Snakemed – a therapy with a long tradition
News about the healing properties of snake venom
The Snakemed therapy has been practiced for almost three decades in the Natural Healing Center Bottrop. The use of injections, the use of creams, ointments and globules with the poisons of snakes, bees, frogs and scorpions an old proven means from nature in various chronic diseases. Highly diluted, they are used specifically for specific but also often unspecific clinical pictures. Even if the effectiveness of many natural remedies such as snake venom therapy are not proven by scientific studies, show us looks into medical history and current medical research: snake venom works!
The snake and the staff of Asclepius
In medicine, the snake is never far away: since time immemorial, the so-called staff of Asclepius, around which a snake coils, has been the symbol of many healing professions. It became the emblem of doctors and pharmacists because the Greek god of healing, Asclepius (Latin: Aesculapius), usually relied on his staff, which was encircled by a snake. Aesculapius is also the namesake of a strictly protected snake that can grow up to two meters long and is found in only three places in Germany: in Hirschhorn in Hesse, in Schlangenbad (which owes its name to the snakes) and on the slopes of the Danube near Passau live a few hundred specimens. While the Aesculapian snake, however, is non-poisonous, especially its poisonous relatives around the world have traditionally been of great importance for medicine.
From Ayurveda to modern naturopathy
Ayurveda is the name of the traditional healing method in India, whose roots were laid before our era. In India there is a saying “poison kills poison”. Since ancient times, the healing system of Ayurveda has used poisons from snakes, scorpions and bees to cure diseases. One of the eight specialties of Ayurveda is based on the book of Agada Tantra and deals with toxicology, the study of poisoning. It was already taught in ancient India at one of the oldest universities in the world in Takshashila (Punjab). Hindu scholars in particular gained early experience in the use of snake venom for healing purposes. They knew that snake venom in a very small dose administered orally is a very powerful stimulant and produced important medicines such as Suchikabharana (against plague, coma, fever, tuberculosis) or Ardhanarisvara (for persistent fever) from the venom of snakes. Also the Unani doctrine based on ancient Greek medicine in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan knew and knows the use of cobra venom as a tonic, aphrodisiac, liver stimulant and for resuscitation in case of collapse.Today Ayurveda in India counts as traditional alternative medicine and is taught at universities. The knowledge of the healing powers of animal poisons has therefore also been secured in many modern studies, including efficacy in arthritis.
Snake venom conquers homeopathy
Saxon-born physician Constantin Hering is now considered the man who harnessed snake venom for modern naturopathy in the early 19th century. As a student, he was supposed to write a treatise on the “aberration” of homeopathy, but after two years of intensive study of the subject, Hering became an enthusiastic advocate of homeopathy. In Surinam, where Hering worked as the governor’s Personal physician, he collected the venom of the South American bushmaster viper (Lachesis muta), which is still considered one of the most important snake venoms in alternative medicine. Hering later emigrated to the U.S. and in 1835, together with Wilhelm Wesselhöft, also a German physician, founded the North American Academy of the Homoeopathic Healing Art in Allentown, Pennsylvania, as the first state-recognized training school for homeopathic physicians in the United States. Even today, Herring’s work, especially his book on the “effect of snake venoms” (1837) is an important source for the medical use of certain snake venoms.
Conventional medicine also relies on animal venoms
Although snake venoms have been used very successfully in traditional Indian and Chinese medicine, their pharmacologically active ingredients have so far only been identified to 0.01 percent. Nevertheless, there are numerous approved drugs based on snake venom. For example, the ACE inhibitor enalapril, used to treat arterial hypertension (high blood pressure) and heart failure, was modeled on peptides from the venom of the Brazilian jararaca lance viper (Bothrops jararaca). The anticoagulant eptifibatide is derived from a protein found in the venom of the North American pygmy rattlesnake. Another anticoagulant, tirofiban, was modeled on a component of the venom of the Asian sand rattle viper. Many other components of snake venoms are also being studied in preclinical or clinical trials for a variety of therapeutic applications. They will continue to represent an important library for drug research in the future.By the way, conventional medicine also uses other poisons from animals: For example, conotoxins, which can block pain receptors and inhibit inflammation, are extracted from the venom of cone snails that live in the sea. Studies have found a therapeutic benefit in cancer and rheumatoid arthritis. In Korea, bee venom has also long been used to relieve pain symptoms and treat inflammatory conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis. That it is also applicable to a variety of immunological and neurodegenerative diseases, including autoimmune diseases and Parkinson’s disease, is shown by a Korean overview study from 2025.
Snakemed – Enzymes full of healing power
In the Bottrop Center for Naturopathic Medicine Snakemed for good reasonrepresent a natural focus in the treatment. Experience shows in the Institute of alternative medicine around the alternative practitioners Christian Rüger and Farid Zitoun, that Snakemed represents a supportive enrichment in combating chronic diseases. The snake venom therapy has gained importance not least through the Düsseldorf alternative practitioner Norbert Zimmermann. The pharmaceutical industry extracts more than 40 essences from the venom of various adders and vipers, which are used for a variety of diseases: In chronic diseases such as rheumatism, asthma, neuralgia (chronic pain), migraine or Crohn’s disease, as well as allergies (such as: hay fever) and various degenerative diseases of the eye, patients often report relief or even improvements in their disease or complaint pattern. This is preceded by the creation of an individual treatment plan. In it is determined at what intervals tiny doses of the essences are injected as injections or administered to small patients in child-friendly form.
