Palmetto & the prostate

Extracts of the saw palmetto berry may not ease the symptoms of a benign enlarged prostate, as earlier studies concluded.

In a well-designed government-sponsored study, researchers randomly assigned 225 men with moderate-to-severe symptoms to take either saw palmetto (160 mg twice a day) or a placebo. After one year, the palmetto takers did not differ in symptoms, prostate size, urinary flow, or quality of life from the placebo takers.

What to do: Men who take saw palmetto for a benign enlarged prostate shouldn't expect much improvement (or side effects, which were no more common in the palmetto takers than in the placebo takers).

Supplement makers charge that the study recruited men with symptoms that were too severe and used too low a dose. But the men were similar to those in earlier studies, and the dose matched what's recommended on most labels. Nevertheless, the National Institutes of Health is planning to test higher doses.

New England Journal of Medicine 354: 557, 2006.

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