Some of them definitely work. Do your homework, gentlemen. I've been reading a recurrent theme regarding prostate supplements. Some of them work, and the ones that do work often take months before one notices a difference. Posting to perhaps stop you from making the same mistake I did - which was to try every prostate supplement under the sun. After a month (possibly two) of seeing no relief, I simply gave up on them and switched to a different kind of prostate formula. Have found two I've been taking for seven months. Symptoms have abated, albeit slowly. STICK WITH THEM, and give them the time they need to do their job. Hope this helps.
What Supplements are you referring to?
I agree 100%.
I tried various supplements in the past, stuck with them and got absolutely no relief - are you saying a supplement can actually shrink the prostate? Most of those supplements say things like "promote healthy prostate" etc.
Until someone can explain how they work I frankly find it hard to believe, especially not that they will actually help shrink the prostate.
If they work they must be doing something similar to what some medications Urologists will prescribe, and most of those will not shrink the prostate.
I challenge anyone to show how any supplements ever helped shrink a prostate. An enlarged prostate is a physical obstruction, so how does something that promotes a "healthy prostate" help unless it shrinks the prostate? or does it work like Flomax, Prazosin, Finesteride, Avodart etc. and they are not telling you?
No. I've never heard of any supplement doing what a PAE can do.
Supplements like Stinging Nettle Root Extract can help with prostatitis and nocturia.
I tried Saw Palmetto and pumpkin seeds daily for over a year and they had negligible effect on my BPH symptoms. The one that did work is a medication, Tolterodine (Detrol), that does what it says on the tin.
This worked for me:
Stinging Nettle Root Extract + Saw Palmetto Oil + Pumpkin Seed Oil.
No urologist would ever advise natural supplements and beware of the infomercial hucksters on the media who take advantage of BPH sufferers.
Never give them your credit card number. By doing so you will have joined a club and will be debitted every month.
Lester that was my point, Urologists will not advise since there is not much evidence that they work for BPH - as far as I know there was a study in Europe that showed a bit of relief but nothing dramatic.
And of course my feeling is that most of the products out there are a complete con and there are so many men suffering from BPH who will try supplements before they go to a Urologist.
I saw an article recently which advocated the use of milled flaxseed for this condition. As my wife was already using it, I decided to give it a try - mixed in with breakfast cereal. Within a few weeks, nightly visits to the loo went from 3-4 to 0-1 and PSA went from 8.10 to 6.04.
I don't know if this is pure coincidence but thought it was worth passing on.
Have tried many of the usual home type remedys for prostate problems over a period of several years. Despite my hope of a cure or easment none have worked.
My urologist says there is no evidence that this type of self medication has any benefit at all for the prostate.
You should be very carefull taking any prepatation without seeking proffesional advice, your doctor or pharmacist, as many freely available preparations may react badly with prescription meds or even make some things worse. If you want to buy" prostate formula" only buy from a trusted source
My prostate is always swollen and I do not know why, and I always have urinary retention and lately when I think I am done urinating and pull up my underclothing; the urine comes out without any feeling and I have to change clothes, This just started happening to me. I have extra undergarments in my car plus blue jeans. It is embaressing.
It can take up to six months before any noticable effect. Be patient and as you say "do your homework".
Hi Mark, have you seen your family doctor or better still had an appointment with a urologist? If not get on and do so. If you are living inthe U.K. your doctor can refer you to see the continence nurse at your local gen hospital. He/ she can advise you on the best way to control your distressing symptoms. You can also buy very good pads on line that will fit very discretely in your boxer shorts. "Tena" men have a good rep. After having a pee i always have to hang on for a moment as always need to go again after i think I have finished.
Best wishes Mark, get some help.
I hope to clarify some of my own comments. As Mike588 suggests, there are NO supplements that actually shrink the prostate. To my knowledge, there are only two pharmaceuticals that can do that: Avodart (now available in generic as "dutasteride", and Proscar (available in generic as "finasteride." Most of the time, a prostate of >30 g will be symptomatic, but not always. One can have prostate volume of >100 g and still be asymptomatic. My point is simply this: I can live with an enlarged prostate if (1) the pain is at least tolerable, and (2) I can still pee. Enter supplements. Clearly, there are snake oil salesmen out there. Even a reputable company may make a product that simply doesn't work. I use a medical website, accessible to everyone. I don't want to post the name of it, because a link to it will get this post deleted. Suffice it to say that it's on the Web, and it references MDs. They have an entire database dedicated to the efficacy of supplements, one of which I take is beta sitosterol (not the one for which Miami Joe nearly had to claim bankruptcy). Here is what the website says regarding beta sitosterol: Likely effective for: "Trouble urinating because of an enlarged prostate, or 'benign prostatic hyperplasia' (BPH). Taking beta-sitosterol helps the symptoms of BPH, but it does not actually shrink an enlarged prostate." Another supplement I take is pygeum. Likely effective for: "Taking pygeum by mouth reduces symptoms of BPH such as low urine flow." In the interests of full disclosure, I also take dutasteride, and I'm convinced that most of my symptomatic relief comes from this AR5 inhibitor. However, over the past three years, those symptoms have abated even further, and I do believe it's due to these supplements. I don't place much faith in a PSA score, but just after starting dutasteride therapy eight years ago, my PSA score dropped from four to two. Three years ago, I started supplementing. PSA = 0.3. Will the same supplements work in the same way for the next guy? Probably not, but who can say for sure? The same website doesn't have high praise for saw palmetto. That said, there are millions of men who swear by it. And what is the go-to phrase when analyzing a supplement? "Results are inconclusive." Isn't this another way of saying that it might actually work for some men, but for others, not so much? As for comparing a supplement to a PAE, there IS no comparison. I'm just a believer in starting with least intrusive, most conservative approaches first. As for urologists recommending supplements, they're simply not going to do it. Whether they believe in supplements or they don't is an entirely different matter. When you walk in that office, YOU ... represent a paycheck for them. It isn't in their financial interests to suggest an OTC remedy. To reiterate - do your homework - be patient.
Alan1951 thanks for the information.
What bothers me is that people are spending good money on supplements and have no idea how they work. All medications whether they shrink prostate or just provide relief by relaxing muscles etc. have an explanation - don't blame Urologists for not recommending supplements for which studies are inconclusive. I disagree with your conclusion, i doubt very much they see supplements as any kind of threat to their income. In fact if they wanted to make more money they wouldn't even prescribe any drugs so the condition would get so bad surgery would be necessary sooner rather than later. Surgery is even better business!
With all the millions of dollars the supplements are pulling in isn't it weird that they can't document how and why they work?
As for PSA tests, they can differ depending on sexual activity within a few days of the test, the dutasteride might have also made it much lower as sexual activity decreases.
By the way the entire vitamin/supplement industry is a bit of a scam, there IS evidence that if you are deficient in certain vitamins you certainly can benefit from supplements, like Vitamin D, C or some B's etc However they have done studies and no one has shown how people who take multi vitamin supplements daily are any healthier than those who took nothing.
It could also be that people who take beta sisterol for example are more careful not to drink alcohol, eat spicy foods etc once they decide to tackle the problem with supplements and therefore they seem to do better and the suplement actually has nothing to do with it.
Again why put something in your body when you have no idea how, why and if it really works? I would agree if the improvement was dramatic, but if that were the case everyone would know pretty quickly and word would get out. All I've heard is that people take these things for months and say they see a bit of an improvement, well maybe but they are not 100% sure etc, and there are more people who say nothing happened at all and it was a big waste of money. I'm one of those people by the way, I wanted to believe the supplement millions of men purchased helps, but it didn't, I tried several of them that had good reviews. Who knows it may even make the prostate grow faster if they are good for prostate "health"?
Just as an aside to control my appetite and lower my blood sugar level, I cut up red onions and carrots and boil them with cut up beets and add some lentils with some seasoning; its keeps satiated and it is low cal. It really has no effect on prostate though.
Alan, that same site had good things to say about rye grass seed or pollen. I'd like to try that, but have had absolutely no luck finding it. Have you heard anything about that supplement? Source, efficacy, etc.
You guy are right about saw palmetto as an awesome prostate health tip. Its actually best known for its use to help prostate problems and hair loss too. I've been searching for the right way to use it and figured out that it can cause blood clotting if you use too much so watch how much you take on a daily basis. So it's best to use it with an herbal blend and make sure you don't take a crazy amount of mg. My problems all pointed to something wrong with my prostate so I tried a few different brands from walgreens and walmart and then found the alpha rise prostate supplement on amazon. It definitely worked the best. it really helped me since I used to go pee 3 times a night. Also make sure you do some walking everyday. Remember that it's a journey to deal with prostate problems, try to build a healthy lifestyle in a long term. Hope this helps.
It depends on whether your talking about an enlarged prostate or infected prostate. Some of the supplimentsdo have strong natural anti bacterial agents which can help greatly with conditions like prostatitis.