2007-08-25, Bee Therapy 蜂针疗法

Today in Taiwan, people from all walks of life are choosing to be stung by bees, often dozens of times in one sitting. Shourang Chen is battling multiple sclerosis , a disease which slowly causes the body's nerve to deteriorate¹.

For six months, I was bedridden, I could not move, I would have symptoms of tingling² and numbness³ in my hands. It was a excruciating pain.

Then Shourang heard about beesting therapy. For help, she turned to Mr. Chenyi Chen, beesting therapy master, a trained master who has practiced beesting therapy for 12 years. Every week, Mr. Chen and his assistants treat 200 patients and sacrifice 6,000 honey bees. The result, he says, can be astounding⁴.

After 600 bees, you will look 5 years younger than your contemporaries.

But can beestings really help Shourang fight multiple sclerosis? She began an intensive force of therapy, receiving over 200 stings a week for months on end. Honey bees only sting once, and they die soon after. But even separated from the bee, the stinger continues to inject venom⁵ into its victim. The body responds with a flood of histamines and white blood cells and soon the area becomes hot, red, swollen⁶ and itchy.

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 one hour. Many think it is based on the 5000-year-old practice of acupuncture⁷, a proven treatment for pain. Although today Mr. Chen sees bee acupuncture as a labour of love, even he once considered it a taboo⁸. In fact, like most of us, he was afraid of bees. 30 years ago, Mr. Chen was an executive for a textiles company. Then his wife began to suffer from arthritic⁹ pain, 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.

Naturally, as an educated man, I was against it, we just did not understand bees.

But Mr. Chen completely changed his mind when he saw his wife’s sudden improvement.

After 3 months, her red blood cell count increased. Her headache disappeared. I was so surprised, I decided¹⁰ to dive into this mysterious treatment and I collected all the information that I could.

Mr. Chen vowed¹¹ to devote his life to bringing beesting therapy to others. After 6 months of beesting therapy, Shourang 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 reignition, Shourang is convinced the stings have helped her walk again. It will take years of study before we will know whether beestings can relieve arthritis¹², or mutiple sclerosis or even the common cold. But whether Shourang'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.

1 deteriorate   

v.变坏；恶化；退化

参考例句：

• Do you think relations between China and Japan will continue to deteriorate?你认为中日关系会继续恶化吗？
• He held that this would only cause the situation to deteriorate further.他认为，这只会使局势更加恶化。

2 tingling   

v.有刺痛感( tingle的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• My ears are tingling [humming; ringing; singing]. 我耳鸣。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• My tongue is tingling. 舌头发麻。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

3 numbness   

n.无感觉，麻木，惊呆

参考例句：

• She was fighting off the numbness of frostbite. 她在竭力摆脱冻僵的感觉。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Sometimes they stay dead, causing' only numbness. 有时，它们没有任何反应，只会造成麻木。 来自时文部分

4 astounding   

adj.使人震惊的vt.使震惊，使大吃一惊astound的现在分词)

参考例句：

• There was an astounding 20% increase in sales. 销售量惊人地增加了20%。
• The Chairman's remarks were so astounding that the audience listened to him with bated breath. 主席说的话令人吃惊，所以听众都屏息听他说。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 venom   

n.毒液，恶毒，痛恨

参考例句：

• The snake injects the venom immediately after biting its prey.毒蛇咬住猎物之后马上注入毒液。
• In fact,some components of the venom may benefit human health.事实上，毒液的某些成分可能有益于人类健康。

6 swollen   

adj.肿大的，水涨的；v.使变大，肿胀

参考例句：

• Her legs had got swollen from standing up all day.因为整天站着，她的双腿已经肿了。
• A mosquito had bitten her and her arm had swollen up.蚊子叮了她，她的手臂肿起来了。

7 acupuncture   

n.针灸，针刺法，针疗法

参考例句：

• Written records show that acupuncture dates back to the Song Dynasty.文字记载表明，宋朝就已经有了针灸。
• It's known that acupuncture originated in China.众所周知，针灸起源于中国。

8 taboo   

n.禁忌，禁止接近，禁止使用；adj.禁忌的；v.禁忌，禁制，禁止

参考例句：

• The rude words are taboo in ordinary conversation.这些粗野的字眼在日常谈话中是禁忌的。
• Is there a taboo against sex before marriage in your society?在你们的社会里，婚前的性行为犯禁吗？

9 arthritic   

adj.关节炎的

参考例句：

• Somehow the geriatric Voyager 2, arthritic and partially deaf, managed to reach Neptune. 得了关节炎而且局部变聋、衰老的“旅行者2号”最后总算抵达海王星。 来自百科语句
• Femoral head ostectomy is a surgery performed on severely arthritic dogs. 股骨断截骨术’都是针对关节炎严重的狗狗的手术。 来自互联网

10 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

11 vowed   

起誓，发誓（vow的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• He vowed quite solemnly that he would carry out his promise. 他非常庄严地发誓要实现他的诺言。
• I vowed to do more of the cooking myself. 我发誓自己要多动手做饭。

12 arthritis   

n.关节炎

参考例句：

• Rheumatoid arthritis has also been linked with the virus.风湿性关节炎也与这种病毒有关。
• He spent three months in the hospital with acute rheumatic arthritis.他患急性风湿性关节炎，在医院住了三个月。