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What Is Saw Palmetto? Prostate Health and Other Uses

 

Saw palmetto may provide health benefits, including supporting prostate and urinary health and reducing male pattern baldness.

 

Saw palmetto is a supplement made from the fruit of the Serenoa repens tree. It’s often used to treat enlarged prostate, improve urinary function, and enhance hair growth. Some also use the supplement to boost libido and fertility and reduce inflammation. Finally, saw palmetto is claimed to have anticancer effects.

 

Saw palmetto, or Serenoa repens, is a dwarf palm tree native to the southeast regions of North America and especially abundant in Florida, Georgia, Cuba, and the Bahamas.

 

It grows in sandy soil and gets its name from the sharp, saw-like teeth on the stalks that attach the tree’s leaves to its stem. The saw palmetto tree produces dark berries that contain a large seed.

 

The saw palmetto fruit has long been used by Native Americans for its nutritional, diuretic, sedative, aphrodisiac, and cough-reducing properties. Nowadays, the berries are eaten whole or dried and used to make tea. Dried and ground saw palmetto can also be purchased in capsule or tablet form. It’s widely available, including online.

 

Still, the most common form on the market is oily extracts of the fatty portions of the dried berries. These supplements contain 75–90% fats depending on the extraction method. They typically provide higher amounts of beneficial plant compounds like vitamin E and other antioxidants compared to the raw fruit.

 

Benefit prostate health and urinary function

 

Saw palmetto may help treat benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) — a medical condition characterized by a slow, noncancerous yet abnormal enlargement of the prostate. 

 

BPH is common in older men, affecting up to 75% of men in their 70s. If left untreated, the prostate can enlarge to the point of interfering with the ability to properly empty the bladder. It can also increase the frequency and urge to urinate, often causing excessive nighttime urination which may disrupt sleep.

 

BPH is part of a larger group of lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS), a group of symptoms typically involving the bladder, urethra, and prostate. Unlike BPH, LUTS can affect both men and women.

 

Several studies have looked at saw palmetto’s effect on LUTS — with mixed results. Early studies reported that saw palmetto may help increase urine flow and reduce nighttime urination in men with BPH — both when used alone or in combination with traditional drug therapy.

 

However, the latest Cochrane review — the highest standard in evidence-based healthcare — concluded that saw palmetto provides little improvement in LUTS. On the other hand, two reviews note that a daily dose of 320 mg of Permixon — a specific saw palmetto extract — was more effective than a placebo at improving urine flow and reducing nighttime urination.

 

It’s possible that the effects vary based on the strength of the individual formulation. Overall, more studies are needed before strong conclusions can be made.

 

May reduce male pattern baldness

 

Saw palmetto may help prevent androgenic alopecia — a type of hair loss also known as male and female pattern baldness in men and women, respectively. 

 

It’s thought to work by blocking the enzyme that converts testosterone to dihydrotestosterone (DHT), an androgen-type hormone believed to cause this form of hair loss. Higher levels of androgen hormones like DHT are thought to shorten the hair growth cycle and lead to the growth of shorter and thinner strands of hair.

 

One small study reports that a daily 200-mg dose of saw palmetto — taken with another beneficial plant compound known as beta-sitosterol — reduced hair loss in 60% of men with androgenic alopecia compared to a placebo. In a 2-year study, men with male pattern baldness were given 320 mg of saw palmetto per day or finasteride, a conventional hair loss medication. By the end of the study, about one-third of those given saw palmetto reported an increase in hair growth. That said, saw palmetto was only half as effective as the conventional medication.

 

A small study also reports a small increase in hair count in about half of the men treated with a saw palmetto hair lotion. However, this lotion also contained other active ingredients, making it difficult to isolate the effect of saw palmetto.

 

Other potential benefits

 

Saw palmetto is touted as providing additional benefits — though most are unsupported by strong science. For instance, test-tube research shows that Permixon – a specific formulation of saw palmetto – may reduce markers of inflammation in prostate cells. However, it’s unclear whether other saw palmetto supplements have the same effect.

 

Permixon may also protect libido and fertility in men. Conventional drug therapy for BPH and LUTS has been shown to negatively impact sexual function in men. A review of 12 randomized controlled studies — the gold standard in nutrition research — compared Permixon with conventional drug therapy as a treatment for BPH and LUTS. 

 

Though both produced negative side effects on male sexual function, the saw palmetto supplement led to smaller drops in libido and lower impotence compared to the conventional drug treatment. Still, it’s unclear whether Permixon has the same effect in healthy men or whether other saw palmetto formulations offer similar protective benefits. 

 

What’s more, additional studies list decreased libido as a potential side effect of taking saw palmetto supplements — so more research is needed to confirm this.

 

Finally, test-tube research suggests that saw palmetto may help kill and slow the growth of certain cancer cells, including of the prostate. Although promising, not all studies agree, and more research is needed