People's Pharmacy

For more up-to-date information on drugs, herbs and home remedies visit The People's Pharmacy Home Site at peoplespharmacy.us

Stinging Nettle

Posting Date: 07/14/2002

A tea or extract of aboveground parts may also be taken as supportive therapy for arthritis pain ("rheumatism").

In addition, a spirit extract may be applied topically to aching joints as a liniment.

Traditionally, stinging nettle was used to treat asthma and cough, speed wound healing, encourage gastric juice secretion, and relieve spasms of the digestive tract. When applied to the scalp, it was expected to reduce oiliness and remedy dandruff.

Clinical evidence to support these folk uses is lacking.

Trials to evaluate its effectiveness for diabetes (another traditional indication) demonstrated that it raises rather than lowers blood sugar.

A double-blind trial was conducted to test stinging nettle's use in allergies (sneezing, sniffling, and runny nose). A majority (57 percent) of the participants found that the herb was better than placebo in treating these symptoms.

Stinging nettle root is an accepted treatment in Europe for benign prostate hypertrophy (BPH, or enlarged prostate).

Test tube studies aimed at understanding how stinging nettle root might work have found a number of mechanisms: sex hormone-binding globulin is substantially (67 percent) less capable of grabbing testosterone and dihydrotestosterone (DHT); epidermal growth factor in prostate cells is inhibited 53 percent by stinging nettle lectins; the extract has anti-inflammatory activity and interferes with an enzyme (Na/K-ATPase) that is necessary for prostate cell growth.

Clinical studies confirm that nettle root extract can improve urine flow and decrease the amount of urine left in the bladder after voiding. Even more important to many men with enlarged prostates, the number of times patients had to get up at night to urinate was significantly decreased.

In some studies, stinging nettle root has been associated with a decrease in prostate size, but other research has failed to confirm this effect.