OT - The woman who stings herself with bees for MS

[Guest guest]

Wonder if she's seen a homoeopath?

Love, light and peace,

Sue

" Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself. " -

Bernard Shaw

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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/healthmain.html?in_art

icle_id=332372 & in_page_id=1774 & in_a_source=

The woman who stings herself with bees for MS

by JENNY HOPE, Daily Mail

09:23am 30th December 2004

a Cooke: 'I have 110 per cent faith'

She admits it hurts. But a Cooke believes allowing herself to be stung

by bees every day is helping in her battle against MS.

The 40-year-old mother of two has been stung up to six times a day after

spotting the unconventional treatment on the Internet.

She has live bees sent by post to her home where she carries out the

treatment with the help of her mother.

Although bee stings can be dangerous - killing up to nine people a year

through allergic reactions - Mrs Cooke is convinced they are making a

difference.

'Real hope'

" I have 110 per cent faith in the bee sting treatment working, " she said.

" I have the worst form of MS which gets progressively worse but this has

given me real hope.

" I have had MS for 15 years, and have always had to keep my left eye closed

because it was all blurry. But all of a sudden I can see out of both eyes.

" I can also move some of my toes for the first time in years and can relax

my hamstrings enough to put on a pair of jeans. I know the bee stings won't

ever make me fully better but it seems to be working. "

Mrs Cooke has been having the stings for four months after her father

discovered the treatment, used by some alternative practitioners in the

U.S., on the Internet.

But the recent cold snap affected the delivery of the bees and she had to

stop. " I was having bees sent from a woman in London but the Christmas post

and the cold weather meant they were dead when they arrived, " she said at

her home in Terrington St Clement, Norfolk.

" It meant I wasn't able to have bee stings for two weeks and so it's set my

treatment back.

" I've now had to start building up the number of bee stings I can have at

one time again because it hurts so much. I had built up an immunity to the

pain. "

Treatment theory

Mrs Cooke's mother, Jillian Fisher, collects the bees from a local

beekeeper.

" I get them out of the jar with a pair of tweezers and place them on a's

legs and back where they sting her and then they die, " Mrs Fisher said.

" Before she is stung we put ice on her skin to help dull the pain.

" At first I hated it but you get used to doing it and I know it's helping

a. "

More than 85,000 Britons have MS, a condition in which immune cells attack

the protective myelin sheath surrounding nerve fibres in the brain and

spinal cord.

Initially, the body can repair the damage, but over time the nerves become

scarred and stop transmitting signals.

The bee sting treatment is based on the theory of 'counter irritation' - a

new pain firing up the body's immune system to produce a response which

dampens the effects of an existing condition.

The exact composition of bee venom is not known. It is a chemical cocktail

containing enzymes and proteins.

Potentially dangerous

Mrs Cooke, who is also on prescribed medication to prevent muscle spasms, is

keen to share the benefits of bees.

" I just want more MS sufferers to know about the treatment because at the

moment very few people have heard of it, and I think it should be available

on the NHS, " she said.

Last night experts warned the treatment is potentially dangerous with the

risk of anaphylactic shock, which can be fatal.

A spokesman for the MS Society said U.S. trials on purified bee venom

extract had not found any lasting effect.

He said MS was a disease with a variable course. Some patients had fewer

symptoms than others or even none at times, making it difficult to tell

whether therapy was working.