What patients take without telling you: Holistic approach for BPH

The use of botanicals and supplements have markedly increased in men that are seeking increased protection against the potential onset and symptomatic relief of lower urinary tract symptoms that are commonly experienced with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). While this implies a positive trend and considers that men are taking a more active role in health and prevention, dialog between the patient and the clinician is often deficient. This may be due to a number of factors including both the patients' inability to report about the use of certain agents and the clinicians' inability to ask. Moreover, the sense that natural agents may lack side effects coupled with ineffective communication between the doctor and patient could result in potential adverse interactions. We have performed a comprehensive search of articles published from 1990 to 2005 using the Medline databases in order examine clinical data on the most commonly researched herbs for BPH. We provide a brief update on the state of the research.