IV.5.3. SYNERGISTIC NATURE OF HONEY BEE THERAPEUTIC PRODUCTS

First we must say a few words about synergy. The concept is relatively commonly used on a variety of areas and has a meaning similar, but not identical, to the concepts like synchronous simultaneously, concurrently and in part, to the complementary notion. For example, an athlete who runs, achieves the synergistic action of several muscles of the body, supporting the movement effort. In the conventional medication, the synergy refers to the sum of the effects or to the total effects obtained by the simultaneous administration of two or more drugs, which act synchronously and possibly complementary. If one drug is administered, the synergy can refer to all the effects achieved simultaneously. The drugs can have agonist effects - helping to achieve the same effect, but they may also act in an antagonistic way, resulting in adverse effects, sometimes iatrogenic.

The same things can be said about the effects of taking the bee honey therapeutic products which are brought in the state of standardized drug. They contain a single therapeutic agent and the synergy can only be referred to the possible effects obtained synchronously, simultaneously.

The honey bee therapeutic products produced by the Apitherapy Medical Center, even those patented, are not standardized drugs, they are dietary supplements, but having clear therapeutic effects. They can be simultaneously food and medicines. Depends on who consume them as food, and to whom, under what condition, and in what doses they are prescribed for therapeutic purposes. Administering the honey bee therapeutic products for therapeutic purposes, demonstrably, is possible to be followed by a precisely determined therapeutic target, with anticipated results. When we’ll discuss about the diseases treated exclusively with these honey bee therapeutic products, obtaining even results in medical premiere, the medical tests made before and after apitherapy will come to support these claims.

We could bring into question the effectiveness of the standardized honey bee therapeutic products compared to the honey bee therapeutic products as dietary supplements. However, there are few standardized honey bee therapeutic products worldwide and we prefer the apitherapeutic food supplements whose biochemical structure we know and obviously, it corresponds to the therapeutic target that we want to achieve. Then,we consider - and that is demonstrable - that the successive processing courses necessary to the standardization bring some degree of impairment of their pharmacodynamic potential. But to slide in this discussion, which would require a long series of technical arguments, will mean to remove much of the objectives we have set in this paper.

Our intention, after an introduction maybe larger than the strictly necessary one is to discuss the theory of the presence and action synergy in apitherapy. Not necessarily because this theory is ours. When we address the clinical effectiveness of the honey bee therapeutic products in a variety of conditions, it will be on hand to explain that outside the main therapeutic target, we also obtain the remission of other synchronous conditions, too, simultaneously balancing the physiological functions of several body organs. However, we chose to use the honey bee therapeutic products as bee food supplements: the substance or substances which have the attribute of therapeutic agents,  dosed in personalized way, according to the patient bound, are accompanied in the same bottle by a complex of other substances which support, amplify or limit their effects, but also have their own therapeutic effects. If so, they must be motivated.

The synergistic nature of the honey bee therapeutic products we produce should be regarded from two points of view:

1) as the synergy of the supply:

a) they contain substances of which some are designed to be therapeutic agents, and others, by far more numerous, have actions which are complementary to the first ones;

 b) they contain substances of which the human body can synthesize those required for maintaining or restoring its homeostasis and also substances that are biocompatible to the identity with the ones organically synthesized; a great part of them are biomolecules irreproducible in thepharmacochemical laboratories;

2) as the synergy of the presence and of pharmacodynamic activity in human body:

a) the honey bee therapeutic products can provide to the clinician, according to the pursued therapeutic target, in combination contained in in the same vial, two or more therapeutic agents, enabling them to act synchronously to achieve a common effect, but with the possibility of being designed for different therapeutic targets;

 b) the substances present in the vials containing the therapeutic agents, by far much numerous than these:

 - can act as valuable food;

 - can sustain, enhance or limit the therapeutic agent actions;

- in many cases, may have their own therapeutic actions.

   Table 3. Main Characteristics of Honey Bee Therapeutic Products produced by AMC

(Adapted from Andrițoiu, 2006, 2012)