A Chinese Scientist and his staff have cured thousands of patients with chronic and intractable diseases by using an upgraded bee venom therapy.

The upgraded therapy inventor, Miao Xiaoqing, a professor with the Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, said the therapy is of particular benefit to arthritics and rheumatics.

Miao said: "Traditional therapy requires doctors to inject bee venom into points of the human body through a bee's sting. This can be very painful. A direct injection may also cause allergic reactions or shock. My treatment is different."

Miao slowly dabbed the arm of his patient, 70-year-old Zhang, with a concoctment of bee venom and certain traditional Chinese medicine.

Zhang said: "It is very comfortable." Many years of arthritis have made her hands as swollen as steamed bread, but now she can move her fingers with ease.

Bee venom therapy has a 3,000-year history in China. Ancient Roman doctors used bee venom as a pain-killer as early as 130 B.C.

Experts say bee venom can help blood flow smoothly in human bodies and can rehabilitate cells. It can inhibit the growth of bacteria and the development of inflammation.

A traditional way of collecting bee venom is to cut the stings from bees and extract the venom after sundering the stings. This gives only one or two percent of the total volume of a bee's venom.

Miao said: "Such crude ways of venom collection have wasted over 10 billion yuan worth of bee venom."

Miao collects bee venom by having bees sting a simulated piece of human skin, which greatly enhances the venom's purity.

The chief consultant of the China Apiculture Society, Gong Yifei, said Miao's patent inventions could help China develop a modern bee therapy industry.

Chinese cities such as Hangzhou, Shanghai and Guangzhou have opened clinics with bee venom treatment. Western countries such as Germany and Austria have also used this treatment.

　　From ChinaDaily.com.cn