Prostate Problems: When the Drugs Just Aren’t Enough.

When the drug you are given for your enlarged prostate or benign prostatic hyperplasia just isn’t doing the trick, your doctor has to add a second drug. Or does she?

This 6 month study of men with moderate-to-severe benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) added either a 5-alpha-reductase inhibitor 320mg of saw palmetto berry extract to the drug they were already on: tamsulosin.

International Prostate Symptom Scores improved by 6.7 points in the saw palmetto group and by 7.7 points in the drug group. That difference was not significant, meaning adding the herb worked just as well as adding the drug.

But here’s the real difference: 26.5% of the drug group experienced an adverse event versus only 10.3% who added the herb. The most common side effects in the drug + drug group were erectile dysfunction, reduced libido and inability to ejaculate.

Saw palmetto berry extract is a well-established treatment for BPH. This study adds the new use that saw palmetto is just as effective and safer as an add on to tamsulosin.

J Clin Med. June 22, 2022;11(13):3615.