posted
I was just reading an article on Slate.com about bee sting remedies. The author of the article had himself stung repeatedly by bees so that he could test a variety of over the counter and home remedies.
Would you use yourself as a guinea pig this way? I found the article interesting, and this is the kind of thing that I like to do when I happen to have multiple identical or near identical injuries, but I wouldn't be willing to intentionally hurt myself to do something like this.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
Well, no, since I was allergic to bee stings as a kid.
Anyway, I think the guy is an idiot, because there are internal responses to bee stings, and several stings probably provoke a different chemical/hormonal/antibody/histamine/whatever response than just one. Therefore, his findings are probably of limited value.
If he wanted to play scientist, what he should have done is treated the bee sting with one product, and carefully document his results, with a journal and possibly pictures and graphs, and then induce a new sting well after the first one had healed, and document it in that way. Then he could have compared his notes to see which remedy was more effective.
And while the experiment would take longer, he would not have to suffer the discomfort of multiple bee stings at the same time.
posted
Yeah Icarus, that occurred to me too. Of course, the best thing that he could have done would have been to convince a bunch of people to be subjects in his study.
I sometimes wonder whether I'd be allergic to bee stings. I've never been stung by a bee or a wasp. I've always gotten along well with bees; when I was a kid, I used to feed honeybees and let them crawl on me. Wasps and bumblebees I just avoid.
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You are all WAY too much . . . especially after a beer, before dinner and post-LONG day at work . . .
Posts: 5609 | Registered: Jan 2003
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