A troubling sex trend is making its way across college campuses nationwide, and doctors are concerned.
Healthy college men are increasingly reaching for packets of honey to extend their staying power in the bedroom. But this isn’t the type of honey from a jar.
The controversial supplements are marketed for sexual enhancement and claim to contain ‘natural ingredients’ – but they have been found to contain hidden drugs.
The packets of honey have been found to contain the same ingredients used in Cialis and Viagra, both FDA-approved prescription drugs for erectile dysfunction.
They can cause a dangerous blood pressure spike, vision changes, chest pain, and even heart attack.
The supplements themselves are not new. The FDA has been warning about different brands, including Royal Honey, Helmi’s Honey VIP, and Honey Girl, for several years. But they have gained a wave of renewed fame thanks to TikTok.
A video featuring Arizona State University students gushing about honey packets has earned more than 440 million views on the social media site. One young man says he guzzles several packets a night.
The pocket-sized packets are a gamble, health experts warn, because no one can say precisely what is in them.
Doctors warn against dangerous new sex trend making its way through college campuses (stock)
Royal Honey VIP (pictured) is among the brands that have been warned by the FDA for illegally containing controlled substances
Some of the packets the FDA has reprimanded contain the main ingredient in Cialis, while others contain sildenafil, the active ingredient in the FDA-approved prescription drug Viagra.
Honey packets, which would qualify as dietary supplements, do not fall under the FDA’s regulatory purview, meaning the agency did not review their contents and formula before stores began stocking them.
Dr Jesse Mills, a health science clinical professor and the director of the Men’s Clinic at the University of California, Los Angeles, told USA Today: ‘It’s crazy. You can go to any liquor store and truck stop and buy a honey packet, and you have no idea what’s in there.’
The Wild West-like landscape of supplement regulation allows unscrupulous actors to debut, at best, snake oils and, at worst, a threat to public health.
Dr Peter Leone, a professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine’s Division of Infectious Diseases, said: ‘I just think it’s an unnecessary thing to do.
‘I’m all about people having good sex and sexual pleasure, but I prefer safer ways of doing it.’
Mixing the ingredients with alcohol – at a college party, for example – is particularly risky.
Dr Leone added: ‘I would worry about kids dropping their blood pressure, having issues around passing out or getting dizzy.’
Generally, college-aged men don’t need ED medication, a point that several commenters on the video from ASU’s campus pointed out.
The ASU student in the white sweatshirt said he ingests three or four honey packets every evening
One said: ‘A college kid taking a honey packet is not a flex, I would be embarrassed to admit that.’
Another said: ‘I feel sorry for the single young ladies out there…more than I usually do. Why do these men brag about having ED?’
And a third said: ‘taking honey packs regularly in your 20s will put you on viagra by your mid 30s. just an fyi.’
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Erectile dysfunction can occur at any age, but it’s more common among older men. Around five percent of men in their 20s have diagnosed ED, but many more men take medication to boost their sexual stamina.
Doctors concerned about the honey packets trend point to hookup culture as a breeding ground for sexual performance anxiety.
Dr Mills said: ‘They’re not thinking about having sexual dysfunction.
‘They’re thinking about how can I perform, how can I be better than I was or better than other partners that this person has had, and it’s more of an internal competition. It has nothing to do with their erectile dysfunction.’
