The Risks and Benefits of Royal Jelly Supplements

If royal jelly can turn a simple larva into a queen who can live more than fifty times longer after eating it, should we consider eating royal jelly ourselves? The composition of royal jelly and its not-so-creatively-named components (like royalactin, or royalisin, and jelleines) have been characterized, allowing researchers to finally put it and its active ingredients to the test. I wouldn’t expect it to quinquagintuple our lifespan or enable us to starting popping out thousands of eggs a day, but could imagine some sort of health benefit. It works in other bugs, like flies and crickets, but royal jelly has not been shown to increase the lifespan of mammals. What about the mice? Well royal jelly has been shown to increase survival in mice, but that was survival time “following decapitation.” An extra seven seconds! Who thinks up these kinds of experiments?

Clinical trials show it may reduce total cholesterol levels, but not LDL cholesterol, which is what we care most about. Royal jelly supplementation did show promising results for premenstrual syndrome and potentially menopausal symptoms, but there are better options. For example, an eighth of a teaspoon of ground ginger twice a day (a penny’s worth) for a week before one’s period for PMS, and check out my How Not to Age chapter for dealing with symptoms of menopause at your local public library.

Most of global production comes out of China, where royal jelly supplements have been found to be tainted with everything from milk-and-eggs to veterinary drugs like antibiotics… even melamine, the chemical byproduct of the plastics industry that’s been implicated in China’s pet food and infant formula scandals. It’s unclear whether the rare cases of asthma, anaphylactic allergies, and hemorrhagic (bloody) colitis attributed to royal jelly supplements are just due to contaminants. Regardless, while royal jelly may be the bee’s knees for bees, given the slight risk of colon inflammation, eating PB&RJs, could just end up being a royal, pain in the butt.