The micronutrients, vitamins, and minerals in propolis provide some excellent health benefits. Propolis is an excellent source of certain polyphenols that are called flavonoids. These flavonoids function as antioxidants. If you’re unaware, antioxidants play an important role in your overall health by neutralizing oxidants. Too many oxidants in the body can result in damage to all areas of the body, which can lead to increased cell death and turnover. Too frequent cell turnover allows for more mutations in cells to occur, leading to a number of health issues.

There are some additional health benefits to propolis.  Did you know that propolis has been shown to help with blood sugar balance? There are some promising research studies that have been done to show that propolis significantly decreases fasting blood glucose levels.   Propolis is also rich in B vitamins, which are considered essential micronutrients. A deficiency in certain B vitamins can contribute to anemia. Adding propolis to your diet can help reduce the risk of deficiency in B vitamins, and by extension iron deficiency.  

Royal Jelly

What is Royal Jelly? Can humans actually use it? Royal jelly is a nutritious substance produced by young nurse bees. It contains significant amounts of amino acids (the “building blocks of protein”) that are important for cell growth and reproduction. As a honey bee secretion, the jelly is used in the nutrition of bee larvae and adult queen bees. Knowing this, you would think that it’s only meant for the bees. However, what we’re finding is it’s actually beneficial for people too. Royal jelly possesses various biological attributes beneficial for human health, such as antioxidant activities, antibacterial effects, and enhancement of immune activity.

Royal jelly contains proteins, carbohydrates, fats, free amino acids, vitamins and minerals. Some refer to it as “the fountain of youth and beauty,” it’s a good source of Vitamin B5 and other B vitamins, biotin, inositol, folate, nucleic acids, gamma globulin and 17 different amino acids, including the eight essential amino acids that the human body cannot produce. In addition, royal jelly also contains potassium, magnesium, calcium, copper, sulphur, zinc, iron and manganese.

The lipids (fat) royal jelly contains are composed of mostly (aliphatic) fatty acids, almost all of which are present as free fatty acids. Most fatty acids in royal jelly are medium-chain fatty acids. There’s some evidence that these lipids are useful as preventive and supportive medicines with functionalities that include potential inhibitors of cancer growth, immune system modulators, alternative therapies for menopause, skin-ageing protectors and more.