Can eating the extract of an amazing plant help make your hair grow much denser and fuller and even improve enlarged prostates? The answer is a resounding yes! In this video, I will explain how an incredible plant astonished researchers who found in one study that it miraculously boosted hair count by an eye popping 74%! Besides hair growth, doctors are also shocked at how effective it is in relieving enlarged prostates. And I will answer the question: is its effectiveness equal to or better than finasteride 1mg, also known as generic propecia?
So you are probably itching to know: what is this awesome plant that I am referring to? It’s scientifically known as Serenoa Repens. But you might see it in the supplements section of your local pharmacy under its common name: saw palmetto.
(Photo by: Miguel Vieira on Wikipedia)
But you might be asking: what does it have to do with men’s health? A lot! Per an article in Nature, Saw Palmetto was originally discovered, not by pharmaceutical companies by the way, but by the Native American tribes of Seminole and Miccosukee around the Florida area.
(From: americanart.si.edu on Wikipedia)
The tribal healers have been using Saw Palmetto for hundreds of years to relieve enlarged prostates and to promote better men’s urination. And it worked really well. Interestingly, “Saw Palmetto” is called “Tala” in the Seminole language (according to the Seminole dictionary on seminolewars.org).
Those of you skeptical of traditional medicine might be saying: come on, is there actual scientific evidence for this, or is this just a bunch of folk lore? Actually, there IS hard evidence that just MIGHT surprise you!
In regards to enlarged prostates, this 1998 medical research compared saw palmetto with finasteride by looking at 18 clinical trials with a total of 2939 men. The researchers were stunned by their results. They concluded that Saw Palmetto is as effective as finasteride in improving urinary symptoms and urinary flow! But there is more! Apparently, saw palmetto beats finasteride when it comes to side effects because men who took saw palmetto had fewer side effects.
But what about for hair growth? How effective is saw palmetto for hair? Actually, I think you might be very surprised.
Here you are looking at a clinical trial consisting of 50 men with male pattern baldness. They used saw palmetto as a lotion on their scalp daily for 24 weeks. At 24 weeks, they saw an increase of 74.1% in the count of their terminal hairs! That’s massive! For those who do not know, terminal hair means the thick strand of hair, in other words, what you normally think of as hair on your scalp. Versus something called the vellus hair, which is the fine extremely short peach fuzz hair all over your body.
Anyway, to achieve that result, the men had to be consistent in applying the lotion, because the increase in hair count at 12 weeks was just 21.4% versus an increase of 74.1% at 24 weeks.
At this point, many of you might be wondering: how does saw palmetto compare with the prescription drug finasteride, the gold standard that doctors prescribe to grow hair?
Very good question! Good thing in 2012, researchers did just such a study comparing saw palmetto with finasteride, head to head! This clinical trial was done over 2 years with 100 men with mild to moderate male pattern baldness. For every day during a period of 2 years, one group took a 320mg pill of saw palmetto, while another group took a finasteride 1mg tablet. The result? The researchers found that 68% of the finasteride group grew hair versus 38% of the saw palmetto group. So saw palmetto as a pill does work, but not as well as finasteride. Keeping in mind that saw palmetto is not a drug, the result is still impressive.
So what can we conclude from the above clinical studies? Well, for men who do not want to take any prescription drug for hair loss or prostate problems, saw palmetto is an extremely excellent choice. In regards to the best regimen in pill form for growing hair, finasteride is still the most effective. And doctors usually will recommend men to take finasteride tablets for hair growth. However, saw palmetto in lotion form appears to work quite well per the research study that I showed above. So maybe a combination of finasteride as a pill along with saw palmetto as a lotion will be the king among kings in terms of efficacy for growing hair. I would love to see research that studies this combination, wouldn’t you? I will certainly keep you posted if I do see such a study! In any case, it looks like any kind of hair growth regimen must be continued consistently on a long term basis for at least 1 to 2 years or even longer to see great results. So if you have hair problems, don’t lose hope! Keep at it regularly everyday, and you might just pleasantly surprise yourself after a year or two!
I hope you guys found this article to be educational and interesting.
Thanks for reading! See you next time.
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