Give Your Libido a Lift

Waning libido is a concern for both men and women with advancing age. The most common recommendations involve increasing hormone levels, particularly testosterone, for both sexes.

Hormones are always tricky to work with. However, for men who are of an age where prostate health is a concern, care should be taken when using testosterone or products that increase its production. Testosterone can increase the activity of cancer in the prostate gland.

A natural alternative is royal jelly, a glandular secretion made by worker bees. It’s fed to a selected ordinary female bee, which causes her to transform into the queen. It turns out to be pretty miraculous stuff. On this diet alone, the new queen grows to 11/2 times the size of ordinary bees and lives to over four years, compared to the normal bee life span of forty days.

Royal jelly contains an abundance of minerals; essential amino acids; acetylcholine; and vitamins A, C, D, E, and most B vitamins (in fact, it’s the richest source of pantothenic acid or B5). Royal jelly also contains a small amount of testosterone, which may help explain its benefits for libido. The amount of testosterone in royal jelly is not enough to be of concern. I recommend 50–100 mg of royal jelly a day.

One other substance that seems to affect libido is melatonin. Dr. Russel Reiter, at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, has found that the hormone melatonin, from the pineal gland, affects sexual desire. The more light you're exposed to, the less melatonin your pineal releases. Lower levels of this hormone increase ovulation in women and sperm production in men, and increase the sex drive in both.

If your love life has slowly come to a halt, maybe a little sunbathing would be in order.