Herbal remedies that work for prostate problems
By Sade Oguntola
 Chronic prostatitis is a disease with an unknown cause that affects a large number of men and recent years have seen a significant increase in research efforts to understand, classify and treat the problem. Standard treatment usually consists of prolonged courses of antibiotics, even though well-designed clinical trials have failed to demonstrate their efficacy.
Recent treatment strategies with some evidence of efficacy include using natural products like onions, apple, tea, and nuts, which are rich in quercetin; bee pollen; physiotherapy and chronic pain therapy.
Quercetin belongs to a group of plant pigments called flavonoids that are largely responsible for the colours of many fruits, flowers, and vegetables. Flavonoids, such as quercetin, provide many health-promoting benefits. They are useful in reducing allergy symptoms and swellings associated with various forms of arthritis. It also works as an antioxidant by scavenging damaging particles in the body known as free radicals and so offers a variety of potential therapeutic uses, primarily in the prevention and treatment of many health conditions.
Many herbal-based therapies are prevalent and popular in diseases that affect the prostate, and with compelling evidences. Examples include: Chinese herbs, green tea extracts, saw palmetto and bee pollen. Others include the use of pumpkin seed and Pygeum Africanum (African plum tree or bitter almond).
Extracts of bee pollen are thought to be helpful with problems of the prostate. In a double-blind randomized study with a different pollen extract, experts far back in 2006 reported a significant improvement in the health status of men with prostate problem that were on pollen extract. Clinical research suggested that bee pollen could reduce prostrate enlargement and painful symptoms associated with prostate disease.
Dr. Dallas Clouatre, a researcher and author of ‘Flower Pollen for Prostate Health’ in his book reported that controlled bee pollen consumption among men with prostate problems results in significant improvement and alleviation of symptoms. Specifically, “less nighttime urination, improved bladder emptying, and reduced prostate discomfort”were experienced.
Dr Clouatre also said that bee pollen helps relax smooth muscle, making it easier to empty the bladder. It may also decrease the swelling of the prostate, resulting in a better urine flow and reduced discomfort.
A Swedish study equally concluded that bee pollen can significantly affect some problems that affect the prostate gland. Dr. Gosta Leander conducted a double-blind controlled study of 93 patients in which a placebo was given to 43 men, and bee pollen to the remaining 50. Forty-six men out of the 50 who took the bee pollen were successfully treated, while the control group did not experience any significant improvement.
Saw palmetto is probably the most commonly used herbal supplement in prostatic conditions for easing the mild-to-moderate symptoms. The extract from the berries of a dwarf palm tree has a long history of use as a remedy for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), a non-cancerous swelling in the prostate gland of older men, early in the 20th century. Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is a non-cancerous swelling in the prostate gland of older men.
Safety over its use has also being laid to rest by a new Saw palmetto for Treatment of Enlarged Prostates (STEP) study from the US that said fears on its use is uncalled for. Andrew Avins from Northern California Kaiser Permanente, the lead author of the study in the journal Complementary Therapies in Medicine, wrote that “The STEP study provided a unique opportunity to make detailed assessments about potential toxicities of saw palmetto… Overall, we found no evidence that consumption of this saw palmetto extract, at a dose of 160 mg twice daily over a period of one year, was associated with any clinically important adverse effects.”
The randomised clinical trial recruited 225 men with moderate-to-severe symptoms of BPH and assigned them to receive either a daily saw palmetto supplement (320 mg per day, Cardinal Health) or placebo for one year.
Most men with prostate problems also frequently have alongside urinary tract symptoms and saw palmetto can also prevent symptoms that are caused by benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), a non-cancerous swelling of the prostate. Equally using this with nettle root works same way as saw palmetto researchers said in the June edition of the World Journal of Urology.
Research on nettle root shows that, like saw palmetto, it too inhibits the enzyme involved with the conversion of testosterone to dihydrotestosterone, a principal mechanism in the development of BPH.
Mechanistically, prostate massage could help drain occluded prostatic duct and increase penetration of the gland by drugs or herbs being used for treatment in patients with prostate problems such as benign prostate enlargement.
Frequent ejaculation achieves similar results too. An eight-year study that surveyed 29,342 men in the International Journal of Urology, ages between 46 and 81 about their monthly ejaculation frequency, which “includes sexual intercourse, nocturnal emission and masturbation. It was discovered that normal sexual activity decreases the incidence of BPH in some cases.
African plum tree or bitter almond has been observed to moderately improve urinary symptoms associated with enlargement of the prostate gland or prostate inflammation. Numerous human studies report that it significantly reduces urinary hesitancy, urinary frequency, the number of times patients need to wake up at night to urinate, and pain with urination in men who experience mild-to-moderate symptoms.
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