Nettle Root and Hormonal Health

Is Nettle Root the Middle Age Ally?

If I were to choose one single herb for men and women as they—as we—move into middle age, Nettle Root would be a top contender. Nettle Root is the root, the rhizome, of the common stinging nettle plant, Urtica dioica. Nettle Root has the unique ability to optimize—to improve—functions of the endocrine system related to reproductive health, simultaneously maximizing and protecting them.

Nettle Root can be used as a standalone herb, and Nettle Root should be used side-by-side with any herbs, nutritional supplements, or drugs (proandrogenics) that increase levels of androgenic male sex hormones, when there is an issue of an overabundance of estrogen in the body or an underabundance of testosterone. Additionally, for anyone experiencing symptoms of estrogen toxicity or estrogen dominance, Nettle Root is a must.

Nettle Root and Free Testosterone

As a standalone herb, Nettle Root works intelligently to improve and to optimize sex hormone levels.

For men, the primary function of Nettle Root is 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 not active. The glycoprotein sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) binds to free testosterone, rendering it inactive—and setting the stage for a potentially harmful series of biochemical processes where testosterone is converted into estradiol through a process called aromatization.

Nettle Root, or more specifically the sterol ß-Sitosterol, accomplishes this by binding to SHBG. By doing this, it blocks the ability of SHBG to bind to testosterone. This can dramatically increase levels of circulating free testosterone—the kind of testosterone that works positively on the body, the mind, and the soul. In the words of Lee Myer, 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."

Nettle Root can even work to unbind testosterone that has already become bound by SHBG, further increasing levels of free testosterone and further decreasing the conversion of it into estrogen metabolites.

For women, Nettle Root works similarly by blocking SHBG. SHBG has an affinity for all sex hormones (hence its name), and keeping levels of free estrogen is important in women just as keeping levels of free testosterone is important in men. Additionally, blocking the excess synthesis of estradiol (E2) is important for both. For most healthy individuals, high levels of estrogen and testosterone are damaging only after they have become bound to SHBG. Once estrogen or testosterone has become bound to SHBG, the process of converting them into estradiol begins. By keeping sex hormones free, the rates of conversion are decreased.

Nettle Root, DHT, and Hormonal Hair Loss

Unlike the common herb Saw Palmetto, which is commonly prescribed by herbalists and recommended by others for both prostate issues and hormonal hair loss in men and women, Nettle Root appears to be effective in treating both without preventing the widespread, systemic conversion of testosterone to DHT. Many researchers consider DHT to be the active form of testosterone, and testosterone as 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 estradiol. DHT actually protects this conversion (aromatization) from taking place.

DHT (dihydrotestosterone) is named as the #1 culprit in both hormonal hair loss (androgenic alopecia) and enlarged prostate—Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH). Saw Palmetto (as well as prescription medications like finasteride) works by blocking the conversion of testosterone into DHT.

However, not only is DHT vitally important to male health, but DHT is not actually the culprit people claim it to be. To fully understand why, more in-depth research is needed.

DHT serves many functions throughout the body, and to perform these functions, it binds to testosterone and DHT cell receptor sites. These receptor sites are found throughout the body, including in the brain and the sex organs.

In the prostate and in the scalp, Nettle Root competes with DHT and attaches to the receptor sites, acting as an antagonist. 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 that causes hair loss in cases of androgenic alopecia. Nettle Root can be used as a standalone herb for treating male pattern baldness.

Additionally, DHT plays a crucial role in preventing the aromatization of testosterone into estradiol. It also unbinds testosterone from sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG), converting inactive bound testosterone back into its free, active form. The enzyme aromatase converts both testosterone and estrogen, which are otherwise benign, into the harmful estrogen metabolite estradiol. While healthy levels of estradiol are vital in men and women, high levels of estradiol can contribute to a plethora of concerns and diseases, including prostate, breast, and cervical cancers.

Nettle Root blocks aromatization from happening.

Nettle Root, 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 Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH) 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 BPH, such as reduced urinary flow, incomplete emptying of the bladder, post-urination dripping, and the constant urge to urinate.

The symptoms of BPH 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 the 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 are blocked.

Combining Nettle Root with Proandrogenic Herbs and Supplements

Proandrogenic herbs, for this discussion, are a class of herbs that contain the androgen (male sex) hormones or that increase the body's own production of these hormones. Pine Pollen is an example of an herb that contains phytoandrogenic 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 if 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 testosterone. By including Nettle Root, the levels of free testosterone are dramatically elevated, and you get a much better effect.

The Takeaway

As an herbalist specializing in sexual and reproductive health, 99.99% of people I work with should put Nettle Root on the top of their list of herbs to take. This is because 99.99% of people I work with have low levels of testosterone, suffer from estrogen toxicity, or use androgenic herbs. Nettle Root is a great place to start for anyone interested in elevating their levels of free testosterone and protecting their body from reproductive cancers. For those moving into middle age, Nettle Root is a must for everyone. Nettle Root is the middle age ally.