Royal Jelly May Help Treat Depression and Anxiety

This research confirms what has been noted before of Royal Jelly's overall positive tonic effect ...

Antidepressant-Like Activity of 10-hydroxy-trans-2-decenoic acid, a Unique Unsaturated Fatty Acid of Royal Jelly, in Stress-Inducible Depression-Like Mouse Model
Evid Based Complement Alternat Med, 2012;2012:139140. Epub 2011 Jul 24

Royal jelly (RJ), which is fed to the queen honeybee, has a variety of biological activities towards various types of cells. For instance, RJ exhibits immunomodulatory properties [1–3] and inhibits the development of atopic dermatitis-like skin lesions [4]....


Symptoms of depression and anxiety appeared in mice after they had been subjected to a combination of forced swimming for 15 min followed by being kept in cages that were sequentially subjected to leaning, drenching, and rotation within 1-2 days for a total of 3 weeks. 

The animals were then evaluated by the tail-suspension test, elevated plus-maze test, and open-field test at 1 day after the end of stress exposure. Using these experimental systems, we found that 10-hydroxy-trans-2-decenoic acid (HDEA), an unsaturated fatty acid unique to royal jelly (RJ), protected against the depression and anxiety when intraperitoneally administered once a day for 3 weeks simultaneously with the stress loading. Intraperitoneally administered RJ, a rich source of HDEA, was also protective against the depression, but RJ given by the oral route was less effective...


 These results demonstrate that HDEA and RJ, a natural source of it, are effective in ameliorating the stress-inducible symptoms of depression and anxiety and suggest that they may become a promising tool as a new antidepressant.

Irradiation of Honey Enhances Antioxidant Activity

Honey posseses antioxidant properties, so does propolis and royal jelly.... what a curious trend...

Antioxidant Capacities and Total Phenolic Contents Increase with Gamma Irradiation in Two Types of Malaysian Honey

Molecules, 2011 Jul 27;16(8):6378-95

Two types of monofloral Malaysian honey (Gelam and Nenas) were analyzed to determine their antioxidant activities and total phenolic and flavonoid contents, with and without gamma irradiation.

Our results showed that both types of honey can scavenge free radicals and exhibit high antioxidant-reducing power; however, Gelam honey exhibited higher antioxidant activity than Nenas honey, which is in good correlation with its phenolic contents.

Interestingly, we also noted that both irradiated honeys have higher antioxidant activities and total phenolic and flavonoid contents compared to nonirradiated honeys by Folin-Ciocalteu and UV-spectrophotometry methods, respectively. However, HPLC analysis for phenolic compounds showed insignificant increase between irradiated and nonirradiated honeys. The phenolic compounds such as: caffeic acid, chlorogenic acid, ellagic acid, p- coumaric acid, quercetin and hesperetin as indicated by HPLC method were found to be higher in Gelam honey versus Nenas honey.

In conclusion, irradiation of honey causes enhanced antioxidant activities and flavonoid compounds.

New Page Urban Herb Botanical Teaching Garden Launches

Hey there! ACHS has a launched a new page, Urban Herb Botanical Teaching Garden, dedicated to ... you guessed it ... our campus herb garden! Visit us here.

And be sure to check back frequently for new photos, botanical events, and garden tips.

While you're on Urban Herb Botanical Teaching Garden, feel free to leave a comment or post your best garden tips. We'd love to hear from you!

Learn How to Make Healthy Herbal Sun Teas with ACHS

This summer, ACHS has partnered with the Beaverton Farmers Market to offer community education regarding holistic health and wellness.



At our booth this past weekend, we shared how easy it is to make a great-tasting and good-for-you herbal sun tea as a delicious alternative to sodas and other sugary drinks. The ACHS Herbal Sun Tea is also the perfect way to get your kids involved with organic gardening and cooking.



Here's a video of ACHS President Dorene Petersen demonstrating how to make herbal sun tea!







What's your favorite herbal tea blend? Please feel free to post your recipes and suggestions for fresh-from-the-garden summer tea. We look forward to hearing from you.

Royal Jelly Powder Acts as a Brain Food

It's not called royal for nothing... Royal Jelly is good for the brain and the body...

(NaturalNews, Sunday, July 24, 2011 by: Alex Malinsky aka RawGuru)

An interesting product, to say the least, royal jelly is the food that turns regular bee larvae into queen bees - it's the substance that elevates the physical capabilities of certain bees to allow them to become leaders of their own hives. Secreted by the nurse bees that look after the larvae in a hive, royal jelly causes some of the baby bees to grow faster and stronger than the rest. Claims have been made that when consumed by humans royal jelly can act as a "brain food," providing the boost the brain needs to grow faster and more efficient.

This claim is made because royal jelly contains a rare fatty acid, 10-HDA, that is said to enhance the cognitive capabilities of individuals. Due to a high concentration of phospholipids, people that consume royal jelly are able to improve their motor function, short-term memory, learning abilities, and overall awareness. Studies have shown that royal jelly has even been able to improve the conditions of individuals that suffer from Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. The availability of a natural therapy for such illnesses is certainly important, as the market's current medications are laden with harsh chemicals that often provide serious side effects.

Despite the fact that royal jelly is recognized as a brain food, it remains that this natural remedy has much more to offer than increased brain function. As a substance that contains many B vitamins (especially Vitamin B5, pantothenic acid), trace minerals, and antibacterial proteins, royal jelly provides a natural boost of overall well-being. Some of its many other health benefits are:

* Efficient regeneration of tissue, especially that involving DNA.

* Increase in the strength of white blood cells, which boosts the immune system.

* Reduction of oxygen supplied to tumors, allowing the body to fight several types of cancer.

* Regulations of blood sugar, which can improve the health of individuals with diabetes.

* DHEA, a hormone that has anti-aging and adrenal-regulating properties.

* Restoration of the function of both the adrenal and kidney systems.

* Faster hair growth that also improves shine and color, due to para-aminobenzoic acid.

* Younger looking skin, a result of collagen and zinc.

* Rest and renewal after being overworked or excessively tired.

* Relief from asthenia, anxiety, insomnia, asthma, arthritis, gout, skin problems, and even broken bones.

* Lower cholesterol.

* Increased anti-inflammatory and antibiotic capabilities.

The use of royal jelly powder has been deemed safe for the majority of individuals; however, people that suffer from allergies or are allergic to royal jelly may suffer from an allergic reaction that could be fatal. Therefore, knowing all allergies before taking the supplement is crucial to achieving success when incorporating royal jelly into a diet.

Individuals who choose to add royal jelly powder can expect to experience an overall boost in their health. These many benefits will provide a well-rounded increase in well-being, allowing users to feel more alert and more comfortable. Though it is advertised as a "brain food," and does contain substances that can boost the activity of the brain and nervous system, royal jelly also provides many other highly valuable health benefits that make it an important supplement in the lives of people who are seeking natural remedies.

"I Can Heal Wounds with Honey and So Can You"

An M.D. (and a new beekeeper) explains simply why honey heals wounds...

By Allen Dennison, The Providence Journal, 7/22/2011

The Crowne Plaza Hotel in Warwick resembles a decent beehive even on a slack day. It is swarming with conferees and employees moving in and out of chambers consuming sweet food. Some people arrive by air from nearby T.F. Green Airport on low-cost fares. There is a high social organization.

Next week, on July 25-29, management will show extreme cooperation in welcoming 20 beehives and 500 beekeepers for the annual meeting of the Eastern Apiculture Society. They will have talks on Colony Collapse Disorder, practical beekeeping including a bee yard, the business of keeping an apiary and treating illness with bee products and stings.

On Wednesday they will be regaled by Rhode Island’s own Charlie Hall and the Ocean State Follies, who will sting them all in a show they will not soon forget. If you have even a passing interest in bees, I recommend that you go to the Web site easternapiculture.org and sign up for a day or two.

I am presenting my literature review and work among the elderly in healing wounds with honey, based on 30 years of office practice and work as a medical director of Evergreen House Health Center, a nursing home in East Providence. I remember a comic TV routine with Mel Brooks interviewing Sid Caesar posing as a great Egyptologist. “So professor, what is the secret of Tutankhamen’s Tomb?” Quipped Caesar, “Twenty years of research and I should tell you?”

I am going to tell you. Speaking of Egyptian tombs, did you know that urns of honey were found undegraded in several tombs in ancient Egypt? This tells volumes about the amazing chemical nature of honey for wound-healing, to say nothing of the long association of the bees and humans.

How does honey help to heal wounds and why is it superior to neosporin, bacitracin and prescription mupirocin (bactroban)? Honey is bee spit but it is also their energy currency and their bank account. Just as “people get funny about their money” so, too, do bees get funny about their honey. They hate bears, bacteria and yeasts that may steal or spoil the honey. For the bears they have stingers, for the micro-organisms they put amazing stuff in the honey. They also seal the hive with an antimicrobial substance called propilis.

Honey is a mixture of concentrated sugars that immediately dehydrate a bacterial cell, rendering it immobile, though without necessarily killing it. Young Dr. Keith Monchik, of the Orthopedic Service at Rhode Island Hospital (RIH), went to Haiti with our team from the Ocean State to treat earthquake victims. They ran out of usual wound-care creams quickly but a senior military nurse reminded the team that sugar packs from their rations always work in a pinch to keep a wound from getting infected through the same mechanism. He reported gratifying results to the RIH medical staff.

The high osmotic value of honey draws fluids out of wounds. This decreases tissue pressure, thus admitting more new blood, with, of course, oxygen, as well as healing elements and protective immune-system cells. As the fluid hits the honey, small amounts of hydrogen peroxide are produced, very toxic to bacteria but not to fibroblasts and healing elements. Honey derived from medicinally active nectars such as tea tree and eucalyptus may have additional value, and the Food and Drug Administration has allowed their importation and marketing.

Topical antibiotic creams and ointments — both over the counter and prescription — are commonly used for skin infections and wound healing. These include neosporin, bacitracin, “triple-antibiotic” ointments and mupirocin. They sterilize the wound but also kill healing elements, leading to delayed wound closure. And they often lead to confusing red hypersensitivity reactions.

Additionally, more and more bacteria are growing resistant to antibiotics, which is a terrific threat to all of us. Some are costly. We should avoid these like the plague. My wife, Jane Dennison, M.D., is a pediatrician and beekeeper. As our house experienced colony collapse with drone migration of our four boys to New York City and Washington, my wife had the time to take the Bee Course offered by Rhode Island Beekeepers Association (RIBA) and start some hives. At the monthly RIBA meetings I spoke with the older beekeepers and was fascinated to learn of honey’s medicinal benefits. Some of the older beekeepers suggested that I try using honey mixed with Aquaphor ointment on my patients with minor wounds and ulcers. Honey at body temperature gets runny and dribbles on clothes, leading to poor treatment adherence. Aquaphor was already my favorite healing ointment. It is well-suited to mixing in equal parts with honey because the lanolin and mineral oil holds both aqueous and oily parts together to treat a wound.

Mixing large batches with the help of my mother in law, Jane Mackenzie, R.N., is sticky business indeed. She helps me pot it into little cosmetic jars for use in the nursing home. We heat the aquaphor to 110 degrees in the microwave but never put raw honey in the microwave because it would ruin its special qualities. And I urge you all: “Do this at home!.” You can’t buy it already made up.

If I were to try to sell this as a medicament, the Food and Drug Administration could have me jailed and impound all my ointment, because adequate studies on the effectiveness and safety of this compound have not been done. However, two imported products, Medihoney and Manuka Honey, have passed FDA approval for wound-healing. They are derived from the eucalyptus and tea tree plant, respectively, whose nectars have supposedly superior qualities. These honeys are irriadiated to inactivate trace amounts of botulinum toxin and bacteria.

I believe that raw honey needs no such help and that such help might even be counter-productive. This treatment and the importation increases the cost of treatment, with small tubes going for $50 to $100. I insist on the real thing when treating serious or stubborn wounds but for everyday use the product from your home lab will work very well on your cuts, burns and skin tears.

If you have diabetes and/or congestive heart failure peripheral arterial-supply problems, no ointment is going to help. The problem is under the skin. You need a doctor for it. I invite colleagues and hospitals to begin randomized controlled trials on using local raw honey head to head against imported honey and the usual wound-care products. My hypothesis is that we can control, at low cost, such superbugs as methacillin-resistant staphyllococus aureus and vancomycin-resistant enterococcous and the emergence of further resistant superbugs by avoiding the usual antibiotics.

Meanwhile, we’d be encouraging the development of new local hives, which are so important to pollination — and thus plant life and the broader eco-system — nationally. You may be interested in using bee stings to treat disease and honey to desensitize yourself to allergies. On July 28 the Apitherapy Association will make a presentation. You can find out information on the schedule and admission at easternapiculture.org.

Allen Dennison, M.D., is an assistant beekeeper and internist practicing in Barrington and East Providence.

Overcoming Addictions Cigarette

If we are addicted to cigarettes that name, it's hard to stop. But if we do feelsmoking is not beneficial, why smoking is forwarded again. We must try to stop the cigarettes that are clearly detrimental for the health of the smoker himself,also to the people around smokers. In addition smoking may also interfere withthe family finances.

By Google

Here are tips to quit smoking, may help:

* The willingness or strong intention to quit smoking, then make a commitmentwith yourself to quit smoking.

* Keep away from friends who were smoking cigarettes or builders, and alsokeep it away from the smoking area.

* Keep away from things that remind the desire to smoke such as lighters andcigarettes.

* Divert the desire to smoke with little food or sucking candy instead ofsmoking, every time it comes the desire to smoke.

* Forget the desire to smoke to multiply the activity, such as working,exercising, playing games, and so on.

* If you have difficulty to directly stop completely, start by reducing the number of cigarettes. For example, if before you smoke 12 sticks a day, cut into 10 bars, 6 bars and so on until you actually stop smoking.