Mad Honey Boosts Free Testosterone by Factor of 10

Mad honey, a type of honey that's popular the world over as an aphrodisiac, boosts the concentration of free testosterone in the blood by 10 times. Researchers at Karadeniz Technical University in Turkey discovered this when they gave mad honey to animals in their laboratory.

Mad honey



Mad honey is honey produced by bees that have fed from the plant Rhododendron ponticum [see below] and its relatives. This type of honey contains grayanotoxins, which, in small quantities reduce blood pressure and increase men's sexual capacities, but in larger quantities are toxic. Most cases of poisoning have a happy ending, but there are an awful lot of these cases.


Despite the risks associated with mad honey, the demand for the stuff worldwide is enormous - and as a result it's outrageously expensive. The small pot shown below costs 99 dollars.






Study
Mad honey manufacturers usually advise people to take 4-6 g a day. That's one tablespoon. The researchers gave male rats an equivalent dose for 30 days.


Results
The researchers found twice as much testosterone in the blood of the rats that had been given mad honey than they found in the control group. When they looked at the concentration of free testosterone alone, they found that the rats that had been given mad honey had 10 times more testosterone.









Supplementation with mad honey had no significant effect on the rats' LH or FSH levels.





Nor did the rats' estradiol or progesterone levels change.

Mechanism
"This study of mad honey observed a significant increase in both total and free testosterone levels compared to the normal honey and control groups," the researchers wrote. "The mechanism involved in this increase in testosterone levels is unclear."

The researchers suspect that mad honey boosts testosterone production via the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland.

Conclusion
"Further studies involving larger case series as well as clinical studies are needed to evaluate the effect of mad honey on sexual performance and corroborate these findings," the researchers concluded.