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🇰🇷 South Korea /Health & Science

Exaggerated Advertising Surrounds Prostate Supplements: Can They Treat the Condition?

From Dong-A Ilbo · () Korean

Translated from Korean and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Opinion Named sources Context piece
  • Patients are increasingly asking doctors whether prostate supplements can replace medication or treat benign prostatic hyperplasia.
  • Some functional ingredients have improved International Prostate Symptom Scores and urinary symptoms in human trials.
  • The article stresses that relief from urinary symptoms is not the same as treating an enlarged prostate and the obstruction it can cause.

More patients are arriving at clinics with prostate supplements in hand, asking whether they can take them instead of medication. One patient said a famous doctor had explained the product directly. Another cited clinical trials and a patented ingredient before asking whether the supplement could also improve benign prostatic hyperplasia.

The article argues that dividing supplements simply into products that work and products that do not is the wrong approach. Some functional ingredients have produced improvements in human studies, including changes in the International Prostate Symptom Score and urinary symptoms. Those findings do not need to be dismissed.

Can I take it instead of medicine?

· PatientA patient asked whether a supplement promoted by a famous doctor could replace medication.

But symptom relief and treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia are not the same thing. The condition involves more than frequent urination. Enlargement of the prostate can increase resistance around the prostate and bladder neck, narrowing the passage through which urine flows. The bladder then has to exert more force to empty urine.

Doesn't benign prostatic hyperplasia get better too?

· PatientAnother patient linked clinical-trial and patent claims about an ingredient to treatment of the condition.
About this summary

Originally published by Dong-A Ilbo in Korean. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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