ࡱ;  R9g9g9g9g9g999g9g9g9g9g9g9g9g99999 F9999N@d@CompObj'IllP;m&!3&\WordDocument /2ObjectPool !?d!?dP; FMicrosoft Word 6.0 DocumentNB6WWord.Document.6;  Oh+'0   #/7 ?Kh pz KThe Server:Applications:Microsoft Office:Microsoft Word 6:Templates:NormalDSFLDSFL'@d6d@v@8d@ܥhO  e92, ,,/////V/V/V/V/V/n/ x/V/1K/////////111111&+2X21//////1//////////////0/>///////// CAPE COD TIMESPRIVATE  JULY 29, 1997 BY STAFF WRITER HYANNIS-- Most people shun bee stings. Kelly Ames goes looking for them. Once a week the 29-year-old grabs six honeybees from the Plexiglas observation hive in her house and holds them against her lower back until they sink their stingers into her skin. With the aplomb born of repetition, Ames squishes the bees--they would die soon anyway--in a napkin. She leaves the stingers in her back for about 15 minutes until the venom sacs empty and turn from white to black. Then the part-time Hyannis resident pulls the stingers out and goes about her day as if nothing has happened. Ames has multiple sclerosis. She says honeybees and their venom have helped her life return to normal. Ames was diagnosed with MS in her early 20s. The disease injures the central nervous system. Her limbs felt numb and she lost her sense of balance. Ames said, "At 25, I had a cane. I was blind in my left eye." MS strikes as many as 500,000 Americans, mainly women between the ages of 20 and 40. After conventional treatment with oral and intravenous doses of the steroid prednisone had limited effect, Ames decided to try bee sting therapy. "I said, 'What have I got to lose?'" Ames's mother Debbie Ames convinced her to try the alternative therapy after she spoke with a woman in Kelly Ames's MS support group who was concerned about the rapid progression of the young woman's disease. When the woman talked about bee-sting therapy in the support group, Kelly had thought, "What a weirdo." Debbie Ames was willing to do anything to help her daughter, one of three children, including taking her to a beekeeper's meeting in Waltham to learn about apitherapy, the medicinal uses of honeybee products. Bee venom therapy has been practiced since ancient times, but many of its applications, considered alternative medicine in the Western world, are just now being studied. Thousands of Americans with multiple sclerosis are seeking out bee venom therapists and beekeepers. Many report improved stability and stamina -- going from a wheelchair to walking, for instance -- but no one knows what causes the improvement. The Multiple Sclerosis Association of America has awarded a Georgetown University Medical Center researcher $250,000 to study the safety and possible effectiveness of bee venom therapy. Kelly Ames said venom acts like a natural steroid, building up slowly inside her and restoring her bodily functions. After 4 1/2 months of bee venom therapy, building up to 13 stings at a time on her lower back every other day, she could walk without a cane. After having her father, Patrick Ames, place a bee on the bone behind her left ear and let it sting, she could see out of her left eye again. Ames said she was so numb from the effects of MS that it took three months before she could even feel the bee stings. Then she would cry and pound the pillows while the bees stung her. She wasn't about to give up, though -- feeling the pain meant the venom was working. "It kills, but it's worth it, "Ames said. "It's a good hurt for me. It's not a cure. It just alleviates my symptoms for now." Ames is back to working full time in the admissions department of the Harvard Business School, working part time in the summer. Enthusiastic and fast talking, Ames walks the family dogs -- two tiny white bichon frises -- bicycles and works out three times a week on Nautilus weight-training machines. "I can put my heels on. I can go out with my girlfriends. I look like I have nothing wrong with me," Ames said. The therapeutic effects of bee venom therapy are different from remission, which many MS sufferers go through. Ames said, "If I don't do this (therapy) for a couple of weeks, I'm a mess. I know I'm not in remission." At her permanent home in Arlington, Ames has an observation beehive with 3,000 honeybees. When she comes to the family residence on the Cape, she brings about 200 bees with her in [a] screen-covered Mason jar. Ames has become a sort of spokeswoman for bee venom therapy. She's appeared on "Unsolved Mysteries," in Massachusetts newspapers and in national tabloids. She gets stacks of mail from all over the United States and from around the world from MS sufferers desperate to learn about treatment options. Recently, staffers working for two of the more well-known MS sufferers -- Annette Funicello and Richard Pryor -- have contacted Ames to learn more about the therapy. Northern Business Machinery in Burlington donated a copy machine and paper to Ames so she could keep up with her correspondence. Ames is careful to say she is not a medical professional, alternative or otherwise. She doesn't practice bee venom therapy on other people. Instead she sends them information packets describing her own personal story and how the therapy worked for her. Next month she hopes to be able to start shipping videos that feature her personal story. Ames is aware that some doctors downplay bee venom therapy. She said her specialist at Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston never mentioned it until she brought it up herself. He admitted some of his patients were using it, but said it wasn't effective for all of them. But Ames said it has helped her. "Now I can walk confidently without others thinking of me as being highly intoxicated." Susan Wells, director of publications for the Multiple Sclerosis Association of America, said MS patients have been talking about their benefits of bee venom therapy for years. Some patients said it has brought them from a bedridden state back to full functioning. "But it's all been anecdotal," Wells said. Doctors say they don't have any hard scientific evidence to support patient claims, one of the reasons the MSAA is funding the Georgetown study. If the initial phase shows the therapy is safe, further testing of efficacy probably will go on, she said.  ....()()))()()K:phoenix⫧̥ȧȶƳƐƕƟƇƂȂČ҅ƷՔΌՔȅȂƫƢȂڶȢƷƎSummaryInformation(Microsoft Word 6.0.12 ࡱ; ƨƕƵƤƤǂ֏Â㫇㥊⩖⠏奧‚ⵇ‚ﲃ⧓䧕‚⣞‚㲉‚悏ŏŠŏQfŠ悏^ffXfŏŠƏ悏Ƃ17JւŏŠƏ悁$f筂 ffffXf1䂏ꁦgŏQfŠ悏悏^fՁXfՏ穂Տ祂Տ終Տ䵧ׂgfIffIff$f筂ŏŠƏ悏ꁦgꁧgŏŠfggIfIff$f筂ƂŏWJg_悏ŏ笂fgfgŏŠÊ悏gf$f筂笂ɏҁ؏碂碕-碕-碕-碕-ŏQfŠ悏^fƏ悁$f筂碂壔䠩0f̏磂ɏҁ؏碂ُ碂碂碕䠥0ffFf䠵0f̏砂悏f堵0f̏硂ɏҁ؏碂碕-ُ碂碂碕Ƃf碕悁整f̏箂؏碂碕‚ُ碂碂̏硂碕f悁8f粃Ffύ?i鍀ꪨ͛뢮ɋ쬮񸴼ӑ޺ŷړݝߍ۹^غŃ殯昙顠闖diMAINdϫԦ˂,-89%uuDuD$CcGC uDC *+<=> > IeTk|,./0$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$,0,H*01346789,0!K"@"Normal3 ]a c"A@"Default Paragraph Font+@ Endnote Text *@ Endnote Referenceh@ Footnote Text &@! 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