, sales have been averaging over a billion dollars each year. Of all these remedies, one that is receiving much attention by the public and research community is honey.

Believed to be one of the oldest foods known to men, physicians throughout the world declared it a simple remedy for a great number of diseases. However, unknown to a lot of us, these physicians also have no less respect towards other goods coming from the beehives.
Let's see the four medical magic from the hives.

Magic No 1: Honey
Honey is not only food, but is also considered a medicine. This second greatest energy booster (surpassed only by dates) also contains six times the fuel value of milk and even higher fuel value than your ordinary food like meat, fish, eggs, grain or vegetables.

Honey also has the ability to draw off moisture. Used in treating wounds, this ability starve bacteria from a suitable breeding ground - effectively killing them. Thus, it is not surprising why the Hindus and Chinese use is for smallpox or why Egyptians use it as a surgical dressing.

Because of its versatility, honey has also been used in treatment of anemia, sleeplessness, constipation, insomnia, bronchitis or treat diphtheria - a major disease affecting children in many parts of the world.

It's a pity honey is no longer used in daily life because it's role as natural sweetener has been taking over by white sugar. If honey is used, the number of diabetes cases will not be as astronomical as today.

The Indians of Northern Mexico learned it the hard way. As their use of honey gave way to refined sugar, the number of diabetes cases swell rapidly. The tribal medicine men, sensing the connection, started to take his patients off sugar and fed them large amount of honey dissolved in tea brewed from a plant called manzanilla.
In most cases the symptoms vanished.

Magic No. 2 - Pollen
The second magic from the beehive is pollen. Stored as food, pollen is also another age-folk medicine that has been mentioned in the great ancient writings of China, Greece, Russia and Persia.

During those times, like honey, pollen use is very common. When the Chinese was plagued by famine, the poor peasants survived by consuming cakes made of pollen and honey. Arabs who had to travel for a long period through the harsh deserts also make a similar use of pollen which they gather from date trees. Athletes in training for the ancient Olympic Games were also fed large quantities of pollen-laden-honey for extra energy.

The number of allergy to pollen that plagued the modern world could also be significantly reduced if people start taking them. One does not have to look very far for test subjects. Research done on natives showed that those natives who eat pollen are almost immune to hay fever, asthma or other respiratory diseases.

Studies done in United States, Sweden and France also showed that patients could be immunized by controlled injection or oral doses of the same pollen to which they are allergic.

Magic No. 3: Royal Jelly
Royal jelly is the only food eaten by the queen bee. This rare, amber colored jelly is fed to bee larvae for the first three days but after the period, only the queen larvae is fed this special diet.

In Africa, royal jelly is believed to have the ability to preserve youthfulness, increase one's stamina and is a cure of all illnesses. And all these claims may have some basis.

In a hive, royal jelly makes the queen mature more rapidly, and increases it's size to nearly double the ordinary bees. While normal bees only live for around forty days, the queen lives for around eight years - all while laying eggs daily.

German scientists, studying the health benefit of royal jelly found that it's extremely rich in pathotenic acid, biotin and nucleic acids. It is stated that deficiency of these substances lead to neuritis, indigestion, premature aging and premature gray hair.

Apart from that, vitamin B6 is also present in royal jelly. It is valuable in treating Parkinson diseases due to its calming effect on the nerves.

Magic No. 4: Propolis
Propolis is another magical medicine from the beehives. A resinous substance brought back by the bees from wounded trees, the propolis is used to patch up the hives and sterilize it from any diseases. In fact, scientists believe the hive is the most sterilized laboratory in the world - better than any modern hospitals or labs ever built by mankind.

Ancient books from almost all great civilization had written about propolis, praising it's ability in treating infection, skin diseases, respiratory and joint problems. The Greeks were believed to use it for abscesses while the Assyrians used it to heal wounds and possibly tumors.

Studies have shown that propolis contains all the known vitamins except for vitamin K, and has fourteen of the 15 minerals that the human body requires for normal function.

One of the most significant medical journal articles described how the caffeic acids in propolis and honey could prevent colon cancer, a disease that kills some 60,000 Americans each year. It appears that these caffeic acids prevented the formation of pre-cancerous tissue in rats after they were exposed to cancer-causing chemicals.

Most medical articles, however, still point to the value of propolis as a powerful, natural antibiotic. One research done had actually showed propolis effectively increases the strength of antibiotics from 10 to 100 times!

An effective solution for better oral hygiene, propolis has been used by the dental communities during oral surgery. As a safe disinfectant, propolis mouthwash used after an oral surgery have also been shown to shorten the healing time. In a study done in 1991, rats given propolis in their drinking water got less caries compared to the others.
Whether eaten in the form of honey, pollen, royal jelly or propolis, the products of beehives have, under the watchful eyes of modern science, confirmed the claims made for them by ancient witch doctors, folk healers and herbalists.

Many of the claims may sound like exaggeration but the number grows smaller as modern research started to break down the mysteries of the beehives products.

We may not know all that the bee and its lab have to offer. In fact, we may not know or learn all about bees, the health benefits of bees' products or how much they can help us lead a healthier life - naturally.

However, these four medical magic from the beehives may be enough for most of our daily illnesses - if is harnessed to it's true potential.

These benefits of bee products is brought to you by the Bee Propolis Information Center website.
If you'd like to know specific information on the benefits of propolis, this site is the most comprehensive and detailed informational site on the subject. It also discusses certain topics like the side effect of this bee products.

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