Pumpkin Seeds for Urinary Tract Health

Research suggests that pumpkin seed preparations — including whole seeds, seed oils, and extracts — may support urinary tract health across several conditions, with studies reporting improvements in overactive bladder symptoms, urinary incontinence, lower urinary tract symptoms associated with benign prostatic hyperplasia, and potentially reduced urinary stone risk. The body of evidence includes multiple randomized controlled trials alongside smaller observational and pilot studies, and the overall direction is consistently positive, with participants in most studies reporting reductions in urination frequency, leakage episodes, and symptom severity scores, as well as improvements in quality of life. Studies indicate that both men and women may benefit depending on the condition studied, and pumpkin seed preparations were generally well tolerated across trials, with one RCT suggesting a multi-ingredient supplement containing pumpkin seed extract compared favorably to a prescription anticholinergic drug in terms of both symptom relief and side effect profile. However, important limitations apply throughout this literature: many studies lack placebo control groups, several involve multi-ingredient supplements that make it difficult to isolate pumpkin seeds' specific contribution, sample sizes are frequently small, and the multi-ingredient formulations vary considerably across trials, meaning the overall evidence — while encouraging — should be considered preliminary and in need of larger, more rigorous confirmatory research.