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Healthwatch
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Healthwatch
Can Saw Palmetto Treat An Enlarged Prostate?
~3.3 mins read
Scientific evidence shows little or no benefit.
Marketed as a natural remedy for an enlarged prostate, saw palmetto is a top-selling dietary supplement. It's extracted from berries that grow on saw palmetto palm trees, which are native to the southeastern United States.
By one estimate, more than a third of all US adults who take supplements use saw palmetto specifically. Some evidence suggests that saw palmetto has anti-inflammatory properties, and its use as folk medicine dates back over a century.
But experts at Harvard say men should view its supposed benefits for prostate health skeptically. "Saw palmetto is unlikely to harm you, but it probably won't provide any major benefits either," says Dr. Heidi Rayala, an assistant professor of urology at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
BPH and the potential effect of saw palmetto
It's common for men to develop an enlarged prostate, or benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), when they get older. BPH impedes urinary flow through the urethra, causing obstructive symptoms that can worsen with time.
Just how saw palmetto might act on the prostate to improve symptoms isn't entirely clear, however. Some evidence suggest it mimics the effects of certain drugs used for treating BPH, including 5-alpha reductase inhibitors such as finasteride (Proscar), which shrink the prostate gland.
In the US, no herbal supplement is approved as BPH treatment. The American Urological Association cautions that studies backing saw palmetto for treating enlarged prostates have numerous flaws, including short durations and a lack of placebo controls. Most of the supporting evidence comes from small studies paid for by companies that sell dietary supplements.
What do randomized clinical trials show?
The best-conducted research shows no benefits from saw palmetto for BPH. During one study, 225 men with moderate to severe BPH were treated with either a placebo or 160 milligrams (mg) of saw palmetto, taken twice daily for a year. The investigators detected no difference in outcomes, but they also acknowledged that doses tested in the study may have been too low to produce measurable effects.
So, during a larger subsequent study, researchers tested higher doses of saw palmetto ranging up to 320 mg given three times a day. Nearly 370 men ages 45 and older were randomized to treatment or placebo groups. After year and a half, men in both groups reported feeling either no worse or a little better. Remarkably, 40% of the placebo-treated men said symptoms had improved, suggesting the simple act of taking a pill could have something to do with the supplement's perceived benefits.
Dr. Michael Barry, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, led the study. He urges men to consult with their doctors before trying saw palmetto, mainly to rule out other potential causes of urinary obstruction, which can include bladder or prostate cancer. And saw palmetto may interfere with the blood's clotting ability, making it risky for men who take blood thinners.
Recent results and comments
The latest evidence on saw palmetto and BPH comes from a Cochrane Review of 27 placebo-controlled studies enrolling a combined 4,656 participants. Results published in 2024 showed no improvement in urinary symptoms or quality of life from taking saw palmetto (alone or with other herbal supplements) over durations ranging up to 17 months.
"If the ingredients in these herbal products worked well for urinary symptoms, drug companies would have already had them approved by the FDA as a medicine that insurance companies would have to cover," Dr. Rayala said. "It's okay to take them, but just be cautious about spending too much of your own money on these alternatives."
"It is easy to understand why so many find taking a naturally occurring supplement for treating urinary difficulties in middle age appealing," said Dr. Marc Garnick, the Gorman Brothers Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and editor in chief of the Harvard Medical School Guide to Prostate Diseases. "However, evidence of effectiveness with saw palmetto is lacking, and its use for BPH and other common urinary symptoms without a full evaluation of the potential cause should be discouraged."
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Healthwatch
Counting Steps Is Good Is Combining Steps And Heart Rate Better?
~4.9 mins read
A new way to assess fitness and estimate health risks.
type 2 diabetes
high blood pressure (hypertension)
coronary atherosclerosis, heart attack, and heart failure
stroke.
Low: 0.0081 or lower
Medium: higher than 0.0081 but lower than 0.0147
High: 0.0147 or higher.
Participants in this study were likely more willing to monitor their activity and health than the average person. And more than 70% of the study subjects were female and more than 80% were white. The results could have been quite different outside of a research setting and if a more diverse group had been included.
The findings were not compared to standard risk factors for cardiovascular disease, such as having a strong family history of cardiovascular disease or smoking cigarettes. Nor were DHRPS scores compared with standard risk calculators for cardiovascular disease. So the value of DHRPS compared with other readily available (and free) risk assessments isn't clear.
The exercise stress testing findings were based on only 21 people. That's far too few to make definitive conclusions.
The cost of a device to continuously monitor heart rate and steps can run in the hundreds of dollars; for many this may be prohibitive, especially since the benefits of calculating the DHRPS are unproven.
Have you met your step goals today? If so, well done! Monitoring your step count can inspire you to bump up activity over time.
But when it comes to assessing fitness or cardiovascular disease risk, counting steps might not be enough. Combining steps and average heart rate (as measured by a smart device) could be a better way for you to assess fitness and gain insights into your risk for major illnesses like heart attack or diabetes. Read on to learn how many steps you need for better health, and why tagging on heart rate matters.
Steps alone versus steps plus heart rate
First, how many steps should you aim for daily? There's nothing special about the 10,000-steps number often touted: sure, it sounds impressive, and it's a nice round number that has been linked to certain health benefits. But fewer daily steps — 4,000 to 7,000 — might be enough to help you become healthier. And taking more than 10,000 steps a day might be even better.
Second, people walking briskly up and down hills are getting a lot more exercise than those walking slowly on flat terrain, even if they take the same number of steps.
So, at a time when millions of people are carrying around smartphones or wearing watches that monitor physical activity and body functions, might there be a better way than just a step count to assess our fitness and risk of developing major disease?
According to a new study, the answer is yes.
Get out your calculator: A new measure of health risks and fitness
Researchers publishing in the Journal of the American Heart Association found that a simple ratio that includes both heart rate and step count is better than just counting steps. It's called the DHRPS, which stands for daily heart rate per step. To calculate it, take your average daily heart rate and divide it by your average daily step count. Yes, to determine your DHRPS you'll need a way to continuously monitor your heart rate, such as a smartwatch or Fitbit. And you'll need to do some simple math to arrive at your DHRPS ratio, as explained below.
The study enrolled nearly 7,000 people (average age: 55). Each wore a Fitbit, a device that straps onto the wrist and is programmed to monitor steps taken and average heart rate each day. (Fitbits also have other features such as reminders to be active, a tracker of how far you've walked, and sleep quality, but these weren't part of this study.)
Over the five years of the study, volunteers took more than 50 billion steps. When each individual's DHRPS was calculated and compared with their other health information, researchers found that higher scores were linked to an increased risk of
The DHRPS had stronger associations with these diseases than either heart rate or step count alone. In addition, people with higher DHRPS scores were less likely to report good health than those who had the lowest scores. And among the 21 study subjects who had exercise stress testing, those with the highest DHRPS scores had the lowest capacity for exercise.
What counts as a higher score in this study?
In this study, DHRPS scores were divided into three groups:
How to make daily heart rate per step calculations
Here's how it works. Let's say that over a one-month period your average daily heart rate is 80 and your average step count is 4,000. That means your DHRPS equals 80/4,000, or 0.0200. If the next month your average heart rate is still 80 but you take about 6,000 steps a day, your DHRPS is 80/6,000, or 0.0133. Since lower scores are better, this is a positive trend.
Should you start calculating your DHRPS?
Do the results described in this study tempt you to begin monitoring your DHRPS? You may decide to hold off until further research confirms actual health benefits from knowing that ratio.
This study merely explored the relationship between DHRPS and risk of diabetes or cardiovascular disease like heart attack or stroke. This type of study can only establish a link between the DHRPS and disease. It can't determine whether a higher score actually causes them.
Here are four other limitations of this research to keep in mind:
The bottom line
Tracking DHRPS or daily activity and other health measures might be a way to improve your health if the results prompt you to make positive changes in behavior, such as becoming more active. Or perhaps DHRPS could one day help your health care provider monitor your fitness, better assess your health risks, and recommend preventive approaches. But we don't yet know if this new measure will actually lead to improved health because the study didn't explore that.
If you already have a device that continuously monitors your daily heart rate and step count, feel free to do the math! Maybe knowing your DHRPS will motivate you to do more to lower your risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Or maybe it won't. We need more research and experience with this measure to know whether it can deliver on its potential to improve health.
profile/5170OIG3.jpeg.webp
Healthwatch
Counting Steps Is Good Is Combining Steps And Heart Rate Better?
~4.9 mins read
A new way to assess fitness and estimate health risks.
type 2 diabetes
high blood pressure (hypertension)
coronary atherosclerosis, heart attack, and heart failure
stroke.
Low: 0.0081 or lower
Medium: higher than 0.0081 but lower than 0.0147
High: 0.0147 or higher.
Participants in this study were likely more willing to monitor their activity and health than the average person. And more than 70% of the study subjects were female and more than 80% were white. The results could have been quite different outside of a research setting and if a more diverse group had been included.
The findings were not compared to standard risk factors for cardiovascular disease, such as having a strong family history of cardiovascular disease or smoking cigarettes. Nor were DHRPS scores compared with standard risk calculators for cardiovascular disease. So the value of DHRPS compared with other readily available (and free) risk assessments isn't clear.
The exercise stress testing findings were based on only 21 people. That's far too few to make definitive conclusions.
The cost of a device to continuously monitor heart rate and steps can run in the hundreds of dollars; for many this may be prohibitive, especially since the benefits of calculating the DHRPS are unproven.
Have you met your step goals today? If so, well done! Monitoring your step count can inspire you to bump up activity over time.
But when it comes to assessing fitness or cardiovascular disease risk, counting steps might not be enough. Combining steps and average heart rate (as measured by a smart device) could be a better way for you to assess fitness and gain insights into your risk for major illnesses like heart attack or diabetes. Read on to learn how many steps you need for better health, and why tagging on heart rate matters.
Steps alone versus steps plus heart rate
First, how many steps should you aim for daily? There's nothing special about the 10,000-steps number often touted: sure, it sounds impressive, and it's a nice round number that has been linked to certain health benefits. But fewer daily steps — 4,000 to 7,000 — might be enough to help you become healthier. And taking more than 10,000 steps a day might be even better.
Second, people walking briskly up and down hills are getting a lot more exercise than those walking slowly on flat terrain, even if they take the same number of steps.
So, at a time when millions of people are carrying around smartphones or wearing watches that monitor physical activity and body functions, might there be a better way than just a step count to assess our fitness and risk of developing major disease?
According to a new study, the answer is yes.
Get out your calculator: A new measure of health risks and fitness
Researchers publishing in the Journal of the American Heart Association found that a simple ratio that includes both heart rate and step count is better than just counting steps. It's called the DHRPS, which stands for daily heart rate per step. To calculate it, take your average daily heart rate and divide it by your average daily step count. Yes, to determine your DHRPS you'll need a way to continuously monitor your heart rate, such as a smartwatch or Fitbit. And you'll need to do some simple math to arrive at your DHRPS ratio, as explained below.
The study enrolled nearly 7,000 people (average age: 55). Each wore a Fitbit, a device that straps onto the wrist and is programmed to monitor steps taken and average heart rate each day. (Fitbits also have other features such as reminders to be active, a tracker of how far you've walked, and sleep quality, but these weren't part of this study.)
Over the five years of the study, volunteers took more than 50 billion steps. When each individual's DHRPS was calculated and compared with their other health information, researchers found that higher scores were linked to an increased risk of
The DHRPS had stronger associations with these diseases than either heart rate or step count alone. In addition, people with higher DHRPS scores were less likely to report good health than those who had the lowest scores. And among the 21 study subjects who had exercise stress testing, those with the highest DHRPS scores had the lowest capacity for exercise.
What counts as a higher score in this study?
In this study, DHRPS scores were divided into three groups:
How to make daily heart rate per step calculations
Here's how it works. Let's say that over a one-month period your average daily heart rate is 80 and your average step count is 4,000. That means your DHRPS equals 80/4,000, or 0.0200. If the next month your average heart rate is still 80 but you take about 6,000 steps a day, your DHRPS is 80/6,000, or 0.0133. Since lower scores are better, this is a positive trend.
Should you start calculating your DHRPS?
Do the results described in this study tempt you to begin monitoring your DHRPS? You may decide to hold off until further research confirms actual health benefits from knowing that ratio.
This study merely explored the relationship between DHRPS and risk of diabetes or cardiovascular disease like heart attack or stroke. This type of study can only establish a link between the DHRPS and disease. It can't determine whether a higher score actually causes them.
Here are four other limitations of this research to keep in mind:
The bottom line
Tracking DHRPS or daily activity and other health measures might be a way to improve your health if the results prompt you to make positive changes in behavior, such as becoming more active. Or perhaps DHRPS could one day help your health care provider monitor your fitness, better assess your health risks, and recommend preventive approaches. But we don't yet know if this new measure will actually lead to improved health because the study didn't explore that.
If you already have a device that continuously monitors your daily heart rate and step count, feel free to do the math! Maybe knowing your DHRPS will motivate you to do more to lower your risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Or maybe it won't. We need more research and experience with this measure to know whether it can deliver on its potential to improve health.
News_Naija
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News_Naija
Male Infertility: Confronting Stereotypes And Finding Support
~3.3 mins read
Infertility can be a heavy burden for men, affecting them both emotionally and socially. It often feels like a hidden weight, shrouded in silence and shame. Societal stereotypes make it worse by suggesting that men should always appear strong and unaffected. However, ignoring the problem won’t make it disappear. By challenging the stigma, we can empower men to confront infertility with courage and seek the support they need. Understanding male infertility is essential, its facts, causes, and the myths surrounding it. Male infertility occurs when a man is unable to impregnate a woman despite having regular unprotected sex. It affects millions of individuals worldwide. The most common diagnostic tool is semen analysis, which evaluates sperm count, shape, and motility. An accurate diagnosis is the first step toward treatment, and understanding the condition is key to achieving a solution. Causes of male infertility Numerous factors can contribute to infertility. These include genetic issues such as chromosomal abnormalities or missing segments of the Y chromosome, which determines male characteristics. Hormonal imbalances, like low testosterone levels, can affect sperm production, as can physical conditions like varicoceles (enlarged veins in the scrotum) and various infections. Lifestyle choices also play a major role. Stress, smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, and exposure to environmental toxins can all reduce fertility. Previous injuries or trauma may also affect sperm quality. Debunking myths and misconceptions There are many myths about male infertility. One common myth is that men cannot be infertile and that infertility is solely a woman’s issue. Others believe that men are less emotional or less affected by infertility, which is false. Men experience shame, frustration, and sadness, just like women do. Some associate infertility with weakness or failure. But infertility is a medical condition, often influenced by factors beyond one’s control. Recognising this truth is crucial in dismantling the stigma. The emotional toll on men Infertility can be emotionally devastating for men. They often feel inadequate or ashamed of being unable to father a child. These feelings can lead to depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem. The experience is made even more isolating by the tendency of men to remain silent, fearing judgment or appearing “less masculine.” One persistent myth stems from traditional roles that pressure men to appear strong and capable at all times. Admitting to fertility struggles can feel like a loss of identity. Many men fear being judged by their families or peers, reinforcing their silence. The power of shared stories Some brave men have broken this silence by sharing their experiences. Public figures from various fields have opened up about their infertility struggles, encouraging others and proving that infertility does not diminish one’s masculinity or worth. However, more voices are needed to normalise these conversations. Seeking support: Medical and emotional Men dealing with infertility should seek both medical and psychological support. Early diagnosis increases treatment options and improves outcomes. Emotional well-being is just as important as physical health, and counselling can be a lifeline, reducing distress, improving mental health, and offering coping strategies. Contrary to popular belief, seeking support is not a sign of weakness; it is a courageous step forward. Barriers to help Many men remain silent due to stigma or shame. Others don’t know where to find help or fear being judged. Additionally, limited access to male-focused fertility clinics and services compounds the problem. When men feel safe and understood, they’re more likely to seek the care they need. Healthcare providers play a vital role in this by offering clear, respectful information about male fertility and creating an environment of trust. The role of families and communities Friends and family can help by encouraging open, compassionate conversations. Challenging stereotypes about masculinity, strength, and success helps dismantle shame. Fertility experts recommend early testing and comprehensive care, while mental health professionals highlight the importance of expressing emotions to aid healing and reduce anxiety. Breaking the stigma Dismantling the stigma around male infertility enables men to seek help, receive timely diagnoses, and increase their chances of becoming fathers. Compassion and understanding can turn silence into support, and shame into strength. Everyone benefits when men are empowered to care for both their reproductive and emotional well-being. If conception hasn’t occurred after one year of regular, unprotected intercourse, it’s advisable to see a doctor. Symptoms like testicular pain or swelling, or low libido, may also indicate a fertility issue and should not be ignored. Early action matters Taking early action leads to better results and reduced emotional strain. If you’re facing fertility challenges, don’t hesitate, ask questions, seek answers, and take charge of your health. Everyone deserves the opportunity to build a family and live with confidence. Together, we can change perceptions and create a society where men no longer suffer in silence.
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