Every day, Xiang Meng, an acupuncturist and practiationer of traditional bee venom therapy, w
Every day, Xiang Meng, an acupuncturist and practiationer of traditional bee venom therapy, works while surrounded by buzzing bees.
A bee’s stinger is inserted into a patient’s skin at Xiang Meng’s clinic. Photo: IC
When his patients come in for treatment, Xiang runs tests to make sure they are not allergic to bee venom. Then he opens a box filled with the insects and grabs a bee with tweezers, quickly jabs its stinger into pressure points on the patient’s body, then pulls the bee away, leaving its stinger in their skin along with its venom.
Xiang pulls a stinger out of a pressure point on a patient’s face. Photo: IC
The therapy has a long history. Practitioners use the venom to stimulate the skin and counteract the “venom” in patients’ bodies that traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) doctors believe causes diseases.
The clinic raises hundreds of thousands of Italian bees, because they have long stingers, a relatively large amount of venom each and breed quickly. Specialist beekeepers take care of the insects in the orchards and also harvest other bee byproducts, such as honey and beeswax.
A worker collects honey from beehives. Photo: IC
The efficacy of the therapy is widely debated, just like many treatments in TCM.
In 2015, a Chinese acupuncturist in the US who offers bee venom therapy was sued by the state of California, with the authorities claiming that the therapy violates the state’s acupuncture regulations.
Within China, the therapy is controversial as well. An acupuncturist in East China’s Zhejiang Province said the therapy is indeed recorded in old medical books, but it has risks, so not many hospitals provide this therapy.
Nurses use wax the clinic makes from honey to massage patients. Photo: IC
The Chinese government has invested great effort in promoting TCM. But despite these efforts, in recent years, more and more young people are coming to question these traditional therapies. Many believe the therapies are not empirically tested and cannot be regarded as medical science.
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