As anyone who has walked around the sea islands of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida can attest, cabbage palms or palmetto scrub bushes grow like weeds and their six to seven pronged fronds leave a mean scratch if a person inadvertently brushes against them. What many people who live in these areas might not know is the raisin-like fruit of these wild bushes is the source of the dietary supplement Saw Palmetto (Serenoa repens), which men have used for centuries to improve and enhance their sexual health. Today, the typical men’s multivitamin contains Saw Palmetto as a key ingredient to support the sexual health of men.
According to the Creighton University School of Medicine (http://altmed.creighton.edu/sawpalmetto/), the first documented use of Saw Palmetto to benefit men’s sexual health traces its use back to the Mayan and Seminole Indians of North America. These North American natives used Saw Palmetto in the form of a tonic to increase men’s sex drive, enhance his fertility, cure impotence, and reduce urinary track issues. The Saw Palmetto tonics also contained extracts from nettles and pumpkin seeds, which many believed enhanced the effects of the primary ingredient. Eventually, Saw Palmetto became a popular men’s medicinal tonic in the United States through the 19th and early 20th century, though its popularity in the US waned in the middle of the 20th century.
Despite the decreased use and popularity of Saw Palmetto in the United States, Europeans continued this dietary supplement for the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). In fact, when German men start a BPH treatment regime, doctors prescribe Saw Palmetto supplements to approximately 95 percent of their patients. As the use of alternative medicine has gained popularity in the United States at the beginning of the 21st century, Saw Palmetto has regained its popularity as a treatment for the symptoms associated with BPH, as well as to afford men the other health benefits associated with the regular use of Saw Palmetto supplements.
Today, it is common to find Saw Palmetto listed as a key ingredient in a men’s multivitamin. In addition to helping reduce the frequent urge to urinate and the difficulty starting urination associated with BPH, men often find the regular use of Saw Palmetto benefits their health in other ways. Many men find when they take Saw Palmetto, they experience a higher libido, they do not experience hair loss, and they have a reduction in pelvic pain. According the University of Maryland Medical Center (http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/saw-palmetto-000272.htm), preliminary animals studies suggest Saw Palmetto might prevent the growth of cells responsible for the formation of tumors in the prostate. Researchers are conducting further studies to provide conclusive evidence as to whether Saw Palmetto can act to prevent prostate cancer and to determine its level of effectiveness in the treatment of the urinary symptoms associated with BPH.
Men who want to follow the steps of those who walked before them to experience the health benefits of Saw Palmetto, just need to find a men’s multivitamin containing Saw Palmetto.
Ehrlich, S. D. (2011, April 3). Saw Palmetto. Retrieved June 6, 2012, from University of Maryland Medical Center-Complimentary Medicine: http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/saw-palmetto-000272.htm