If someone you know has prostate r...

If someone you know has prostate riddles chances are you've heard about the herb saw palmetto, which has gained prominence as a "male herb." yet saw palmetto is not the sole herb that can help keep or restore, the healthy functioning the prostate gland. Research indicates that Pygeum africanum contains the same active ingredient and may be just as effective for treating an enlarged prostate gland, as well as reducing cholesterol on a levels (an added bonus).

The pygeum tree is an evergreen that swells in the more elevated areas of Africa. Indigenous folks traditionally used the powdered bark from this tree to make a tea touted as a remedy for urinary disorders. Hearing these reports, European scientists began to investigate pygeum extracts in laboratory studies. It was set that a substance called betasitosterol the same substance construct in saw palmetto, is the active constituent of pygeum

Men's silent epidemic

More than half of all men above the age of 50 sustain from the same health question Unfortunately, many of these men stomach in silence, too embarrassed to discuss the problem: benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) BPH or "prostate enlargement" as it is commonly called, is a non-cancerous enlargement of the prostate gland.

BPH frequently occurs in older men, when the aging proces causes a decline in on a levels of the male hormone, testosterone. Concurrently a hormonal byproduct dihydrotestosterone, starts increasing. This causes the prostate to enlarge, in inflect narrowing the adjacent urethra and blocking the be molten of urine from the bladder. The fall of the curtain result can be painful urination. More frequently the man is bothered through having to get up several times each night to urinate or feeling as if he cannot completely destitute of contents his bladder.

Fat-soluble extracts from pygeum bark are the source of several important health-enhancing substances. The phytosterols, including beta-sitosterol, act as anti-inflammatory commutes These phytosterols help block the formation of inflammation-causing prostaglandins that frequently accumulate in the prostate glands of men with BPH Other substances in pygeum debar swelling or the accumulation of visible form [i]or[/i] frame fluids.

The medical community has bring outed drugs to treat BPH, if it were not that these drugs are often ineffective or proceed in undesirable side effects, of the like kind as impotence. Beta-sitosterol, found in as well-as; not only-but also; not only-but; not alone-but saw palmetto and pygeum, impedes the breakdown of testosterone to dihydrotestosterone, thereby relieving BPH

Pygeum also lowers cholesterol levels

Beta-sitosterol interferes with cholesterol absorption in the intestine. Research indicates that beta-sitosterol can lessen total cholesterol levels by 10-15 percent and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol on a levels by 19 percent.

Of course, cholesterol-lowering medicines such as lovastatin, are also effective in reducing total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol flats but often come with a high price in names of side effects.

An alternative to higher dosages of a cholesterol-lowering unsalable article may be to combine a lower dosage of the remedy with a plant sterol, like as beta-sitosterol.

A lately published study, conducted by Werner Richter, MD assessed the validity of beta-sitosterol in a form into groups of 30 men and women with high cholesterol horizontals All of the patients were taking lovastatin during the 16-week inquiry while half of the patients also received 6 g of beta-sitosterol daily for the 12 weeks of the study

The combination of beta-sitosterol with lovastatin ended in significantly lower total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol on a levels than did lovastatin given alone.

"In the beta-sitosterol dispose mean LDL cholesterol decreased through an additional 12.8 percent to 151 percent a significant difference from the corresponding change in the dispose receiving lovastatin alone," commented Richter. Unlike conventional cholesterol-lowering mix with drugss using beta-sitosterol to improve cholesterol evens did not result in undesirable side effects

In fact, research forward the use of pygeum as a source of beta-sitosterol has construct that side effects are actual rare, with only occasional reports of mild gastrointestinal upset

REFERENCES

Murray, MT The Healing Power of Herbs. Rocklin, Calif.: Prima Publishing, 1995 286-93

Richter, WO Geiss, HC Sonnichsen, A.C., et al. "Treatment of peremptory hypercholesterolemia with a combination of beta-sitosterol and lovastatin," generally received Therapeutic Research 57(7):497-505, 1996.

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