Gwyneth Paltrow has revealed one of her most bizarre beauty and lifestyle treatments yet – which, given the contents of her Goop website, has to go quite some distance to be up there. In a new interview, she says she lets bees sting her as a form of beauty therapy.

The 43 year old actress told the New York Times that the treatment, known as apitherapy, is in fact thousands of years old, and she uses it to tackle scarring of her skin. “People use it to get rid of inflammation and scarring. It's actually pretty incredible if you do your research. But man, it's painful.”

Gwyneth PaltrowGwyneth Paltrow claims she lets bees sting her as part of a beauty therapy

Apitherapy covers everything from being stung and using the bee’s venom as therapy to using honey for medicinal purposes. Although the treatment has never been scientifically proven to convey any benefits, it is occasionally used to treat arthritis and multiple sclerosis, and it involves angering the bees in a certain way so that they sting a patient on the infected area of their body.

The Iron Man star explained her attitude in heading up Goop, whose recommended treatments have previously included ‘vagina steaming’ and synthetic snake venom cream, is of being “generally open to anything”.

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“I'm always the guinea pig to try everything. I've got to try them all,” Paltrow said, adding that she “loves” acupuncture [a much more well-known treatment] and cryotherapy, the use of extremely cold temperatures to treat medical issues.

Recently, Paltrow confirmed that Martin had signed their divorce papers at the end of March following their ‘conscious uncoupling’ almost two years ago. In the new interview, she said that her 11 year marriage, during which they had two children, has given her “a slightly easier philosophy, all around, than 10 years ago.”

She added: “I think I see now that life is really a balance. And it's great to eat nutrient-dense organic food, if you can. It’s also really great to drink a vodka and have French fries. Your metabolism does slow as you get older, though. If I have to get into tiptop shape, I have to be more careful. But I also don’t seem to care as much as I did.”

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