Fabiola Mallon-Mercado¹, Mónica R Jaime-Fonseca¹ and Patricia Vergara Aragón²*

¹Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Centro de Investigación en Ciencia Aplicada y Tecnología Avanzada, Ciudad de México, México
²Departamento de Fisiología, Facultad de Medicina Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad Universitaria, Ciudad de México, México

*Corresponding Author: Patricia Vergara Aragón, Departamento de Fisiología, Facultad de Medicina Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad Universitaria, Ciudad de México, México.

Received: June 21, 2021; Published: August 07, 2021

Abstract

We sought to evaluate the effect of ingesting artichoke extract and bee products (royal jelly, honey, pollen), or including them in the diet, on the reduction and/or control of body weight, hot flashes, and insomnia during menopause and climacteric. There are only a few clinical reports that specifically correlate the intake of artichoke (or artichoke extract), in combination with bee products, to the decrease in body weight. In this paper, each of these reports will be examined, together with reports of studies carried out in a menopause model of ovariectomized rats.

A bibliographic search was carried out in PubMed and Google Scholar databases, from January 2010 to January 2021. The results were tabulated for an easy comparison of the experiments performed.

Doses of 20g Tualang honey and 1,000 mg of royal jelly show benefits in reducing menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes, sweating, and sleep disorders. Royal jelly at a dose of 10 ml/day has an activity that is similar to that of estrogens, in addition to antioxidant, and antihypercholesterolemic activity; these activities result in 70% improvement of menopausal symptoms. As for artichoke, 1.8 g of artichoke extract improved the levels of total cholesterol, triglycerides, HDL, and LDL. Hypoestrogenism has been related to physiological changes that are largely responsible for weight gain during menopause, which constitutes a problem for women due to the increase in abdominal fat. Such a situation encourages women to seek alternatives to reduce body weight, hypercholesterolemia, the frequent increase in triglyceride levels, and cardiovascular conditions. In such instance, alternative medicine plays an important role as an option to reduce body weight; specifically, through the reduction of abdominal fat, appetite, and anxiety for sweet foods. Alternative medicine can also provide options to reduce insomnia (specifically improving the quality of REM sleep), irritability, hunger, and appetite (since the consumption of bee products generates a feeling of fullness and satiety). As a result, artichoke and bee products dietary supplementation may represent an effective, inexpensive option for individuals with menopause and overweight.

Keywords: Artichoke; Honeybee; Royal Jelly; Menopause; Body Weight; Hot Flashes; Insomnia

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Citation

Citation: Patricia Vergara Aragón., et al. “Effects of Artichoke and Bee Products on Body Weight Gain, Hot Flashes, and Insomnia during Menopause and Climacteric: A Systematic Review”.Acta Scientific Medical Sciences 5.9 (2021): 30-37.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2021 Patricia Vergara Aragón., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.