Herbal medicines relieve urinary frequency

The prostate is the only human organ that increases in size with age. Their gradual growth, called BPS for short, makes every second man over 50 experience unpleasant symptoms, such as constant urination. Herbal medicines help to slow down the progression of such symptoms and thus prevent or at least delay surgery.

Extracts from saw palmetto fruits (Serenoa repens, Sabal serrulata), stinging nettle roots (Urtica dioica) as well as sitosterol-containing preparations from Hypoxis rooperi are especially suitable for the primal therapy of mild to moderate discomforts of the lower urinary tract in men, said the urologist Prof. Dr. med. Jürgen Sökeland, Dortmund, recently. Above all, the effectiveness of the combination of saw palmetto and stinging nettle was tested in several double-blind studies over a longer period of time.

In a placebo-controlled, double-blind, multicenter study, 543 patients were treated for 52 weeks with a saw palmetto nettle combination or the chemical urologic finasteride. Both preparations proved to be therapeutically equivalent, with better compatibility of the phytopharmaceutical (Sökeland et al., Urologist [A] 1997; 36: 327-333)..

In a randomized placebo-controlled, double-blind, 40-patient study, the symptoms of urine flow, frequency of emptying, and urgency as well as quality of life were significantly better in the plant combination-treated group after 24 weeks than in the placebo group.

In another randomized, double-blind study, 140 patients were treated with either the saw palmetto nettle combination or tamsulosin for 60 weeks. In both groups, the International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS) decreased equally. The quality of life developed under phytotherapy but cheaper than under the alpha blocker. (Engelmann et al., Drug Research Vol. 56 (2006), 3: 222-229).

Conclusion: While 60 to 70 percent of patients discontinue therapy with alpha-blockers after one year because of unwanted side effects, certain herbal medicines are well tolerated with comparable efficacy. "However, preference is given to preparations for which proof of efficacy from randomized, double-blind, long-term studies is available," recommends Professor Sökeland. Further information: www.phytotherapie-komitee.de (sb)

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