Palmetto extract has no effect on prostate

About half of men over 50 in the U.S. suffer from an enlarged prostate, which makes urination difficult and causes urinary tract infections, reports the Times of Malta, and by the age of 80, this number increases to 75 percent of all men.

The global market for a herbal supplement reported to help shrink enlarged prostates, saw palmetto extract, is about $700 million a year. However, recent randomized trials in North America showed that even triple doses of the over-the-counter drug neither worked nor harmed the patients.

“These supplements are apparently not doing anything measurably above and beyond what we call the placebo effect,” said co-author Dr Roehrborn in the latest edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Researchers tracked 379 men age 45 and older whose symptoms included difficulty emptying their bladders, and weak or frequent urination.

As part of the study, some patients received the saw palmetto extract – which comes from the berries of the saw palmetto dwarf plant tree – and others were given a sugar pill that smelled and tasted the same.

Measurements over 72 weeks showed the drug, even when increased in dosage, had no impact on urinary symptoms such as nighttime urination or incontinence, and did not improve sexual function.