Abstract
We recently established criteria for discriminating between young women with and without chills. Using these discriminative criteria, we investigated the effect of royal jelly (RJ) on chills in young women. Participants with chills (n=24) were randomly assigned to RJ-low (1.4 g/day), RJ-high (2.8 g/day), and placebo groups. Using a double-blind protocol, young women took RJ tablets once a day for 2 weeks. We measured the severity of complaints related to chills, peripheral circulation, skin surface temperature of the fingers, and the recovery of skin surface temperature after mild cold-water immersion. Statistical analysis revealed that the skin surface temperature was significantly increased after daily intake of a high dose of RJ and that the difference between the underarm and surface temperatures was significantly reduced in the RJ-high group compared with the pre-treatment level. Furthermore, we found that RJ significantly facilitated the recovery of skin surface temperature.
