Unit 1: Bee Therapy
Narrator: Today in parts of Asia, people from all walks of life are choosing to be stung by bees—often
dozens of times in one sitting. Hso-rong Chen is battling multiple sclerosis, a disease which slowly causes
the body’s nerves to deteriorate.
Hso-rong Chen, Patient: For six months I was bedridden. I could not move. I would have symptoms of
tingling and numbness in my hands. It was excruciating pain.
Narrator: Then Hso-rong heard about bee-sting therapy. For help, she turned to Mr. Cheng-yi Chen, Bee-
Sting Therapy Master—a trained master who has practiced bee-sting therapy for 12 years. Every week,
Mr. Chen and his assistants treat 200 patients and sacrifice 6,000 honeybees. The results, he says, can be
astounding.
Mr. Cheng-yi Chen, Bee-sting Therapy Master: After 600 bees, you will look 5 years younger than your
contemporaries.
Narrator: But can bee stings really help Hso-rong fight multiple sclerosis? She began an intensive course
of therapy, receiving over 200 stings a week for months on end. Honeybees only sting once, and they die
soon after. But even separated from the bee, the stinger continues to inject venom into its victim. The
body responds with a flood of histamines and white blood cells. And soon the area becomes hot, red,
swollen, and itchy.
Hso-rong Chen: He gives me one sting. I don’t even have time to feel the pain before he stings me again.
And the pain lasts for 1 hour.
Narrator: Many think it is based on the 5,000-year-old practice of acupuncture—a proven treatment for
pain. Although today Mr. Chen sees bee acupuncture as a labor of love, even he once considered it taboo.
In fact, like most of us, he was afraid of bees. Thirty years ago, Mr. Chen was an executive for a textiles
company. Then his wife began to suffer from arthritic pains so severe she couldn’t cook or even stand up
straight. Western medicines didn’t do much good. But when she told her husband she wanted to get stung
by bees, he thought the idea was ridiculous.
Mr. Cheng-yi Chen: Naturally, as an educated man, I was against it. We just did not understand bees.
Narrator: But Mr. Chen completely changed his mind when he saw his wife’s sudden improvement.
Mr. Cheng-yi Chen: After 3 months, her red blood cell count increased. Her headache disappeared. I was
so surprised, I decided to dive into this mysterious treatment and collect all the information that I could.
Narrator: Mr. Chen vowed to devote his life to bringing bee-sting therapy to others. After 6 months of
bee-sting therapy, Hso-rong Chen has seen a dramatic change. She insists the therapy has relieved her
multiple sclerosis and given her a new lease on life. While most Western-trained doctors would likely say
her illness is in remission, Hso-rong is convinced the stings have helped her walk again. It will take years
of study before we’ll know whether bee stings can relieve arthritis or multiple sclerosis or even the
common cold. But whether Hso-rong’s recovery is in her head or her hands and feet, for the first time in
more than a year, she feels she can resume living. A therapy most of us would find taboo is allowing her to
face the future with renewed hope.
