Bee Royal™ (90)

As a dietary supplement take 1 tablet with a large glass of water twice daily.


Contraindication

Individual intolerance.

Bee Pollen’s beneficial health properties were described in medical books thousands of years ago. It has been prescribed by traditional health practitioners - including the “fathers of Western medicine” Hippocrates, Pliny the Elder, and Pythagoras - for its healing properties. The Russian scientist Nicolai Tsytsyn was the first to discover that the major part of food consumed by Russian/Georgian “long-livers” (older than 125 years old, more than 200 people) consists of Bee Pollen and honey. Bee Pollen is a wonderful natural treasure!

Bee pollen is actually pollen from flowers that is collected from bees as they enter the hive or is harvested by other means. Pollen granules stick to the bees' legs and other body parts as they help themselves to nectar (the precursor of honey) inside the flowers. Bee pollen contains all of the essential amino acids and many vitamins and minerals. It is rich with vitamin B, contains vitamin A, C, D, E, bioflavonoid rutin. Bee Pollen consists of approximately 35% protein (22 different amino acids, more than 5,000 enzymes and co-enzymes), 55% carbohydrates, 2% fatty acids, 3% vitamins and minerals.

Owing to the fact that Bee Pollen is high with the vitamin B group it can be used for energy support. Bee pollen is also widely used for immune system support and body detoxification.
In the last years Bee Pollen attracted the dermatologists’ attention. Doctor Lars-Eric Essen, a Swedish dermatologist claims that Bee Pollen prevents premature skin aging, stimulates new skin cell growth, improves blood circulation and prevents dehydration.

Royal jelly is a combination of flower nectar, sugars, proteins, and bee glandular secretions. For the first three days of a larval bee’s life, it is fed royal jelly. After three days, however, royal jelly is only fed to the larva that is destined to be the Queen Bee. As a result of this royal diet, the queen bee is nearly 50% larger than the working bees, and she lives an average of six years, compared to the 35-40 days lifespan of the worker bee. Although laboratory studies have found that this mysterious food is a combination of well-known vitamins and nutrients, because of its effect on bee longevity, it has traditionally been used as a health food in many cultures for everything from weight loss, to liver disease, to an external fountain of youth.
Royal jelly is rich in protein, vitamins B-1, B-2, B-6, C, E, niacin, pantothenic acid, biotin, inositol and folic acid.  In fact, it contains seventeen times as much pantothenic acid as that found in dry pollen. The overall composition of royal jelly is 67% water, 12.5% protein (including small amounts of many different amino acids), and 11% sugars, also including a relatively high amount (5%) of fatty acids. It also contains many trace minerals, some enzymes, antibacterial and antibiotic components, and trace amounts of vitamin C.

The study of bees and their products is no longer limited to folk medicine, since both beekeeping and harvesting of products are carried out under technically advanced conditions, it has reached the status of scientific medicine. Santegra® is presenting this unique product - Bee Royal™ to your attention.

Octacosanol is used to improve energy levels, to increase endurance, stamina & vigor.  The research shows that octacosanol has promising effects on endurance, reaction time, and other measures of exercise capacity. Some preliminary reports suggest that octacosanol can decrease cholesterol levels.

Spirulina is a microscopic blue - green algae. These algae are found in the warm, alkaline waters of the world, especially of Mexico and Central Africa. This ability of Spirulina to grow in hot and alkaline environments ensures its hygienic status, as no other organisms can survive to pollute the waters in which this algae thrives. Spirulinais in fact one of the cleanest, most naturally sterile foods found in nature.
Its adaptation to heat also assures that Spirulina retains its nutritional value when subject to high temperatures during processing and shelf storage, unlike many plant-based foods that rapidly deteriorate at high temperatures.
The name "spirulina" is derived from the Latin word "spiral"; describing the physical configuration of the organism.
Spirulina has been used since ancient times as a source of nutrients and has been said to possess a variety of medical uses, including as an antioxidant, antiviral, antineoplastic, weight loss aid, and lipid-lowering agent.
Spirulina is believed to have been a food source for the Aztecs in the 16th-century.
Spirulina may have an even longer history in Chad, as far back as the 9th century. French Professor Pierre Dangeard, an expert phycologist, reported in 1940 that the Kanembus of Lake Chad were eating cakes of blue-green algae, which they called dihe. The Spirulinais harvested from small lakes and ponds around Lake Chad. But it took another quarter of a century before Jean Leonard, a Belgian botanist participating in a 1964 expedition to Lake Chad, noticed some blue-green “cookies” for sale in the local markets. He determined that the cookies were made of the algae from alkaline lakes northeast of Lake Chad, at the same time that French scientists were researching Spirulina from Lake Texcoco.
Spirulina algae is an extremely high protein source with a protein content of 60-70 percent higher than any other natural food and most nutritional products, containing all essential amino acids. However, even greater nutritional value can be found in its high concentration of vitamins B1, B2, B3, B6, B9, B12, vitamin C, vitamin D, and vitamin E, minerals: potassium, and also contains calcium, chromium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, selenium, sodium, and zinc. Spirulina also provides high concentrations of many other nutrients - amino acids, pigmentations, rhamnose sugars (complex natural plant sugars), enzymes - that are in an easily assimilable form.

Women who battle menopause symptoms will be interested in the results of a study conducted in Denmark. There, they gave Melbrosia (royal jelly mixed with bee and flower pollen) to women going through menopause, and 1/3 of the women who participated reported relief of their symptoms, including headache, vaginal dryness, and fatigue. (1)

A meta-analysis of royal jelly’s reported effects on serum lipids in experimental animals and in humans found significant positive results. The substance significantly decreased serum and liver total lipids and cholesterol in rats and mice, and retarded the formation of atheromas in the aortas of rabbits fed hyperlipidemic diets. Meta-analysis of controlled human studies also showed significant reduction in total serum lipids and cholesterol, and, in those with hyperlipidemia, it normalized HDL- and LDL-cholesterol determined from decreases in beta/alpha lipoproteins. The author of this meta-analysis concluded: "The best available evidence suggests that royal jelly, at approximately 50 to 100 milligrams per day, decreased total serum cholesterol levels by about 14% and total serum lipids by about 10% in the group of patients studied." (2)

Scientists investigated the antifatigue effect of royal jelly (RJ), which had been stored at -20 degrees C from immediately after collection, in male Std ddY mice. The mice were accustomed to swimming in an adjustable-current swimming pool, then subjected to forced swimming five times during 2 wk, and the total swimming period until exhaustion was measured. They were separated into three groups with equal swimming capacity, which were administered RJ, RJ stored at 40 degrees C for 7 d (40-7d RJ), or the control solution including casein, cornstarch, and soybean oil before swimming. All mice were forced to swim for 15 min once; then the maximum swimming time to fatigue was measured after a rest period. The swimming endurance of the RJ group significantly increased compared with those of the other groups. The mice in the RJ group showed significantly decreased accumulation of serum lactate and serum ammonia and decreased depletion of muscle glycogen after swimming compared with the other groups, whereas there was no significant difference between the 40-7d RJ group and the control group in these parameters after swimming. A quantitative analysis of constituents in RJ showed that 5 7-kDa protein, which we previously identified as a possible freshness marker of RJ, was specifically degraded in RJ stored at 40 degrees C for 7 d, whereas the contents of various vitamins, 10-hydroxy-2-decenoic acid, and other fatty acids in RJ were unchanged. These findings suggest that RJ can ameliorate the physical fatigue after exercise, and this antifatigue effect of RJ in mice seems to be associated with the freshness of RJ, possibly with the content of 5 7-kDa protein. (3)

Bee pollen has helped manage menstrual pain and irregularities, as shown by a double-blind study of Bogdan Tekavcic, M.D., chief of the Ljubljana Center for Gynecology in Yugoslavia. For two months, half of the women in the study were given a mixture of bee pollen and royal jelly, and the other half a placebo. Almost all the women taking bee products demonstrated vast improvement or total disappearance of menstrual pain. The placebo group showed little or no change.

Bee pollen may also protect against wind-borne allergens that cause hay fever and even asthma. Ullrich Wahn, M.D., a researcher at Heidelberg University Children’s Clinic in Germany, studied 70 children with hay fever and allergy-related asthma. He fed them a solution of bee pollen and honey daily during the annual hay fever period and three days weekly during the winter. Most of the children presented fewer symptoms after following this regimen.

Scientists of the Second Moscow Medical Institute used royal jelly to treat hypotrophy in 2 – 7.5 months old children with low weight, bad appetite and sleep, low activity. Children received 5 mg of royal jelly in suppositories 3 times daily. The good results were achieved within 7-10 days: the appetite improved, children gained weight, and they became more active and joyous. The results show that royal jelly is a strong biological stimulant that improves metabolism and activate vital processes in children with hypotrophy.

Octacosanol-containing wheat germ oil was investigated decades ago as an exercise performance–promoting (ergogenic) agent. These preliminary studies found that octacosanol had promising effects on endurance, reaction time, and other measures of exercise capacity. (4)

Octacosanol supplementation increases running endurance time and improves biochemical parameters after exhaustion in trained rats.
This study evaluated the effects of octacosanol on running performance and related biochemical parameters in exercise-trained rats run to exhaustion on a treadmill. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly assigned to one of three groups - sedentary control group (SC), exercise-trained control group (EC), and exercise-trained, octacosanol-supplemented group (EO) - and raised on either control or octacosanol (0.75%)-supplemented diet with (or without for SC rats) exercise-training for 4 weeks. EC rats ran 184% longer until exhaustion than SC rats, while octacosanol-supplemented trained rats ran 46% longer than EC rats. Under the exhausted state immediately following the running performance test, EO rats exhibited significantly higher plasma ammonia and lactate concentrations compared with the values for EC rats. Although EO rats ran significantly longer until exhausted, their plasma glucose level and gastronecmius muscle glycogen concentration were not significantly different from those of EC rats. Dietary supplementation of octacosanol resulted in significantly higher creatine phosphokinase activity in plasma (44% increase) and citrate synthase activity in muscle (16% increase) of exercise-trained rats. These results suggest that the ergogenic properties of octacosanol include the sparing of muscle glycogen stores and increases in the oxidative capacity in the muscle of exercise-trained rats. (5)

Policosanol is a mixture of higher primary aliphatic alcohols isolated from sugar cane wax, whose main component is octacosanol. The mixture has been shown to lower cholesterol in animal models, healthy volunteers, and patients with type II hypercholesterolemia. Gouni-Berthold, Ioanna MD and  Berthold, Heiner K. MD, PhD  reviewed the literature on placebo-controlled lipid-lowering studies using policosanol published in peer-reviewed journals as well as studies investigating its mechanism of action and its clinical pharmacology.
At doses of 10 to 20 mg per day, policosanol lowers total cholesterol by 17% to 21% and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol by 21% to 29% and raises high-density lipoprotein cholesterol by 8% to 15%. Because higher doses have not been tested up to now, it cannot be excluded that effectiveness may be even greater. Daily doses of 10 mg of policosanol have been shown to be equally effective in lowering total or LDL cholesterol as the same dose of simvastatin or pravastatin. Triglyceride levels are not influenced by policosanol. At dosages of up to 20 mg per day, policosanol is safe and well tolerated, as studies of >3 years of therapy indicate. There is evidence from in vitro studies that policosanol may inhibit hepatic cholesterol synthesis at a step before mevalonate generation, but direct inhibition of the hydroxy-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase is unlikely. Animal studies suggest that LDL catabolism may be enhanced, possibly through receptor-mediated mechanisms, but the precise mechanism of action is not understood yet. Policosanol has additional beneficial properties such as effects on smooth muscle cell proliferation, platelet aggregation, and LDL peroxidation. Data on efficacy determined by clinical end points such as rates of cardiac events or cardiac mortality are lacking. Policosanol seems to be a very promising phytochemical alternative to classic lipid-lowering agents such as the statins and deserves further evaluation. (6)

Evidence from animal studies, preliminary human trials and one small double-blind, placebo controlled study suggests that spirulina or other forms of algae might improve cholesterol profile.
Thirty healthy men with high cholesterol, mild hypertension and hyperlipidemia showed lower serum cholesterol, triglyceride and LDL (undesirable fat) levels after eating spirulina for eight weeks. These men did not change their diet, except adding spirulina. No adverse effects were noted. Group A consumed 4.2 grams daily for eight weeks. Total serum cholesterol dropped a significant 4.5% within 4 weeks from 244 to 233. Group B consumed spirulina for four weeks, then stopped. Serum cholesterol levels decreased, then returned to the initial level. Researchers concluded spirulina did lower serum cholesterol and was likely to have a favorable effect on alleviating heart disease since the arterioscelosis index improved. (9)

1. Szanto E, Gruber D, Sator M, et al. Placebo-controlled study of melbrosia in treatment of climacteric symptoms. Wien Med Wochenschr 1994;144:130

2. Vittek J. Effect of royal jelly on serum lipids in experimental animals and humans with atherosclerosis. Experientia 1995;51:927-35 [review].

3. Kamakura M, Mitani N, Fukuda T, Fukushima M.; Antifatigue effect of fresh royal jelly in mice. J Nutr Sci Vitaminol (Tokyo) 2001 Dec;47(6):394-401

4. Cureton TK. The physiological effects of wheat germ oil on humans. In Exercise. Illinois: Charles C Thomas, 1972, 296–300.

5. Hernandez F, Illnait J, Mas R, Castano G, Fernandez L, Gonzalez M et al. Effect of policosanol on serum lipids and lipoproteins in healthy volunteers. Cur Ther Res 1992;51:568-75.

6. Pons P, Jimenez A, Rodrigues M, Illnait J, Mas R, Fernandez L et al. Effects of policosanol in elderly hypercholesterolemic patients. Curr Ther Res 1993;53;265-9.

7. Octacosanol supplementation increases running endurance time and improves biochemical parameters after exhaustion in trained rats. Kim H, Park S, Han DS, Park T. J Med Food. 2003 Winter;6(4):345-51.

8. Policosanol: clinical pharmacology and therapeutic significance of a new lipid-lowering agent. Gouni-Berthold I, Berthold HK. Am. Heart J. 2002; l43: 356-65

9. N. Nayaka, et al. 1988. Tokai Univ. Pub. in Nutrition Reports Int'l, Vol. 37, No. 6, 1329-1337. Japan.