Blue Summit Royal Jelly

With royal jelly, the first question isn't what it does. It's whether you can take it at all. These are the questions our naturopaths ask in store.

A good fit if

• Menopause symptoms are your reason, because that's where the best evidence is
• You've never had asthma, hay fever, eczema or a reaction to bee products
• You'll give it a couple of months, and you're not expecting a dramatic result

Check with us first if

• You take warfarin or another blood thinner. There's a published case of a man whose stable INR jumped to 6.88, with bleeding, a week after he started royal jelly.
• You have, or have had, an oestrogen-sensitive condition such as breast cancer. Royal jelly's 10-HDA attaches to oestrogen receptors, and the published review describes the cancer data as controversial. Talk to your treating team.
• You're pregnant or breastfeeding. The TGA doesn't require a warning here, but we found no human trial in either group, so it's a lack of data rather than a green light.
• You're buying a blend with propolis, bee pollen or honey. Each has its own required warning, so a combination adds to the allergy risk rather than lowering it.
• You plan to take it all the time. Long-term safety hasn't been assessed, and reviewers name that as an open question.
• If you take prescription medicine, check with your doctor, pharmacist or our naturopaths before you start.

• Royal jelly, lyophilised (freeze-dried). Best known for: The freeze-dried powder in most capsules on the shelf, and the form nearly every trial taken by mouth used. Absorption: No study compares it with fresh royal jelly, so nobody can say which is better. Typical use: The menopause trial behind the shelf claim used 1,000 mg a day for eight weeks, a dose an ordinary capsule delivers.
• Royal jelly, fresh. Best known for: The raw secretion, kept frozen or refrigerated, sold on the idea that drying damages the proteins. Absorption: Never measured against the dried forms. Typical use: The 'equivalent to X mg fresh royal jelly' figure on a capsule pack converts back to this form. One six-month bone trial used dried jelly equivalent to 3,000 mg fresh.
• Protease-treated royal jelly or royal jelly extract, topical. Best known for: Creams and leave-on essences. Protease-treated jelly has been modified with enzymes, so it isn't plain royal jelly. Absorption: It's used on the skin, so absorption into the body isn't the question. Typical use: A 12-week split-face trial in 70 women improved crow's-feet wrinkle depth, skin moisture and skin thickness; a four-week essence trial in 35 people raised skin moisture. Both were on the face, and neither tells you anything about a capsule.
• Royal jelly with propolis, or with CoQ10. Best known for: Combinations. Propolis adds its own mandatory allergy warning and a 0.001% lead limit on top. Absorption: Not applicable. Typical use: A trial in people on haemodialysis, with propolis added, lowered IL-6 (an inflammation marker) and total cholesterol; a 20-person swimmer pilot with CoQ10 improved high-intensity performance. Two ingredients and one result, so neither can take the credit. A review of nine athlete studies found lower blood lactate from royal jelly alone, with no effect on muscle damage.

Reference values. There aren't any. Royal jelly isn't a nutrient, so the NHMRC Nutrient Reference Values don't cover it. There's no RDI, adequate intake or upper level. That's not a gap in the research. It's simply because royal jelly was never part of the normal diet.

Typical supplemental range. The honest thing we can share is what the trials used, because we haven't been able to check the range on Australian shelves against a reliable source. Doses range from 500 mg to 7,200 mg a day. The menopause research used 1,000 mg a day for eight weeks. The cholesterol and bone trials used 3,000 to 6,000 mg a day over one to six months. Both the dose and how long you take it seem to matter: a 690 mg, four-week trial in 100 people found no change.

Upper level. There's no TGA daily cap on any of the three royal jelly ingredients, and no upper level has been set. The highest recorded dose is 7,200 mg a day for eight weeks in 43 people, with no side effects reported. The longest is 3,150 mg a day for three months in 40 adults, where liver and kidney tests didn't change. Neither is an official limit, and reviewers say standard dosing and long-term safety data are still missing.

Worth knowing. You can't get royal jelly from your usual diet, so there's no food intake to top up. What's in it changes with the region and the plants the bees visited, which is one real reason a trial result may not apply to the jar in your hand. What you need depends on your age, diet and health, so talk to one of our naturopaths.

Food first, where the diet allows it.

• Royal jelly itself, fresh or freeze-dried: no per-serve figure, because it isn't part of any ordinary diet. You eat it as royal jelly or not at all
• Royal jelly blended into honey: sold as a food here, and it must carry the FSANZ royal jelly warning statement
• Honey on its own: none. Honey isn't royal jelly, and contains it only if someone blended it in

If any of these sound like you, talk to one of our naturopaths or your doctor before you start.

• You have asthma. A mandatory Schedule 1 warning says not to take it.
• You have allergies of any kind. The same mandatory 3 mm front-of-pack warning applies, naming severe reactions and rare deaths.
• Children. Every listed royal jelly medicine must say 'Not suitable for children'.
• You take warfarin or another anticoagulant. In one case report, INR rose from a stable 1.9-2.4 to 6.88, with blood in the urine.
• You have an oestrogen-sensitive condition, including breast cancer. 10-HDA binds to oestrogen receptors, so talk to your treating team.
• You're pregnant or breastfeeding. No TGA warning is required, but we found no human trials, so see a practitioner rather than assume it's fine.
• You're taking a combination bee product. Propolis, pollen and honey each add their own mandatory warning.
• You plan to take it continuously long term. Long-term safety hasn't been properly assessed.
• You're buying royal jelly sold as a food. It carries the FSANZ food warning but not the statements required on medicines.
• If you take prescription medicines, check with your doctor, pharmacist or our naturopaths before starting.