2 Natural Alternatives For Treating An Enlarged Prostate

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

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 contain particularly high levels of zinc so that just a half a cup of pumpkin seeds contains about eight milligrams of zinc. It has been clearly shown that taking zinc can reduce the size of an enlarged prostate and many doctors recommend taking sixty milligrams o zinc a day. Care should be taken though and it is wise to consult your doctor before increasing your daily zinc intake to this level as it is higher than the normally recommended daily level.

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.

Another widely used treatment for an enlarged prostate is saw palmetto. Grown in the southeastern states, saw palmetto is a type of palm tree the seeds of which used to form a key 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 many alternative treatments opinions vary considerably over the effectiveness of saw palmetto, but there have been a number of studies carried out over the years which have clearly shown that it does produce a significant benefit. In one of these studies, a clinical study looking at over two thousand men in Germany with benign prostatic hypertrophy, a daily dose of just one or two grams of saw palmetto seeds resulted in a significant easing of 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.

As a result, if you have an enlarged prostate then, before turning to your physician to sort ot out, you may find that simply adjusting your diet and taking a variety of vitamin and mineral supplements may be all that you need.

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