Gerard Butler Injects Bee Venom For Muscle Soreness, Ends Up In Hospital Due To Anaphylactic Shock
Gerard Butler was hospitalized after he tried to use a traditional method to relieve himself of muscle soreness while filming scenes for his new disaster film Geostorm.
The Olympus Has Fallen actor told Lorraine Kelly about the scary incident during an appearance on her ITV talk show. The 47-year-old said that he pushed himself to the limit while performing stunts for the film, and after five weeks of wearing a 65-lb spacesuit for the film, he decided to inject himself with bee venom in an attempt to ease his sore muscles but landed himself in the emergency room instead.
"I had heard of this guy injecting bee venom, because apparently it has many anti-inflammatory compounds," he told the host. He invited the guy over to New Orleans, where they were filming the movie and remembered finding the treatment "interesting" because of how painful it was.
Butler went on to say that the person administering the dosage injected him with 10 shots containing venom from 23 bees, which gave him a horrible reaction. "I kind of enter this anaphylactic shock! It's awful, creepy crawlies all over me, swelled up, hearts going to explode. But I go through it, and then I find out he gave me 10 times too much," he added.
The actor explained what went wrong by pointing out that the number of injections that was administered to him should have been given over a duration of 10 weeks. One might expect that going into anaphylactic shock would discourage a person from trying something so dangerous again but despite his brush with death, Butler decided to undergo the treatment again but things didn't go as planned, and the actor found himself in the ER again.
Bee venom has been used as an alternative medicine to relieve muscle pain for hundreds of years. The practice, known as bee therapy or apitherapy, involves using live bees and placing them on swollen or inflamed parts of the body. Nowadays, the venom is simply injected and is allegedly used to cure a number of diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis.
Butler can't seem to catch a break from the emergency room at the moment. Earlier this month, the Scottish actor was involved in a motorcycle accident that left him with minor injuries. Butler was sent somersaulting 30 feet in the air after a woman rammed her car into his motorbike.
Watch Butler's interview below:
