Saw Palmetto Fruit Doesn’t Ease Enlarged Prostate, New Research Finds
Men with enlarged prostates who took higher doses of the herbal supplement saw palmetto had no greater relief from incontinence or difficult urination than those given a placebo, researchers said.
More than 300 men at least 45 years old were given a daily dose of saw palmetto or a sugar pill. Over 17 months, those on the supplement had their doses increased to 960 milligrams, or triple the standard amount, according to the study released today in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
“We could not measure a beneficial effect of these medicines over the duration of our study,” said co-author Gerald Andriole, the chief of urologic surgery at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, in an interview.
Millions of men have been taking the supplement for decades as a natural remedy to ease symptoms of a swollen prostate, especially in Europe where doctors recommend it over traditional drug treatments, Andriole said in an interview. U.S. sales of saw palmetto were $125 million last year, little changed from 2009, according to the Nutrition Business Journal.
A 2006 study also found the supplement wasn’t effective in reducing the symptoms for BPH, or benign prostatic hyperlasia, a non-cancerous enlargement of the prostate gland that affects half of men older than 60 and 90 percent of those 70 and older. The condition, often treated with drugs including Merck & Co.’s Proscar or GlaxoSmithKline Plc’s Avodart, can require surgery. The previous research left open the question of whether higher doses of the extract would have an effect.
The new study was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine and the NIH Office of Dietary Supplements.
To contact the reporter on this story: Ryan Flinn in San Francisco at rflinn@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reg Gale at rgale5@bloomberg.net.
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