This isn't a personal story, but certainly one I know for a fact.
The person who helped me get started in beekeeping 25 years ago in
Arkansas had been retired early from his work because of a large
inoperable arthritic knot on his spine.   Bored, he got into
beekeeping to help a friend during friends busy honey flow season.
By the 3rd year of beekeeping this man who had been half bent over
because of the knot (I saw the pictures of his retirement) could
stand up straight and only hurt during the cold and wet seasons.  He
told me that drs couldn't believe the shrinkage of his arthritic
knot.  A dr friend of mine at the time told me that when he was a
young man in med school in the early twenties, bee venom therapy was
"the" treatment for arthritis.

fwiw,

Vivian