[non-professional view]
I feel that bph is clearly a lifestyle problem that modern life is making worse, so there should be lifestyle changes that we can make to help reduce it.
I've been looking at nutrition and supplements to investigate how these might help, if anyone has any thoughts or experiences please comment.
- vitamin D3. Seems related to bph, there was even a drug candidate a few years ago (BXL-628 - elocalcitol) that was a vitamin D derivative without one of the side-effects but it didn't make it (so far, anyway). Seems that the dose can be quite high initially, e.g. 6000 IU / 150mcg a day, but we should get blood levels measured over time to make sure it doesn't go crazy high.
- zinc and vitamin B2. I gather there's a case for not taking zinc every day, and vit B2 makes urine bright orange (depending on dose) so I'm taking these on alternate days atm. Something like 25mg per day for zinc (so 50mg if taking once every 2 days). Not sure what dose is best for vit B2, some are huge compared to RDA, but no real downside other than the coloured urine as far as I can tell.
- boron, 3mg / day and nettle root extract. Life Extension do a supplement with both of these in.
- blackcurrant seed oil (contains GLA - gamma linolenic acid).
- pumpkin seed oil - has many of the things we want, zinc, sterols, anti-oxidants, etc.
Also Saw Palmetto, Pygeum, etc etc, lots of options ...
These work on a number of different pathways, maybe one of them will make a difference? Supplement manufacturers make a variety of "prostate support" pills with different combinations of these and other ingredients. Note that some of them are physically quite large pills though. It seems to me that although there will be common factors, the key pathway / nutrient might be different in different people, so we might need several foods / supplements to have reasonable confidence in covering the problem. There's insulin & IGF-1, 5-alpha reductase, aromatase, androgen receptors, estrogen receptors, and on and on ...
Higher dose D3 seems an interesting option to me, has anyone tried this to help their bph?