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6 fabulous reasons to eat more pumpkin seeds
6. They protect the prostate and boost testosterone
Guess which nutrient is found in high concentrations in the prostate? Although zinc is present throughout the body, the prostate is second only to bone for high levels of zinc in males. Scientists are still exploring the significance of zinc in the prostate, but thus far they’ve found that men with low dietary zinc tend to be at greater risk for an enlarged prostate (benign prostatic hyperplasia, BPH) and prostatitis (inflammation of the prostate), and possibly prostate cancer. For example, a 2007 study reported that men who had prostatitis or prostate cancer had lower concentrations of zinc than healthy men.
Experts have known that a significant zinc deficiency is associated with abnormally low testosterone levels, but what about mild to moderately low zinc? A research team at Wayne State University School of Medicine evaluated 40 men (ages 20 to 80) and their zinc and testosterone levels. The authors induced marginally low zinc in young men and provided zinc supplements to elderly men who were zinc-deficient. They discovered that limiting zinc intake for 20 weeks caused a decline in testosterone levels and that zinc supplements given for six months improved testosterone production.
Next time you carve a pumpkin, make pumpkin pie from scratch or buy a pumpkin specifically for the seeds, try roasting them for tasty and healthy snack.
Read: Know the disease risks of low testosterone
Sources:
- This Halloween, pumpkin seeds pack a healthy punch — MedicalXpress
- What are the health benefits of pumpkin seeds? — Medical News Today
- T Cell Responses to Viral Infections – Opportunities for Peptide Vaccination — Frontiers in Immunology
- Zinc and immune function: the biological basis of altered resistance to infection — American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
- What are the health benefits of zinc? — Medical News Today
- Effects of phytoestrogen extracts isolated from pumpkin seeds on estradiol production and ER/PR expression in breast cancer and trophoblast tumor cells — Nutrition and Cancer
- Omega-3 fatty acids may lower breast cancer risk in postmenopausal obese women — MedicalXpress
- Magnesium — National Institutes of Health.
- Magnesium intake and risk of type 2 diabetes in men and women — Diabetes Care
- Magnesium in diet — MedlinePlus
- Antidiabetic effect of flax and pumpkin seed mixture powder: effect on hyperlipidemia and antioxidant status in alloxan diabetic rats — Journal of Diabetes and It’s Complications
- The effect of cholesterol-lowering and antioxidant therapy on endothelium-dependent coronary vasomotion — New England Journal of Medicine
- Cholesterol: High Cholesterol Diseases — Cleveland Clinic
- Pumpkin-seed oil modulates the effect of felodipine and captopril in spontaneously hypertensive rats — Pharmocological Research
- Improvement in HDL cholesterol in postmenopausal women supplemented with pumpkin seed oil: pilot study — Climacteric
- Antioxidant and lipoxygenase inhibitory activities of pumpkin seed extracts — Food Research International
- Protein source tryptophan versus pharmaceutical grade tryptophan as an efficacious treatment for chronic insomnia — Nutritional Neuroscience
