Do Honey Eaters Live Longer?

Introduction

The temperatures shot up to a crazy 16 °C for a few days and the bees were busy clearing out varroa. One of the BroodMinder temperature sensors stopped working. Lorenzo at the European headquarters thinks it may have short-circuited and drained the battery due to debris but I’m not disturbing the bees to check, despite good weather. It can wait till spring when I shall change the battery as advised. I guess new innovative products take a while to be perfected. BroodMinder is currently working on coating the sensors with some protection so the problem will be resolved. One thing for sure is that we get a great prompt service and return-of-post replies to our queries from BroodMinder.

It’s fun watching nature from my armchair and this little baby squirrel recently started visiting daily. I’ve been enjoying visits from the mother since September when I noticed that she was lactating. Concerned that her offspring might be too young to survive winter, I researched a bit and discovered that it is not unusual for red squirrels to have second families towards the end of summer. This little one had a problem the other day when the nut box was all but empty. It climbed inside to get the last nut and was momentarily trapped with the lid down. I was on the verge of rescuing it when it discovered how to get out and emerged looking about somewhat sheepishly.

As I prepare the guest blog for posting tomorrow, I hear the sound of creaky gates overhead and rush out to the patio just in time to see 12 elegant white whooper swans fly over my head through the mist.

DO BEEKEEPERS AND HONEY EATERS LIVE LONGER THAN THEIR PEERS? 

Gelda MacGregor found an interesting paper about beekeepers and honey eaters living longer than others and she has dug deeper this week to share the findings of this research with us. It’s no mean feat unpicking science research and interpreting it. Gelda has previously written for the Beelistener about bumble bees which are her special interest next to beekeeping. Gelda is a member of Nairn & District Beekeepers’ Association. She lives in Forres and keeps a colony of bees in a friend’s garden where there is a newly planted Eucryphia spp. tree. Thank you, Gelda, for taking the time this week to write for us.

Honey and Humans

Most beekeepers of five plus years will be familiar with a plethora of learned articles about bee behaviour, bee diseases, varroa, bee genetics, future pest invasions to prepare for, best type of hives, types of honey etc. But what of the effect of bees and honey on beekeepers themselves? The variables to consider in such a piece of science -based research must be as many as the twigs on a mature oak, but a few brave souls have ventured into this area, albeit in a limited and specific way. There would appear to be a rich future field to delve into here!

It seems to have long been an accepted piece of European folk wisdom that beekeepers live to a ripe old age and that this is partly related to regularly eating honey and other hive products, e.g. royal jelly. Real examples are Francois Huber (81), Lorenzo Langstroth (85) and Johann Dzieron who lived to be 95. A caveat in all this is that there appears to be no data on historical female beekeepers, but this simply reflects the obliteration of females in pre 20^th cent. Western historical narratives, even though we know females have cared for bees for centuries e.g. the ancient Greek Melissae, the women of Eastern Europe, and other indigenous cultures…We know medieval monks kept bees, but what of nuns, in Europe?? The nuns who may have kept bees are anonymous…

To tackle this project in a scientific manner we need to understand the length of telomeres. “A telomere is a region of repetitive nucleotide sequences associated with specialised proteins at the end of linear chromosomes. Telomeres accumulate damage due to oxidative stress. Telomere shortening is now associated with ageing, mortality and age -related diseases. Although we know that not smoking, a healthy diet and exercise may increase life expectancy, cellular ageing is associated with a shorter telomere length. A 2020 review argued that “the relationship between psychological stress and telomere length appeared shorter for stress in utero or early life.”¹

Telomeres

We also know that honey has the following marvellous benefits for bees and humans: it consists of 95% carbohydrates, and includes an extensive selection of proteins, enzymes, amino acids, minerals, trace elements and polyphenolic compounds. “A study conducted showed that honey exhibited a protective effect in endothelial cells against oxidative stress. Honey components could prevent the atherogenic action of oxidised LDC and boost the intracellular GSH pool which plays a key role in counteracting the action of circulating ROS and reactive nitrogen species”²

Malaysian Study

So, what of the study? It was undertaken by researchers in the University of Malaysia in 2015, entitled “The Relationship between telomere length and beekeeping among Malaysians” by Nurul Fatihah Mohammed Nasir et al.³

The study sample was 30 male beekeepers and 30 non-beekeeper males who did not consume honey products. With consent, and using blood samples, they found that the telomere length of beekeepers was significantly longer than for male beekeepers than for non-beekeeper males. The regular consumption of honey products for a long period is associated with a mean increase of 2.66 kpb in telomere length. Inclusion criteria were healthy males above 30 years. Neither group had any serious diseases or were on medication. Blood pressures were measured and recorded and were similar in both groups.

Conclusion

It seems to me that this is indeed a potent discovery, but a very small sample. A larger study in western European nations including both men and women in different age groups might yield further interesting information. It might also be useful to test groups of commercial beekeepers and hobby beekeepers who tend to be older, to further assess the effects of honey consumption on their health. On the other hand, the high risks of beekeeping in poorer agricultural countries such as Romania and Turkey are highlighted in other articles. Despite the benefits of easy access to bee bread, honey and propolis, for poor agricultural workers in these countries migratory beekeeping is fraught with occupational hazards such as lack of access to clean water, long working hours, poor or no safety equipment, bee stings and whole families, including children, doing the work in unhygienic and very hot seasonal conditions. So, their telomere length may already be shortened due to poverty, heat and general work stress^4., unlike beekeepers we know in the UK, USA, France, Germany and New Zealand…

References:

¹Wikipedia  

²Beretta G. et al 2007:   Planta Med. ”antioxidant activity and radical scavenging activity of honey in endothelial cell cultures.

³ As quoted, May 2015. 

⁴ Topol, CB Pocol, M. Kosoglu, “A critical point in beekeeping: beekeepers` health”, researchgate.net 2019