Supplements - Royal jelly

What Is It?

Royal jelly is a complex nutritious substance made by worker bees, which they use to feed the queen bee. It contains nectar, sugar, proteins and various vitamins and gives the queen all she needs to grow quickly and be in prime health for reproduction.

Royal jelly appears to also be antibacterial in action and may have actions on the immune system and promote wound healing.

Supplementation

Royal jelly has been used as a food supplement for many years as a:

• General tonic and energy booster
• Immune booster.

Other information

• Many other claims have been made for its uses, but it has only ever been tested on its ability to lower cholesterol with some promising results.
• Royal jelly supplements are available as tablets or capsules or liquid elixir.

Cautions

• Generally, there are no side effects from royal jelly, however some people may experience allergic reactions to it. If you have an allergy to bee products it is best to avoid royal jelly.
• Recent concerns over contamination in royal jelly and other bee products has limited their availability.
• When this article was written there were no well-known negative drug interactions with royal jelly supplements.