As we wrote a year ago, animal studies showed that a supplement with Royal Jelly increased the production of testosterone. This is also true for humans, as we now know. We found a human study in the digital scientific journal of Thi-Qar College of Medicine in Iraq.
Study
The study that we found in the Thi-Qar Medical Journal dates from 2007 and concerns 83 infertile men who wanted to have children. The researchers divided the men into four groups who all took 10 gr honey before going to sleep at night.
The first group used honey containing 100 mg Royal Jelly. The second group used honey with 50 mg Royal Jelly, and the amount for the third group was 25 mg. The fourth group used honey without Royal Jelly. The supplementation lasted for 3 months. The study does not mention which sort of Royal Jelly was used.
Results
Although the men did not produce more spermatozoa as a result of the supplement, the Royal Jelly did increase the activity of the spermatozoa. The first table included below shows that the percentage of moving spermatozoa increased as a result of the supplement.
Royal Jelly increased the production of the stimulating hormones FSH and LH by some tens of percent. The second table shows the effect on the concentration of LH.
As shown above, Royal Jelly increased the concentration of testosterone by 20 percent. Twenty percent may not seem like much, but you only need 25 mg Royal Jelly a day to realise this effect.
Royal Jelley overdose
Chinese researchers at Nanchang University published an animal study in Food and Chemical Toxicology in which daily doses of Royal Jelly of some hundreds of milligrams per kg of body weight had undesirable hormonal effects. [Food Chem Toxicol. 2012 Jun;50(6):1834-40.]
Influence of royal jelly on the reproductive function of puberty male rats.
Abstract
The adverse effects of royal jelly on the reproductive system of puberty male rats were investigated. Royal jelly was daily administered by gavage to Sprague-Dawley rats at doses 200, 400, and 800 mg/kg for 4 weeks. The body weight and organ coefficients were determined. Sperm count, spermatozoa abnormality, and testicular histopathology were examined through light microscopy. Radioimmunoassay was used to detect serum hormones. The dietary exposure to royal jelly did not affect body weight, but the organ coefficients for the pituitary and testis in the high-dose group were decreased significantly compared with the control group, and significant changes in the microstructure of the testis were observed. No significant differences in sperm count were observed among all groups, however, the sperm deformity rate in the high-dose group increased significantly. Serum hormones in the high-dose group were significantly different from the control group. After royal jelly was stopped for 14 days, the adverse changes were partially reversed and returned to levels close to those in the control group. In conclusion, high-dose royal jelly oral administration for 4 weeks adversely affected the reproductive system of pubescent male rats, but the unfavorable effects are alleviated to some extent by cessation of administration.
Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
PMID: 22426244 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]
