Your doctor may prescribe Avodart and Flomax if you have an enlarged prostate, a condition also known as benign prostatic hyperplasia or BPH. Some alternative medicine books also advise taking zinc supplements to combat this condition. However, a 2004 scientific review in “Urologic Nursing” warns against this practice. Consult a doctor before trying a new supplement – even if it’s a vitamin or mineral – especially if you take medication.
Avodart and Flomax
Your doctor might prescribe Avodart and Flomax together. Avodart is the brand name for the drug dutasteride, which is in a medication class called 5-alpha reductase inhibitors. Such drugs work by blocking production of a substance in your body that enlarges your prostate. Taking Avodart allows your prostate to shrink, which in turn alleviates BPH symptoms such as difficult and frequent urination and lowers the chance that you’ll need surgery to treat your BPH.
Flomax is the brand name for the drug tamsulosin. This drug also is used to treat BPH symptoms such as painful and difficult urination and urinary urgency and frequency. Tamsulosin is in a medication class called alpha blockers. It relaxes the muscles of your bladder and prostate to make urine flow more easily.
Zinc Significance
Low levels of zinc appear to be associated with BHP, according to a January 2011 study published in the “Indian Journal of Urology.” In BPH patients, levels in prostate tissue are lower by 61 percent, while blood levels of zinc are lower by 18 percent in compared to healthy subjects. This is important because zinc concentration in your prostate gland is higher than the zinc concentration in other tissues in your body.
Expert Insight
It may seem logical to assume that zinc supplementation will prevent or treat BPH due to the association between low zinc levels and BPH, and you may read advice urging you to use these supplements in alternative medicine books, but scientific evidence to support this theory is lacking. Taking in too much zinc – especially in supplement form -- might even raise your risk for BPH and other prostate conditions such as cancer, according to the “Urologic Nursing” review. Large doses of zinc also suppress your immune system, increase your testosterone level and raise overall cholesterol while decreasing “good” low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels. Though more research on taking zinc for prostate conditions is needed, the review suggests that anyone taking large amounts of zinc stop doing so based on information in existing research.
Contraindications
Taking zinc with Avodart and Flomax is not specifically contraindicated, according to peer-reviewed medical information website Drugs.com. However, that doesn’t mean no interactions exist, so talk to your doctor before adding a zinc supplement to your regimen if you take one or both of these drugs. The combination of dutasteride and tamsulosin interacts with more than 200 other drugs, while zinc has more than 70 known drug interactions.
References
- Indian Journal of Urology: Zinc Status of Patients with Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia and Prostate Carcinoma
- International Urology and Nephrology: Zinc in the Human Prostate Gland
- Urologic Nursing: Zinc for Prostate Disease and Other Conditions: A Little Evidence, a Lot of Hype, and a Significant Potential Problem
- Male Sexual Dysfunction; Fouad R. Kandeel
- PubMed Health: Dutasteride
- PubMed Health: Tamsulosin
- Drugs.com: Avodart
- Drugs.com: Drug Interaction Results
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