Saw Palmetto study in 2002

[Guest]

In the study, 400mg of Saw Palmetto and 100mg of Beta-sitosterol was used. The results were very good for improved hair growth (doesn't mean it's regrowth though), although the sample was extremely small (19 men).

I have read countless posts on people who have taken Saw Palmetto for long periods of time, a lot of these posts seem to suggest that Saw Palmetto does not help much if at all with hair on the scalp.

The study used not only Saw Palmetto, but also Beta-sitosterol.

Question 1) Two ingredients were used in the test, not one, so why do people ignore the Beta-sitosterol and consume only the Saw Palmetto?

This study was made 7 years ago and so much hype and speculation has been made amount this.

Question 2) Why aren't further studies being carried out? Why don't the people who carried this test out in 2002, redo the test with a much larger sample?

Unrelated to the study but relevant to Saw Palmetto,

Question 3) If finasteride only inhibits 1 type of 5 Alpha but Saw Palmetto inhibit both and Saw Palmetto is cheaper than finasteride, why aren't people using Saw Palmetto instead of finasteride? Is the only reason because finasteride is FDA approved and Saw Palmetto is not?

 

[Nashville Hairline]

I think I can answer (3), its cos there are very few recommendations about a dosage for SP, let alone a decent study, whereas as we know its 1mg for finasteride and that works for 70% of guys or whatever after a couple of years.

personally I think its a useful herb but am still experimenting with what dosages to take. I'm only six months into it: no regrowth but no further loss of hair either.

 

[Bryan]

Question 3) If finasteride only inhibits 1 type of 5 Alpha but Saw Palmetto inhibit both and Saw Palmetto is cheaper than finasteride, why aren't people using Saw Palmetto instead of finasteride? Is the only reason because finasteride is FDA approved and Saw Palmetto is not?

I don't believe there's any scientific evidence that taking saw palmetto orally reduces DHT. If I'm wrong about that, please cite the studies for me.

 

[Guest]

Can anyone not answer question 1? It was the main question I wanted answering. If the study only contained 2 ingredients, why would just about everyone I can find ignore the Beta-sitosterol and just use the Saw Palmetto?

 

[guybrush]

That study means nothing. Differences between treatment and control group were non-significant, which means results may have ocurred by chance. Basically this is because those differences were found in comparing 2 groups composed of very few subjects.

Moreover both groups improved hair count at some rate, which sounds a bit surprising since all subjects had been diagnosed of hair loss. In my view that may be due to overestimation of the measures. There's plenty of problems in these results, eg the follow up was only at 6 months.

I think someone should prevent these studies from publishing. It's a waste of time and money for people who do not understand research methods. Having such a little sample and measuring at 6 months you're not going to demonstrate anything, you're just messing around.

 

[docj077]

Bryan, just a FYI. I'm sure you'd be interested to read the full study (http://www.jissn.com/content/5/1/12). Have to be careful though as both Astaxanthin and Saw Palmetto are 5AR inhibitors in-vitro. Astaxanthin is known to be more powerful, however.

J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2008 Aug 12;5:12.

An open label, dose response study to determine the effect of a dietary supplement on dihydrotestosterone, testosterone and estradiol levels in healthy males.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Maintaining endogenous testosterone (T) levels as men age may slow the symptoms of sarcopenia, andropause and decline in physical performance. Drugs inhibiting the enzyme 5alpha-reductase (5AR) produce increased blood levels of T and decreased levels of dihydrotestosterone (DHT). However, symptoms of gynecomastia have been reported due to the aromatase (AER) enzyme converting excess T to estradiol (ES). The carotenoid astaxanthin (AX) from Haematococcus pluvialis, Saw Palmetto berry lipid extract (SPLE) from Serenoa repens and the precise combination of these dietary supplements, Alphastat(R) (Mytosterone(trade mark)), have been reported to have inhibitory effects on both 5AR and AER in-vitro. Concomitant regulation of both enzymes in-vivo would cause DHT and ES blood levels to decrease and T levels to increase. The purpose of this clinical study was to determine if patented Alphastat(R) (Mytosterone(trade mark)) could produce these effects in a dose dependent manner. METHODS: To investigate this clinically, 42 healthy males ages 37 to 70 years were divided into two groups of twenty-one and dosed with either 800 mg/day or 2000 mg/day of Alphastat(R) (Mytosterone(trade mark)) for fourteen days. Blood samples were collected on days 0, 3, 7 and 14 and assayed for T, DHT and ES. Body weight and blood pressure data were collected prior to blood collection. One-way, repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA-RM) was performed at a significance level of alpha = 0.05 to determine differences from baseline within each group. Two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA-2) was performed after baseline subtraction, at a significance level of alpha = 0.05 to determine differences between dose groups. Results are expressed as means +/- SEM. RESULTS: ANOVA-RM showed significant within group increases in serum total T and significant decreases in serum DHT from baseline in both dose groups at a significance level of alpha = 0.05. Significant decreases in serum ES are reported for the 2000 mg/day dose group and not the 800 mg/day dose group. Significant within group effects were confirmed using ANOVA-2 analyses after baseline subtraction. ANOVA-2 analyses also showed no significant difference between dose groups with regard to the increase of T or the decrease of DHT. It did show a significant dose dependant decrease in serum ES levels. CONCLUSION: Both dose groups showed significant (p = 0.05) increases in T and decreases in DHT within three days of treatment with Alphastat(R) (Mytosterone(trade mark)). Between group statistical analysis showed no significant (p = 0.05) difference, indicating the effect was not dose dependent and that 800 mg/per day is equally effective as 2000 mg/day for increasing T and lowering DHT. Blood levels of ES however, decreased significantly (p = 0.05) in the 2000 mg/day dose group but not in the 800 mg/day dose group indicating a dose dependant decrease in E levels.


It would have been nice if they had done this study with more treatment arms (i.e. a group taking just Saw Palmetto and group taking just astaxanthin).

 

[Guest]

That study means nothing. Differences between treatment and control group were non-significant, which means results may have ocurred by chance. Basically this is because those differences were found in comparing 2 groups composed of very few subjects.

Moreover both groups improved hair count at some rate, which sounds a bit surprising since all subjects had been diagnosed of hair loss. In my view that may be due to overestimation of the measures. There's plenty of problems in these results, eg the follow up was only at 6 months.

I think someone should prevent these studies from publishing. It's a waste of time and money for people who do not understand research methods. Having such a little sample and measuring at 6 months you're not going to demonstrate anything, you're just messing around.

Good point and I already said the sample was extremely small and not very useful as a study, however I will still continue to ask the same question.... why aren't people using Beta-sitosterol along with Saw Palmetto like the study used? Obviously Saw Palmetto for hair loss gained huge popularity based on this study, yet Beta-sitosterol has been ignored, but Beta-sitosterol is important to hair, so I don't understand. This guy in the link below said he regrew his hair using Beta-sitosterol:

http://hairregrowth.blogspot.com/

Maybe Saw Palmetto alone isn't going to show much results if any on hair, but combine this with Beta-sitosterol, it may provide a stacked effect, increasing it's effectiveness, or at least showing more obvious results, if any existed in the first place.

Thanks Doctor for that study, very interesting. Haven't read that before.

 

[follicle84]

why aren't people using Beta-sitosterol along with Saw Palmetto like the study used?

Beta-sitosterol has its own possible risk of side effects that can be potentially harmful. However i dont think this is the main reason for its lack of use. Saw palmetto is also known to have some possible risk of harmful side effects too. I think the reason for its lack of use is because its not publically made that it was used amongst saw palmetto in that study and few know of the study. You see sawpalmetto has been around much longer than Beta-sitosterol and has been used since ancient times for curing various ailments so its naturally developed a lot of hype whilst Beta-sitosterol hasnt been around long enough to generate the same hype. What's probably happened is this study has leeked out to someone and they have jumped to the conclusion such results must have been down to sawpalmetto since its well known for treating many other problems unlike Beta-sitosterol.

 

[Guest]

why aren't people using Beta-sitosterol along with Saw Palmetto like the study used?

Beta-sitosterol has its own possible risk of side effects that can be potentially harmful. However i dont think this is the main reason for its lack of use. Saw palmetto is also known to have some possible risk of harmful side effects too. I think the reason for its lack of use is because its not publically made that it was used amongst saw palmetto in that study and few know of the study. You see sawpalmetto has been around much longer than Beta-sitosterol and has been used since ancient times for curing various ailments so its naturally developed a lot of hype whilst Beta-sitosterol hasnt been around long enough to generate the same hype. What's probably happened is this study has leeked out to someone and they have jumped to the conclusion such results must have been down to sawpalmetto since its well known for treating many other problems unlike Beta-sitosterol.

I'm not saying this is true at all but IF Saw Palmetto can be helpful towards hair loss, perhaps it's ineffective alone and beta-sitosterol along with it can make a difference. I know this is probably unlikely, I know the sample in the study was very low, but I cannot just dismiss this as if it didn't happen, something is happening here.

 

[Bryan]

Bryan, just a FYI. I'm sure you'd be interested to read the full study (http://www.jissn.com/content/5/1/12). Have to be careful though as both Astaxanthin and Saw Palmetto are 5AR inhibitors in-vitro. Astaxanthin is known to be more powerful, however.

It would have been nice if they had done this study with more treatment arms (i.e. a group taking just Saw Palmetto and group taking just astaxanthin).

Yes, interesting study! By "eye-balling" those graphs, it appears that the product reduced serum DHT by about 17% after 2 weeks at the lower dose, and about 29% after 2 weeks at the larger dose. Interestingly, the smaller dose seemed to have no net effect on estrogen after 2 weeks at the smaller dose, but the larger dose reduced it about 10% after 2 weeks.

I agree that it would have been nice if they'd had a Saw Palmetto only group, and an astaxanthin only group. In an article about unapproved treatments for male pattern baldness by Sawaya and Shapiro a few years ago, they cited an earlier study which had found no effect at all on serum DHT from a product that was based only on Saw Palmetto. It would be interesting to know exactly how much of the results of this current study were actually due to the astaxanthin.

 

[docj077]

Bryan, just a FYI. I'm sure you'd be interested to read the full study (http://www.jissn.com/content/5/1/12). Have to be careful though as both Astaxanthin and Saw Palmetto are 5AR inhibitors in-vitro. Astaxanthin is known to be more powerful, however.

It would have been nice if they had done this study with more treatment arms (i.e. a group taking just Saw Palmetto and group taking just astaxanthin).

Yes, interesting study! By "eye-balling" those graphs, it appears that the product reduced serum DHT by about 17% after 2 weeks at the lower dose, and about 29% after 2 weeks at the larger dose. Interestingly, the smaller dose seemed to have no net effect on estrogen after 2 weeks at the smaller dose, but the larger dose reduced it about 10% after 2 weeks.

I agree that it would have been nice if they'd had a Saw Palmetto only group, and an astaxanthin only group. In an article about unapproved treatments for male pattern baldness by Sawaya and Shapiro a few years ago, they cited an earlier study which had found no effect at all on serum DHT from a product that was based only on Saw Palmetto. It would be interesting to know exactly how much of the results of this current study were actually due to the astaxanthin.

I agree with your observations wholeheartedly. I find this compound astaxanthin to be interesting. Apparently, you can find it Fish Oil and it's one of the substances the gives fish its color. 10 mg PO qday is around $25-$30. It's quite amazing that a compound can potentially be a 5AR inhibitor and an aromatase inhibitor in one. However, strange molecular coincidences can happen with synergy.

On another note, I continue to find it remarkable that a lot of our most potent herbal antioxidant compounds turn out to have some 5AR inhibitory effect.

 

[Bryan]

On another note, I continue to find it remarkable that a lot of our most potent herbal antioxidant compounds turn out to have some 5AR inhibitory effect.

The moment I read that, I was reminded of NDGA (nordihydroguaiaretic acid), which is supposed to be one of the most powerful known antioxidants (I believe it comes from the cactus plant). And I saw a study somewhere saying that NDGA is also -- surprise, surprise -- a 5a-reductase inhibitor!

 

[BoilerRoom]

I am always extremely suspicious about studies that test one specific product, like Alphastat.

I just always have some weird mental image about a company employee dropping money into the researcher's labcoat pocket while they both laugh hysterically together.

I used to take astaxanthin as my part of exercise/overall health regimen. Wikipedia, which is never a reliable source, however lists astaxanthin as significantly INCREASING DHT, with no citation of course.

 

[Nashville Hairline]

Has anyone seen Beta-sitosterol as an over-the-counter supplement? What I've found is its usually as part of a larger prostate treatment along with SP so far.

 

[Guest]

Has anyone seen Beta-sitosterol as an over-the-counter supplement? What I've found is its usually as part of a larger prostate treatment along with SP so far.

I've seen Beta-sitosterol on ebay in capsule form that is alone, not bundled with other things like SP.

 

[Petchsky]

Hair Signals has beta sisterol in it along with copper peptides, tea extracts and lavender.

 

[Nashville Hairline]

Thanks guys. seems that soy is a good dietery source of the stuff