What Can Men Take To Reduce An Enlarged Prostate ?

Enlarged prostate or benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) as it is described in the medical journals is an issue affecting many men from the age of 50 onwards. For Millenials, it is a situation which is wholly sex-dependent and one of the few conditions that often needs urgent treatment. Some ingredients and foods are especially beneficial for men when this condition occurs.

Lycopene

Lycopene is a carotenoid which gives tomatoes their bright, vibrant red colour. From a nutritional point of view, it has a special protective function especially against certain cancer types and in cardiovascular disease.

A number of clinical studies reveal that mean whose diets are high in lycopene demonstrate a reduced risk of prostate cancer. Lycopene is often found in tomato paste, tomato concentrates, passata and tinned tomatoes. Indeed, processing tomatoes produces a level of lycopene that is more readily available than in the raw fruit.

Edward Giovannucci, M.D., Sc.D. (Giovannucci, 1999) at the Harvard Medical School showed how important consumption of tomatoes was in a study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute in 2002. The research group showed that consumption of tomatoes twice a week including tomato sauce, sauce as a topping on pizzas reduced the risk of developing prostate cancer by between 21 per cent and 34 per cent.

Saw Palmetto

One traditional herbal remedy is a fruit called saw palmetto. This has been used for millennia to treat urinary symptoms associated with an enlarged prostate gland. Currently, 2.5 million men in the United States of America use it for this purpose alone. Medical and clinical evidence is developing for this particular fruit botanical. There are a number of reviews which assess the evidence and we would recommend looking at a particular review by Wilt et alia., 1989.

The research evidence is mixed. A couple of articles have found no benefit for saw palmetto in treating the urinary condition (Bent et al., 2006). It is one of the few herbals where there has always been strong anecdotal evidence, such that health practitioners recommend it as an alternative to more powerful but efficacious pharmaceuticals. German doctors tend to prescribe it in preference to prescription drugs. The placebo effect has not been truly ruled out !

Two US centers, the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) and National Institutes of Health are conducting studies to show what the efficacy of saw palmetto really is. To date the research is inconclusive. There is a research article sponsored by the NCCIH which is examining the effect of this fruit extract (SPBE) on prostate cancer cells.

Saw palmetto is taken usually in a capsule as a ground or dried fruit preparation. Teas, liquid extracts and infusions are alternative vehicles for taking this product.

Here are two products which have some value in helping men deal with a serious and debilitating medical issue. There is also gathering evidence of an association with drinking coffee, eating reishi mushrooms and of increasing our levels of consumption of leafy green vegetables in reducing the risk of developing prostate cancer. We await with interest further, the research being conducted on both ingredients, vegetables, certain mushrooms like reishi and on coffee too.

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References

Bent, S., Kane, C., Shinohara, K., Neuhaus, J., Hudes, E. S., Goldberg, H., & Avins, A. L. (2006). Saw palmetto for benign prostatic hyperplasia. New England Journal of Medicine, 354(6), pp. 557-566.

Giovannucci, E. (1999). Tomatoes, tomato-based products, lycopene, and cancer: review of the epidemiologic literature. Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 91(4), pp. 317-331.

Wilt, T. J., Ishani, A., Stark, G., MacDonald, R., Lau, J., & Mulrow, C. (1998). Saw palmetto extracts for treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia: a systematic review. JAMA, 280(18), pp. 1604-1609.