Douce Brise Apiary - Les Avants

I've been wondering this question since the beginning of our contact with bees. It's true, why would their products—honey, propolis, and even hive air—have an effect on our health?

 

Why, why, why? As is often the case, it's difficult to find the why of things, but the how is easily answered here, in my opinion.

 

The relationship between plants and bees is a story spanning over 100 million years. During all this time of co-evolution, they have created a magnificent symbiosis, and the bees' immune system, and their epigenetics as well, has had plenty of time to reach a high degree of efficiency and balance. Thus, bees experience very few endemic diseases (specific to their native environment). The problems they experience today come from exposure to viruses or parasites to which they have only recently been exposed, due to the fact that we have taken them outside their natural geographic range.

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Yes, but... we are not bees. So why would this have an effect on us? In fact, the beneficial effect isn't really "on us," but more specifically on our immune system. This system is central to our defenses against viruses, bacteria, and other pathogens. It is also deeply involved in inflammatory problems, since these occur when our immune defenses are overstimulated.

 

Let's also keep in mind that our immune system doesn't operate in isolation, but rather interacts with the outside world. To do this, it needs to understand the substances—bacteria, viruses, and other agents—that enter our body and train itself to respond appropriately. Too aggressive, and the reaction turns against our own body, resulting in inflammation. Too passive, and we are then at the mercy of infections or other diseases caused by external pathogens. It's therefore a matter of finding the right balance with an adequate and proportionate response to the outside world. In this collaboration with the outside world, isolation is not the right path, since the immune system no longer "learns" to balance itself and no longer knows how to react as soon as it comes into contact with an external agent. The option of exclusively using synthetic molecules at increasingly high doses to suppress immune responses, without addressing the underlying conditions that promote inflammation, is left to each individual's discretion.

 

So, where do bees fit in all this? The role they can play for us comes from the fact that they are totally immersed in their plant environment. By foraging on thousands of flower species, they collect a large number of active ingredients from the plants they visit, through nectar, pollen, and propolis. It's as if they were assembling a vast pharmacopoeia within the colony. These substances are then transmitted to us through honey, pollen, and therefore also the air in the hive. But that's not all. By producing all sorts of other derived substances themselves, such as pheromones, enzymes, and other proteins and amino acids, and by feeding exclusively on plants, they transmit to us substances that our bodies have encountered throughout their evolution. For our cells and metabolism, it's a bit like reuniting with old acquaintances we've encountered since the dawn of time.

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Volatile substances that enter our bodies through respiration, or bee bread that rebalances our intestinal microbiota, are all beneficial agents that help our immune system rebalance itself. They thus act by reducing our system's inflammatory response to the various potentially allergenic agents around us.

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Of course, this is just my own opinion. Everyone is free to determine their own relationship with their own body and the choices they make for their health.