What It Is

There are various alternative or natural treatments for the problem of an enlarged prostate and two of these are to use saw palmetto or pumpkin seeds.

Odd as it may seem, pumpkin seeds have a variety of healing properties and they appear to be particularly effective for many men with an enlarged prostate. Pumpkin seed have three properties which are particularly useful in this case.

The first is that pumpkin seeds contain fatty oil that acts as a diuretic and assists in improving the flow of urine and counter the restrictive effect which an enlarged prostate gland has on the urethra.

The second property of pumpkin seeds is that they have extremely high levels of zinc which means that a half a cup of seeds contains about eight milligrams of zinc. It has been clearly shown that taking zinc can literally reduce the size of an enlarged prostate and a lot of physicians recommend taking sixty milligrams o zinc every day. You need to take care however and it is wise to talk to your doctor before raising your zinc intake to this level as it is considerably higher than the normally recommended daily dose.

The third property of pumpkin seeds is that they are high in amimo acids such as alanine, glutamic acid and glycerine, all of which have once more been shown to provide significant symptomatic relief.

Saw palmetto is also widely used for prostrate problems. Found in the southeastern states, saw palmetto is a small palm tree the seeds from which formed an important part of the diet of Seminole Indians.

Saw palmetto acts by turning testosterone into dihyrotestosterone and this is the same process used in Proscar, which is one of only a handful of non-prescription treatments which have been approved for prostate problems by the Food and Drug Administration. Its essential benefit is that it raises urine flow, minimizes the difficulty of residual urine and reduces the frequency of urination.

As is the case with most natural treatments views vary widely over the effectiveness of saw palmetto, but we have seen various studies in recent years that have clearly shown that it does produce a sizable benefit. In one study, a clinical study looking at more than 2,000 German men with benign prostatic hypertrophy, a daily dose of only one or two grams of saw palmetto seeds produced a substantial reduction in symptoms.

These are of course merely two of the many natural cures available but there is no doubt that such treatments can and do work. By way of a further example, it is believed that about thirty percent of American men have undiagnosed prostate cancer by the time they reach the age of sixty compared to just one percent of Arctic Inuit men at the same age. There may of course be a variety of reasons for this large difference, but one difference which many physicians consider to be very significant is the fact the Arctic Inuit diet is high in fish oil.

So, if you have an enlarged prostate then, before turning to your physician for treatment, you could find that simply adjusting your diet and taking a variety of vitamin and mineral supplements could be all that you need.