Nettle Root and Hormonal Health
Nettle Root is a top contender as the number 1 herb for men and women as the move into middle age--and for those worried about damaging estrogen metabolites and waning levels of free testosterone, Nettle Root is your plant.
Nettle Root is the root, the rhizome, of the common stinging nettle
plant,
Urtica dioica. Nettle Root has the unique ability to optimize functions of the endocrine system related to reproductive health,
maximizing and protecting simultaneously.
Nettle Root can be used as a standalone herb, and Nettle Root should
always be used side-by-side when using any herbs, nutritional
supplements, or drugs which increase levels of androgen (male sex)
hormones, or when there is an issue of an overabundance of estrogen in
the body or an underabundance of testosterone. Additionally, for anyone
symptoms of estrogen toxicity, Nettle Root is a must.
Nettle Root and Free Testosterone
As a standalone herb, Nettle Root work intelligently to optimize sex
hormones. For men, Nettle Root works primarily to keep testosterone
active in the body for longer. On average, only 2% of total serum
testosterone is free, and only free testosterone is active. The other
98% is bound testosterone and is no longer active. The glycoprotein sex
hormone binding globulin (SHBG) binds to free testosterone rendering it
useless (and setting the stage for a dangerous series of chemical
processes). Nettle Root works to bind to SHBG, so that testosterone does
not. This dramatically increases levels of free testosterone, the kind
of testosterone that works positively on the body, the mind, the soul.
As Lee Myer, the popular men's health author, states, free testosterone
is the type of testosterone "that will
supercharge
our brains, blood, muscles, sex lives and all
the other things we associate with testosterone."
For women, Nettle Root works similarly, by blocking SHBG. SHBG has an
affinity for all sex hormones, and keeping levels of free estrogen is
important in women as is keeping levels of free testosterone is
important in men. For most healthy individuals,
High levels of estrogen and testosterone are damaging only after they have become bound to SHBG.
Once estrogen or testosterone have become bound to SHBG, they begin the
process of being converted into harmful estrogen metabolites, like
esterdiol. By keeping these sex hormones free, the rates of conversion
to harmful metabolites are decreased.
For men, Nettle Root even works to unbind testosterone which has already
become bound by SHBG, further increasing levels of important free
testosterone and further decreasing the conversion to estrogen
metabolites.
Nettle Root and DHT (and hormonal hair loss)
Unlike the common herb Saw Palmetto, which is usually prescribed both
for prostate issues and for hormonal hair loss in men and women, Nettle
Root is effective in treating both, without preventing the important
conversion of testosterone to DHT. Many researchers view DHT as the
active form of testosterone, and testosterone as only a prohormone to
DHT. In fact, DHT is
15-30 times more potent than testosterone.
Furthermore, unlike testosterone, DHT cannot be converted to the harmful
estrogenic metabolite esterdiol. A you will see, DHT actually protects
this conversion from happening.
DHT (Dihydronetestosterone) is named as the #1 culprit in both hormonal hair loss (androgenic allopecia) and
enlarged prostate--Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH),
and Saw Palmetto (as well as prescription finasteride) works by
blocking the conversion of testosterone to DHT. However, not only is DHT
vitally important to men's health, DHT is not actually the culprit
people claim it to be. To understand why, a more in depth knowledge of
the body is needed.
DHT has many functions throughout the body, and to perform these
functions, it binds to testosterone and DHT receptor sites, which are
found throughout the body, including the brain and the sex organs. In
the prostate and in the scalp, Nettle Root competes with DHT and
attaches to the receptor sites, this means that DHT is still available
for its important functions, but is not able to aggravate the prostate
or interfere with hair growth.
Nettle Root directly blocks the enzyme which causes hair loss in cases of androgenic allopecia. Nettle Root can be used as a stand alone herb for treating male pattern baldness.
Additionally, DHT is vital in the prevention of the aromatization of
testosterone to esterdiol, and DHT also unbinds bound testosterone from
sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG), rendering the inactive bound
testosterone free and active again. The enzyme aromatase converts both
testosterone and estrogen, which are benign, into harmful estrogen
metabolites, which can cause a plethora of issues, including prostate,
breast, and cervical cancer. This process is called aromatization.
Nettle Root blocks aromatization for happening.
Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH) and Prostate Cancer
Throughout Europe,
which has shown a much greater understanding of male physiology and has a
much greater track record of treating BHP and prostate cancer than the
US, Nettle Root has been used widely to treat BPH. Clinical research in
Europe has shown that Nettle Root may be effective at relieving symptoms
of BHP, such as reduced urinary flow, incomplete emptying of the
bladder, post urination dripping, and the constant urge to urinate.
The symptoms of BHP are caused by the enlarged prostate pressing on the
urethra (the tube that empties urine from the bladder). Interestingly,
laboratory studies have demonstrated Nettle Root to be as effective as
finasteride (a medication commonly prescribed for BPH) in slowing the
growth of certain prostate cells.
Nettle Root has benefits beyond
Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH), and has been shown clinically to reduce cancerous cell proliferation in the prostate. A
study published in the February 2000 issue of "Planta Medica" found
that Urtica dioica root (Nettle Root) extract inhibited proliferation
of human prostate cancer cells in the laboratory. This study confirms
the many findings that testosterone and DHT are not the causes of
prostate issues, but that prostate issues can actually be resolved when
testosterone and DHT are brought back to healthy levels, and conversions
of male sex hormones into estrogen metabolites is blocked.
Combining Nettle Root with Androgenic Herbs
Androgenic herbs, for this
discussion, are a class of herbs which contain the androgen (male sex)
hormones or which increase the body's own production of these hormones.
Pine Pollen is an example of a herb which contains androgen hormones
(including Androstenedione, Testosterone, Dehydroepiandrosterone, and
Androsterone); herbs that increase the production of testosterone
include Tribulus, Cistanche Tubulosa, and Tongkat Ali. Whenever levels
of testosterone are increased, through herbs or through conventional
medicine, it is vitally important to control both the actions of SHBG
and aromatase.
Increasing levels of testosterone
can be harmful over the long run of these two processes are not managed.
Nettle Root controls both, and should always be used side-by-side
whenever levels of testosterone are being elevated. Furthermore, for the
sake of efficacy, only 2% of testosterone is free and active. Meaning
you only receive 2% of the benefit whenever you raise levels of free
testosterone. By including Nettle Root, the levels of free testosterone
are dramatically elevated, and you get a much better effect.