The Effects of Royal Jelly

Royal jelly is emitted by worker bees to feed their larvae, and used as the sole food for a larva chosen to become a queen bee. Royal jelly is considered to be extremely beneficial and healthy for bees. As a result, many people believe that it has similar strong nutritional and dietary benefits for humans, as well. Royal jelly is used to treat various ailments and is taken as a nutritional supplement.

Effects on Bees

• Queen bees are the leaders of bee colonies. They are the sole bees that are permitted to reproduce. Reproduction only occurs on a few occasions in the life of a queen bee. Worker bees emit a soft, white, cream-like substance out of glands in their heads. This substance is the sole source of nutrition for a queen bee. When eggs become larvae, the baby bees then also consume royal jelly for about two to three days. This helps them rapidly become large, very healthy bees.

As Medicine

• Royal jelly is believed to be helpful at curing or alleviating various health ailments. Some of these conditions are hypertension, Graves' disease (as an immunomodulatory agent), high levels of cholesterol, rash, anxiety, fatigue, thin hair, sexual dysfunction and allergies.

As a Tonic

• Royal jelly is generally manufactured in either pill, chewable tablet, elixir, liquid or capsule form. It is often sold as a general health tonic and dietary supplement, and usually intended to be taken once a day. Because extracting royal jelly can be a complicated process, royal jelly is typically expensive.

Negative Effects

• There can be adverse effects from taking royal jelly. Since it is so closely connected to pollen, bee stings and honey, it has the potential to cause very strong allergic reactions in those who are allergic to bees or bee-related products. Some allergic reaction symptoms are asthma attacks, breaking out into hives or, in some more severe instances, anaphylaxis, which is a dangerous and sometimes fatal reaction.

Basic Benefits

• It is believed that royal jelly has some basic positive benefits, including making the skin and hair look younger and healthier, increasing energy levels, making the immune system significantly stronger, increasing resistance to colds, flu and other ailments, and decreasing feelings of stress.