Recommendations for Healthy Prostate Function

Maintaining normal prostate size is essential to every man's health. The following recommendations are natural ways to promote healthy prostate function and size.

Take Saw Palmetto Berry Extract

Saw palmetto (Serenoa repens) helps inhibit conversion of testosterone to dihydrotestosterone (DHT), a substance that adversely affects prostate health. I recommend 160 mg of extract twice daily.

Include More Soy in Your Diet

Some researchers now believe that the increasing estrogen-to-testosterone ratio is one of the factors that adversely affects the size of the prostate gland. Because soy has been found to restore the proper estrogen-to-testosterone ratio that becomes skewed as men get into their 60s and beyond, I recommend you include 2 ounces of soy in your diet per day. Good sources of soy include:

• tofu (soybean curd)
• fermented soy products like miso and tempeh
• roasted soy nuts
• soy flour or powder

Include at Least 15 mg of Zinc a Day

Pumpkin seeds (in the shell) are excellent sources of zinc and the essential fatty acids necessary for healthy prostate function.

In addition, I recommend the following supplement doses for supporting prostate health (the lower dose is what I recommend for daily maintenance):

• Vitamin A: (retinyl acetate and beta carotene) 10,000 IU to 25,000 IU
• Vitamin E: (natural) 200 to 1,200 IU
• Lycopene: 3 to 10 mg

Add Selenium to Your Diet

As with your overall health, eating properly benefits the health of your prostate gland. Higher intakes of selenium-rich foods such as wheat germ, tuna, herring and other seafood and shellfish, beef liver and kidney, eggs, sunflower and sesame seeds, cashews, mushrooms, garlic, onions, kelp, etc., are all good for maintaining prostate health.

As far as selenium sources, my favorite has always been the Brazil nut. I keep a bowl of them on the kitchen table. One ounce of these rainforest treats contains between 300 and 860 micrograms of selenium.