Apitherapy As Social Medicine

- Sound Education And Beekeeping Methods As Basis For Apitherapy

- Abstract -

More and more it becomes necessary to learn about the wider implications of health and illness regarding the bees as well as Man; in this issue it is turned out a lack of consequence in Apitherapy and why this kind of medicine referrs as a rule to reductionistic point of views - in contrast to real social medicine. Factors are turned out which makes colonies weaker and weaker and with that also the quality of products for Apitherapy. Factors which makes colonies weaker and weaker and with that also the quality of products for Apitherapy:

· What about location of bee colonies (intensive agriculture, industrial, traffic areas)?
· What about modern breeding methods (including grafting, artificial insemination and wing clipping)?**
· Giving foreign, already mated queens to the colony.
· What about the use of hives made of plastic or wood with glue inside (plywood and other), materials used for painting hives?
· What about sugar feeding, (not to mention pollen substitutes which contain antibiotics)?
· What about giving plastic foundations, plastic combs or even foundations, made of heated beewax, to bees?*
· What about excessive manipulations like changing broodcombs or moving the entrance to another part of the hive?
· Breeding and keeping beeraces from other areas.
· Migrating in other landscapes.
· What about Insecticides („Gaucho"), air and water pollution (heavy metals, radioactivity)?
· What about the constantly dwindling variety and quantity of wild flowers?
· What about the effect of genetically engineered pollen (rape, maize, soy and others)?

What we also need to consider is the influence of education in early childhood on illnes. Many kinds of illnes got their predisposition already in early childhood. Especially education nowadays, educational theory, teaching ability are laying the foudation stone of several diseases. For instance children learning too much by heart in school will get a hardening of their brains; throughout the whole life the brain will not be able to work properly, because of hardening. There is also a connection between wrong educational methods and diabetes turning out later. Children need to be educated in that way, they are not getting like an old man/woman from early childhood onward. So in school they need to start with those things, being natural for them and they are interested in.

There will be an issue on social medicine in former times and today; on book/CD reviews, for instance new CD on Apitherapy, edited by Prof.dr. Theodore Cherbuliez, President of APIMONDIA Standing Commission of Apitherapy, together with his international team, publications by Dr. Stefan Stangiaciu.
(More articles on social medicine and Apitherapy in recent issues of Apiculture)

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*) More information and address source for Bee-produce from beekeeping considering the character of bees - for instance: comb honey with natural cristalization (not heated) and honey from natural combs (neither extracted nor stirred nor heated before filling) as well as pure beewax without residuals under :
List of beeproduce
Centre for social Medicine and Natural Apitherapy
Centre for Ecological Apiculture.
Beekeeping courses (practical and distance) in the Centre for Ecological Apiculture: start now with ecological top-bar-beekeeping for beginners!!
**) see also "Apicultural Review Letters I"

Notes and literature
see full version

Full version in: Apiculture Volume 1 Issue 4/2002