HEALTHY LIVING Bee Healthy


These magical creatures can help treat PTSD, wounds, viruses, arthritis, and more.


BY GARY GREENBERG I


raq war veteran jim hartman (pictured right) returned home to North Carolina with a disabling case of post-traumatic


stress disorder — no big surprise considering the Army major worked on a bomb squad, mostly clearing out vehicles that had been hit by IEDs. “Crawling through vehicles among


body parts of people is brutal,” he says. “It sucked the soul out of me.” Hartman also suff ered a


traumatic brain injury, and that, along with chronic pain and PTSD- spawned anxiety, plunged him into a downward spiral. “I lost sleep, I lost memory, I


snapped at people,” recalls the married dad of two. “I even lost my vocabulary at times and would start speaking gibberish.” Then he read some Department


of Veterans Aff airs studies about how beekeeping can help PTSD suff erers and decided to give it a try. “I got a couple of hives, and it


was pretty cool,” he tells Newsmax. “Something about the bees calmed me down. You have to focus on them and nothing else. “If you’re anxious, they pick up on


it and get mean.” Two hives blossomed into dozens,


and now Hartman’s Secret Garden Bees honey is sold in more than 60 Fresh Market stores across nine states. The business has allowed him to quit


more stressful employment, and the honeybees continue to work their magic. “When I feel anxiety coming on,


I’ll just sit in the apiary,” he says. “The bees fl y all around me. They’ll even land on me and lick the salt off my arm. It’s impossible to be anxious around them. They’ve made me a


84 NEWSMAX MAXLIFE | MAY 2023


better husband and father. They’ve given me my life back.”


“Honeybees make the world


a better place,” says Maryam Henein, a beekeeper, journalist, and fi lmmaker, who wrote and produced the acclaimed 2009 documentary Vanishing of the Bees. “They’re ancient creatures —


magical and medicinal. We should be thankful to them.”


BEE VENOM THERAPY Health treatment associated with bees is called apitherapy. The most surprising is bee venom


therapy (BVT), which is most commonly delivered via a bee sting to an ice-numbed area or injection of the venom. Henein claims BVT helped her


overcome an autoimmune condition by “calming down” her infl ammatory response. In fact, BVT is known to be


benefi cial for a wide variety of autoimmune and infl ammatory conditions, including rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis. And there is a veritable


underground movement of Lyme disease patients who swear by it. “It began when a woman was


stung by a swarm of bees, and she had a miraculous remission of her Lyme disease,” Henein tells Newsmax, adding, “Apitherapy is the original acupuncture.” A comprehensive review of


studies published in the journal Molecule details the biological mechanisms bee venom triggers to account for its antioxidant, anti- infl ammatory, and anti-microbial properties, as well as its capacity to inhibit cancer cell growth.


Studies detail the biological mechanisms bee venom triggers to account for its antioxidant, anti- infl ammatory, and anti-microbial properties, as well as its capacity to inhibit cancer cell growth.


“[B]ee venom has the ability to


treat diff erent illnesses, such as autoimmune disorders, neurological disorders, chronic infl ammations, pain, skin diseases, and microbial infections,” say the researchers. But they also warn about possible


adverse reactions, which range from mild skin irritation to potentially deadly anaphylactic shock in people who are highly allergic to the venom.


HONEY The bees’ best-known and most- widely used product is not only one of nature’s sweetest delicacies but also medicinal, especially when it comes to healing wounds. A review published in the journal


Open Life Sciences calls medical- grade honey a “promising wound healing agent,” due in part to its ability to kill bacteria without the bugs becoming resistant to it. Researchers explain that honey’s


jelly-like consistency protects and hydrates a wound; its sugars draw in fl uid that fl ushes debris and microorganisms away; the low pH increases cellular oxygenation; an enzyme it contains produces antiseptic hydrogen peroxide; and its


COURTESY OF JIM HARTMAN


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100