We have found bees and human beings in collaboration under the association “L’Abeille me soigne” (The bee serves me) in the village of Pezenas (between Occitania, Besiers and Montpellier). Several doctors and therapists have met in a room in the small residence of La Ruche (Erlauntza), where they reside. Bees have been picked up from half a dozen mattresses in glass jars outside the building and placed for two hours on the skin.

Alain Merit has been an apiarist and treasurer of the association and activist of the apitherapy for years. Along with him, other beekeepers have arrived weekly to help them when necessary.

The soul of the group is Maryse Pioch. As a young man, he practiced athletics in the elite category. Multiple sclerosis degraded it to the wheel bank. Despite being a family beekeeper, he didn't go to his help until the other Western therapies failed him. He has written a book that tells how he has treated his disease with the Seignalet regime and bees since 2005.

Henry Joyeux made him the prologue. Professor at the University of Montpellier, surgeon and cancerologist, author of many publications, is very popular in the field of health in France. It also has a famous website. Dr. Joyeux has honored the protection of the community.

In daily practice Jean Baptiste Thouroude, physician and acupuncturist, advises patients and beekeepers who come to Pezenas. After studying Medicine, he went to China to learn acupuncture. Even though he was interested in bees, he wouldn't start putting his venom in the reckons of acupuncture, unless asked to do so by Lisa's mother, who suffers from very bad MS. No wonder this mother, Cathy Canut, is the president of the association.

In addition to the Thursday event, special courses are organized in Pezenas. Throughout a Saturday, attendees receive information from the bee and the healing faculties of their products, learning how it is used in practice during the morning and afternoon.

We must clearly understand what is being done in Pezenas. There are no titles here, no paid medical consultations, no promotions for any products. The goal is to show the patient and their environment what to do with the bees so they can do it on their own. “The goal is to be an autonomous patient,” says Dr. Thouroude. Why?

In France, the Medical Association is pursuing professionals who leave orthodoxy very hard. On the other hand, it is intended to prevent non-formatted people from playing the role of a therapist too easy. Complete the argument from the patient's point of view: it takes a lot of money to follow a therapy outside the public health system. It's fortunate that a patient meets someone or a group who does well with bee therapy and doesn't have money for this kind of auzolan.

We'll put 20 poyas to grandpa

We were on the fast course of October 17, in addition to the doctor and the beekeepers, the owners of diseases of different kinds: Multiple Sclerosis, Lateral Sclerosis, Spondylitis, Parkinson, Polyarthritis, Back pain…

In the practical afternoon session, a Parkinsonian grandfather offered his body to be punched with the bees at the points prescribed by the doctor. In a quiet environment, man is used to taking over two dozen punctures in his head. Like other attendees, they came to learn how to improve the dots they receive, rather than to lose the fear of bees' poison.

Anyone who wants to start is asked to bring proof of the allergy they have done. He states that the risks have been clearly explained to him (although an anaphylactic shock that can lead to death is not common) and that he assumes full responsibility for the consequences of the therapy.

The atmosphere is joyful and there are a lot of jokes, but this is not a game. At first, the patient will receive a small portion of the bee venom, then complete punctures and increasing doses, more and more abundant.

In China, Thouroud sees a woman putting 200 bees behind her back in a program. “But it seems to me that here and there we experience pain differently.” In the practical session, they have given some twenty volunteers to a woman who has offered her ass. He didn't complain that before he started with the bees, he couldn't get out of bed and he needed a morphine to relieve his pains.

The Pezenas bee is cultivated as a complement to that offered by Western medicine. Do you take chemo for cancer? No one will tell you to reject the therapy, but it also takes propolia in high doses. The same if at the Multiple Sclerosis Hospital you are given a strong experimental treatment, try the hive products and bee stings.

In the world there are more groups like Pezenas, many without doctors composed of beekeepers and the sick. It shows a magnificent example of Love and Venom, a stunning video that you can see on the Internet. You can see it with subtitles in Basque. In Wellington, Ohio, the sick and volunteers meet almost every day at the beekeeper's house Don Downs to get stung between the bees.

As Dr. Thouroude said, there are still many scientific tests to be done to prove the true value of the apitherapy products. But there is no time for anyone to realize that a serious illness leads their lives in their hands.

Lisa's parents, condemned by sclerosis to the wheelchair, see an opportunity with the bees. To stop the attacks of the disease or at least alleviate the collateral damage that experimental chemotherapy has caused.