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Bee Stings

© Barbara Hall

I'm not sure there's any other pain quite like it. You really KNOW when you've been stung. And for me, it's been many, many years since I HAVE been stung, but for SOME reason I was "blessed" with three chances to do a little first-hand research in the period of one week. OUCH.

I work with a man who has a deadly allergy to bee stings and lived with a man who had a perception that he had a deadly allergy to bee stings and I myself have developed a sudden deadly allergy to cats just in the past few years. (Very sad, cats have alway been my best buddies, but breathing is right up there with things I like to do, so no more kitties for me!)

As soon as my assistant told me about his bee sting allergy, I confidently told him about Osha root tincture and how I have used it on myself and others to stop really scary allergic reactions. The Osha plant, Ligusticum porteri, looks like a few too many other things like wild parsley, queen anne's lace and unhappily, poison hemlock, so if you buy the root or the tincture, be sure you're working with a careful source. It seems to grow mostly in the western part of the U.S. at high altitudes. My understanding is that it works by actually telling your histamine RECEPTORS to quiet down and that there's no need to overeact. Anti-histamines, on the other hand merely block your body from MAKING the histamines, although the histamine receptors are still screaming. That's why there is often a re-bound reaction when the antihistamine wears off.

Now let's get something straight right here. Truly anaphylactic reactions to bee stings are absolutely DEADLY. Nothing to mess with. I have great faith in Osha root because I have seen it work, but when my assistant was first stung on the job I gave him the Osha root but begged him to let me haul him to the emergency room anyway. If someone goes truly anaphylactic, only epinephrine is going to pull them out of it. (and where is his Epi-pen? At home...) As this particular sting was on his thumb and there was hardly any swelling, he opted to ride it out. He had put 10 drops of Osha root under his tongue, which wasn't nearly enough for his 6'4" frame. The reaction went on for hours with his being pale and weak. He eventually went home and slept. The second time he was stung on the inside of his knee by a sho'nuf yellow jacket, he put two full droppersful of Osha root under his tongue before he came to tell me about the sting. This time he was SCARED. Again I offered to get him to the emergency room. He never went pale, he didn't get weak, there was no more swelling than a mosquito bite and he went back to work in 20 minutes.

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