Nutritional Insurance for the Aging Prostate

Jarrow Formulas Saw Palmetto provides nutritional 'insurance" to safeguard the health of the aging prostate. It is designed to meet the needs of those men who desire a concentrated product that provides high potencies of two of the best-known and most widely tested herbal products famous for supporting prostate health and functioning.

Very few men give much thought to their prostates until something goes wrong. Whereas the bladder's function is impossible to ignore, the same is not usually true of a man's prostate during urination are taken for granted...until, that is, it's important.

In an adult male, the prostate usually weighs about 20 grams. Almost all of this mass develops during puberty in response to hormonal changes associated with maturation. The prostate literally doubles in size during puberty. If a man is lucky, and some men are, the prostate never again undergoes any changes in size.

Unfortunately, for men between the ages of 40 and 59, nearly 60% can be shown to already be suffering from prostate enlargement. This usually does not present a noticeable problem until after the age of 50; by the age of 80, however, some 85% of all men suffer one or more symptoms of prostate ill health.

Reduction on prostate health and function are strongly related to normal aging. It is generally accepted that hormone ratios and hormone clearance are involved in prostate health. Changes in prostate function might well be called an aspect of male menopause because an increased ratio of estrogen to testosterone is active.

Testosterone, the "male" hormone, is at its peak during adolescence. It decreases thereafter, and the rate of decrease sharpens by about age 50.

The Conversion of Testosterone to DHT

The decline in testosterone production typically calls into play the compensatory release of other hormones which are stimulants to testosterone production. These cannot prevent the decline in testosterone levels, but they can lead to an elevated rate of transformation of testosterone into 5-alpha-dihydrotestosterone (DHT) and to the increased binding and/or decreased clearance of DHT from prostate cells.

Testosterone is converted to DHT by actions that can have significant effects on the prostate. DHT binds specifically to the alpha 1-receptors on the prostate cells. It's then transported into the nucleus of these cells where it attaches to the DNA and ultimately turns on prostate growth.

Increases in estrogen levels are very important in these developments. Special enzymes reduce the binding of both testosterone and DHT to prostate cell receptors under normal circumstances. The unbound androgenic hormones can be excreted more readily from the system than the bound forms.

As men age, the rate of removal of DHT in particular is diminished, and it is the failure to remove testosterone and DHT which primarily encourages the development of poor prostate function. Estrogen inhibits the actions of the enzymes that metabolize these androgens into excretable forms.

In a sense, the body might be seen as attempting to compensate for the decrease in its ability to produce testosterone by increasing the actions of DHT. Unfortunately, s is true of the parallel actions of women's bodies during menopause, it is this secondary modulation of hormonal actions and not the decline in testosterone production per se that appears to lead to reduce prostate health.

Prolactin is another hormone which plays a significant role in the age-related decrease in prostate function. Prolactin increases both the conversion of testosterone to DHT and the binding of androgens to prostate cells.

Prolactin production is itself increased by stress, alcohol, and aging. One counterweight to prolactin is the hormone melatonin, much in the news as an 'anti-aging" hormone. Melatonin acts to check prolactin production but, unfortunately, declines with age even as prolactin levels increase. This is another reason as men age to provide extra nutrition designed specifically yo support the health and function of the prostate.

Saw Palmetto

Saw Palmetto (Serenoa repens) is a small palm tree with large leaves and deep red berries native to North America and the West Indies. The Amerindians used the berries for the health of their prostate and genitourinary tract.

Some herbalists consider it to be an aphrodisiac. Saw Palmetto extract has been shown to be helpful in maintaining prostate health and function in clinical trials conducted at the University of California at Los Angeles and elsewhere.

Modern research has established that this fat-soluble (lipid-soluble) extract acts in a variety of ways. Researchers have proposed that saw palmetto:

• prevents the undesirable conversion of testosterone into the compound dihydo-testosterone (DHT) in vitro, (it remains controversial whether this is an active mechanism in humans)
• Reduces the binding of DHT in the prostate to its receptor
• reduces the undesirable effects of estrogen and progesterone on the prostate
• relaxes the bladder muscle
• exercises anti-inflammatory actions

The active components of saw palmetto include beta-sitosterol, campesterol, stigmasterol, cyclo-artenol, farnesol, lupeol, and phytol. The extract consists of 85-90% total fatty acids and sterols.

Source: Jarrow Formulas

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Scientific References

1. Hinman F. Benign Prostatic Hypertrophy. New York: Springer-Verlag 1983.

2. Horton R. Benign prostatic hyperplasia: a disorder of androgen metabolism in the male. J. Am Geriatr Soc. 1984 May;32(5):380-5.

3. lewis AE, Clouatre D. Melatonin and the Biological Clock, New Canaan, CT: Keats Publishing, Inc., 1996.

4. Duke JA. Handbook of Medicinal Herbs. CRC Press, 1985.