Saw palmetto grows along the southeastern coast of the United States where it forms a palmetto scrub for hundreds of miles along the coastline from Georgia to Florida. Rarely more than a few feet high, the plants rarely amount to much in size, but their fan-shaped, glaucous leaves are so dense that a stand of these palms is virtually impossible for human beings to pass through and certainly less than pleasant to clear. To the region’s early settlers, they were a pain in the butt.

As the settlers cut down parts of the scrub for pastureland, they noticed an interesting thing: their animals would lean over the fences to get at the berries of this palm. What’s more, the animals that ate the black fruit were healthier than those that did not. Before you knew it, the settlers were purposefully feeding their animals palmetto berries to improve their health, and in time, they decided that saw palmetto might do the same for themselves. And it did.

Contemporary research has shown that saw palmetto reduces the size of a prostate swollen with age. Its action seems to be based on the fact it increases available testosterone significantly.

In 1877, a Dr. Reed took the process one step further when he researched the settlers’ practice and published an article describing his findings in the Medical Brief of St. Louis. Entitled "A New Remedy," Reed’s article was reprinted in July 1879 in a publication called New Preparations. The volume also included a piece from the Medical Brief written by Dr. I. J. M. Goss, then of Marietta, Georgia, who had drawn similar conclusions about the plant. From this point, the tonic makers got wind of saw palmetto and began including it in lots of recipes for staying well.

The doctors of the day found the fruit to be a nutritive tonic, an effective diuretic, and a mild sedative. It was recommended for all wasting diseases, and was said to have a marked effect on the glandular systems. Most notably, it had an ability to increase flesh rapidly.

Although saw palmetto’s health-building powers came as news to the settlers, the natives of the region knew all about them. The Seminole Indians apparently ground the berries into a nutritious flour. They are also said to have used an infusion for stomachache and dysentery. The inner bark of the trunk was used as a pack for snakebites, bug bites, and skin ulcers. Dried fruits were believed useful for indigestion, respiratory infections, and catarrhal irritation. One of the more noteworthy claims that comes to us from the Native Americans concerns the plant’s ability to enlarge breasts and sexual desire.

The root doctors of the Louisiana bayou also were well acquainted with the palmetto. Descending from French, Indian, and African stock, these inheritors of the local plant wisdom used palmetto berries to treat syphilis and other infectious diseases. One recipe calls for red oak bark, palmetto root, fig root, two pinches of alum, nine drops of turpentine, and two quarts of water, with all ingredients boiled down to one quart to be taken one half cup at a time. While the plant’s ability to bolster the body would make it helpful in the case of many infectious diseases, curing syphilis is a tall order.

Still the local doctors were so impressed with the changes that occurred when they administered saw palmetto berries to ailing patients that they called for further research on the secret substance contained therein. Sadly, this research has yet to be done.

Despite being overlooked by the scientific community, the plant continues to be used by the natural healing community. There the berries remain a hot commodity, collected in the southern states and sold to natural food stores and to people practicing old-time healing techniques.

Many of the berries find their way into modern tonics offered for sale at health food stores. Pick up a bottle of any "vitality formula," and there you will see the berry in question, listed as plain as day. I was at the gym the other day, chatting with the guy next to me in the locker room. He had muscles that don’t even exist on my body, and he was chirping away happily about the natural tea that made all those ripples possible. A quick read of the ingredient panel disclosed none other than saw palmetto berries. Is seems that body builders world ‘round are now discovering what the palmetto pioneers found out so many years back.

Unlike the chemical steroids previously and currently used by narcissists in search of the perfect build, saw palmetto berries do not damage sexual function. To the contrary, the saw palmetto is an aphrodisiac of some note, held to improve prostrate function, which in turn improves male sexual performance. And, of course, the Native American women used them to increase their bust size. So what’s sauce for the goose is also sauce for the gander.

Modern herbalists have learned that these same berries work on head colds and all their accompanying symptoms. It appears that a tea made of the berries somehow kicks the air passages back into shape and tones the lungs while it’s at it.

From the moment that first Carolina planter noticed how big his pigs got on a diet of saw palmetto berries, people have used them to treat wasting conditions, to rejuvenate an old or ill body, and to beef up a healthy one. The underlying theme is that saw palmetto strengthens. Of course, the downside is that you might accidentally become incredibly muscle-bound. But for most of us, that’s a risk worth taking.

When I say it strengthens, I mean it strengthens. This includes putting a rocket in a mans pocket! Early on in its history of colonial use it became clear that it was a tonic with a special field of activity. The boy parts. It was an aphrodisiac before people could spell the word. Contemporary research has shown that it reduces the size of a prostate swollen with age. Its action seems to be based on the fact it increases available testosterone significantly. This has an impact on the boy parts and how well they do or do not work.