Jul
16
OVER THE COUNTER DRUGS FOR PROSTATITIS
July 16, 2009 | Leave a Comment
OVER THE COUNTER
Just what does the March, 1990 publicity release by the FDA mean? Will there still be over the counter preparations designed to help with BPH problems by the end of the year, or into 1991? Only the FDA knows.
A check of health food and nutrition specialty stores in mid 1990 showed at least five products on the market. Many of these tend to be regional and there well could be twenty or fifty more out there. These are shown as examples of what’s on the market now. We do not judge any of them but present them here as another element of the BPH real-life picture for the layman.
Prostate Plus
This product came to our attention through a multi-page tabloid type newspaper mailed to a name and address (or current occupant). It was a national mass mailing and held a 3/4 page story and advertisement for Prostate Plus.
Prostate Plus was described as a “Total nutritional support for a healthy prostate.” It went on to say that it: “provides every nutrient known to benefit a healthy, well-functioning prostate gland.” Since it is advertised as a nutritional supplement and not a medical treatment, perhaps it will get around the FDA broadsword.
What’s in it? I-Glycine, I-Alanine, I-glutamic acid, zinc, raw prostate, saw palmetto, pumpkin seed concentrate, vitamin E, golden rod, and flaxseed oil.
Ninety capsules cost you $14.95 in the store.
Prostone
Prostone comes from the Enzymatic Therapy people in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Prostone No. 190 is described this way: “The nutrients in this formula including zinc, Vitamin A, essential fatty acids and amino acids, are vital for proper prostate function.”
What’s in it? Oil concentrate from wheat germ and safflower seeds, linoleic acid from safflower seed oil, intrinsic glandular lipids, lecithin, L-Glutamic acid, L-A Ian i fie, Amenoacetic acid, Prostate tissue, Vitamin B6, Vitamin A from fish liver oil, Zinc chelate, bee pollen and saw palmetto berries extract.
Sixty capsules will cost you $11.95.
Raw Prostate With Gaba
This product is made up exclusively of raw bovine prostate and gamma amino butyric acid. That’s about all we know about it except that it comes from Country Life, a large maker of health food additives and products. It’s on the market. Glad they told us it was bovine prostate. Ninety tablets will cost you $13.00
Prostatrophic Concentrate
This one is made up entirely from raw bovine prostate. One such ingredient indicated it had been freeze dried. Here 100 tablets are priced at $8.00.
Search
This small bottle of sixty tablets was priced at $10 and the ingredients were listed as raw bovine prostate.
So, we’ve talked about the non-surgical, minor surgery and drug type of treatments for BPH. Where do we go from here? If none of the other methods are right for you, your urologist may suggest traditional surgery for your BPH. What’s that? Move right on to the next chapter and find out.
Jul
15
OVER-THE-COUNTER,
THROUGH THE MAIL REMEDIES
Up to two years ago there had been a thriving over the counter and through the mails business of selling non-prescription compounds and “cures” and treatments for BPH.
Several years ago the Post Office Department began challenging many of these products sold through the mail on grounds that they were advertised misleadingly, and that they did not do what they claimed to do. Simple misrepresentation which could ban them from the mail.
That campaign by the U.S. postal authorities put a lot of people out of business who were selling various mail order non-prescription products to treat the prostate.
In March of 1990, the Food and Drug Adminstration said it would ban the sale of all non-prescription drugs used to treat enlargement of the prostate gland. The FDA said their review of the products found little evidence that any of them eliminated, arrested or treated the condition called benign prostatic hypertrophy. There was no date given for enforcing the ban or activating it.
The FDA, evidently not keeping up with current developments in the field, said surgery was the only effective treatment for BPH. A lot of urologists and specialists in the drug field will argue long and hard with their dictum with the various minor-surgical techniques we’ve discussed so far and the new drugs being developed.
What the FDA order does is ban non-prescription products that are advertised for the treatment of the prostate. They did not, and can not ban the sale of certain chemicals or compounds that have been considered by many since the Feinblatt/Gant study in 1958, to be beneficial to reduce BPH symptoms. These chemicals, mainly amino acids, are used in many of the soon to be banned products.
The study was conducted by Dr. Henry M. Feinblatt and Dr. Julian C. Gant and reported in the Journal of the Maine Medical Association in March of 1958, Volume 49, Number 3.
The study deals with the “Value of glycine, alanine and glutamic acid combination,” in the treatment of BPH.
These three chemicals have generally been used by dozens, perhaps hundreds of non-prescription compounds aimed at the general public since 1958.
Were these remedies straight out of the Wild West’s Medicine Man’s wagon of hokkum, or do they have some beneficial results that the traditionalist medical men on the FDA panels refuse to recognize?
Let’s look at the Feinblatt/Gant study that started it all.
The doctors had been using these three amino acids to treat their allergy patients. One of the patients mentioned that his urinary problems had improved since he’d been taking the medications from the doctors.
This stirred their imagination and the two medical men decided to try the three way amino acid combination on a group of non-allergy patients. The tests proved that these BPH sufferers had a dramatic relief from their urinary and BPH symptoms.
They moved from there to a clinically stringent test. A group of 40 patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia were treated with glycine-alanine-glutamic acid capsules for three months.
The patient age range was from 37 to 75 years and weigh from 101 to 192 pounds. BPH complaints ranged in duration at the start of the test from one to six years by various patients.
Placebo capsules were given to half of the patients and the amino acids to half. The patients response results over three months were charted. (Understand here that most such tests should be conducted over six months for best reliability.)
Results of the clinical tests were published in this way. For the control group taking the amino acids, the doctors said the size of the prostate was reduced in 92% of the cases. Nocturia was relieved in 95% of cases. Urgent urination was relieved in 81% and frequency in 73%. Discomfort was reduced in 71% of the cases. No such results were observed in the placebo taking control patients.
Other medical authorities have conducted tests along the same lines to confirm or deny the Feinblatt/Gant findings.
In the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society in 1962, Dr. Frederick Damrau of New York City reported such a test. His conclusions were similar. He said the combination of the three amino acids were used in a controlled cross-over test in forty cases of BPH. After three months on the test the patients reported nocturia was relieved or reduced in 95% of cases, urgency down in 81%, frequency lowered in 73% and delayed urination in 70%. Dr. Damrau said there were no adverse side effects or adverse reactions to the amino acids.
Other evidence the FDA ignored or discounted comes from Japan where a series of nine clinical tests were conducted at the department of urology of Kyoto University in Kyoto.
Some of these tests were double blind, which means there was no way the participants could have any idea if they were receiving the test material or a placebo.
The tests were published in the Acta Urological Japonica, volume 14, 1968.
Results for the amino acids therapy for hypertrophy of the prostate showed that the glycine-alanine-glutamic acid capsules were administered to thirty six cases of diagnosed uncomplicated BPH. The capsules gave satisfactory results in relieving subjective and objective symptoms and no side effects were observed in any of the patients.
In another of the tests, statistical results showed that improvement of symptoms were as follows:
• Urinary frequency reduced in 77.7%
• Nocturia relieved in 68.4%. Difficulty of urination relieved 77.3%
• Feeling of residual urine relieved in 71.4% Side effects were found in only one case and that was relieved with a gastrointestinal drug.
Now, one of the obvious questions is this: If these amino acids are so good, as these tests tend to show, why hasn’t one of the huge pharmaceutical giants leaped on the band wagon and brought out a tested, recognized and approved by FDA combination of these amino acids for the prostate sufferers?
The logical answer could be that their own testing did not match the results of the tests shown above. Or, the situation may be that the amino acids would not be a “proprietary” compound that they could patent, protect and profit from. It would be similar to spending millions to test a salt pill, and bring it out only to find that every othercompany could make the same salt pill.
Jul
14
CHRONIC PROSTATITIS. NONINFECTIOUS PROSTATITIS.
July 14, 2009 | Leave a Comment
CHRONIC PROSTATITIS
Sometimes the condition will be cleared up, or seem to be back to normal, only to have it flare up again alternative to levaquin .Cases like this are called chronic prostatitis.
At least this time the patient knows what he has and can get to the doctor quickly for early medication ingredients zyrtec .If the drug used before didn’t completely kill off the bacteria causing the problem, there is little chance the same medication will do any better during the next attack pamelor make you gain weight .Doctors watch for newly developed medications they hope will solve the problem bodybuilding pump with viagra .But so far there is no drug that will completely eliminate the chronic prostatitis problem.
Some urologists maintain that regular prostatic massage is one effective treatment forchronic prostatitis testosterone and hair growth .Other urologists never use the massage treatment how to inject tramadol .Some urologists suggest masturbation if sex with a partner is not available lowest price lipitor .Almost all urologists will agree that the best way to empty the prostate of fluid is regular sexual activity of any type leading to ejaculation.
As with many of the ailments of the prostate, the old favorite treatment of the sitz bath, simply a hot tub bath, is well received by prostatitis sufferers halfing zyprexa tablets .The heat from the water increases the circulation in the under-water area and that can help a number of problems.
Chronic prostatitis is not a good candidate problem to be corrected with surgery barqs caffeine .It would be a case of overkill, like throwing out the baby with the bath water.
Urologists say that even if surgery were performed, the inflammation and pain could still come back in the prostatic capsule itself, even after most of the prostate had been removed drug amoxil .A prostatectomy also can bring up a whole new set of problems that the patient didn’t have before.
NONINFECTIOUS PROSTATITIS
When a man gets serious pains and the urologist rules out infectious prostatitis, there has to be another cause depakote er migraine .This might be from a whole group of problems and the doctors call this malady, noninfectious prostatitis.
The symptoms usually include lower-back pain, burning during urination, pain or slight discomfort after ejaculation, pelvic discomfort, and sometimes a slight but obvious bleeding during ejaculation.
The urologist will check the patient’s prostate and often he’ll find it to be filled with prostatic fluid, boggy and soft evista dosage .It may or may not be enlarged and may or may not have any hard lumps or nodules.
For this problem, there are few simple answers, no easy solutions and no absolutes hctz 25 mg compared to diovan .The medical experts say that this non-infectious prostatitis could be caused by some kind of bug we can’t see or don’t know about yet, or it could be some form of inflammation that isn’t infectious.
One constant seems to be that a prostatic massage will cause the patient to expel a great deal of prostatic fluid through the urethra and the penis testosterone for body building .This often brings immediate relief to the patient.
Urologists aren’t exactly sure why this works metronidazole male breast .They say that most men with normal prostates secrete a small amount of prostatic fluid every day gout use zantac .Most of this is passed off through the urine without the man being aware of it.
Upon sexual arousal this secretion can increase ten fold to do its job of helping to carry the sperm cells out the urethra and from the penis upon sexual climax.
When a man becomes aroused, and then frustrated and there is no orgasm, all of that extra prostatic fluid remains in the prostate liver damag and ibuprofen .If this happens occasionally, the fluid is soon discharged a little at a time through the urine zyprexa borderline .But repeated frustrations after arousal, can mean a large buildup in the prostate and this will soon lead to some of the symptoms described above.
There are cases where a man can produce more prostatic fluid that he normally ejaculates during an orgasm harmful side effects of boniva .This again will create a buildup of the fluid and can result in problems cipro and screwdriver .What this is saying is that there can be prostatic problems that have a direct relationship with a man’s sex life, and this includes too little as well as too much sex.
There are cases where there are symptoms of prostatitis, but absolutely none of the usual causes are present naproxen sodium and gout .Some urologists feel that such a problem can come about entirely from stress green tea and amoxicillin .Some doctors say that there may be a lack of tone in some of the perineal muscles and this could result In the buildup of prostatic fluid allegra high blood pressure .Nobody knows for sure.
This leads into the suggestion that there could be psychological reasons why some of these cases of prostatitis develop when there is none of the usual physical causes hair loss zoloft fatigue .Anxiety or stressful tensions dealing with sex, a man’s job, his spouse, school or family — about almost anything, are now thought to be sufficient in some men to create symptoms of prostatitis even without any of the usual physical causes.
In some cases antibiotics seem to be helpful, even though there is no known bacteriological cause digitek and gynecomastia .Urologists are always aware of the placebo factor, especially in cases like these that may be partly stress or psychologically based.
Simply giving a man a pill and telling him that this will
help his condition, often will help his condition lipitor cholesterol lowering drug .This is what doctors mean by the placebo effect buy olanzapine .Placebos have traditionally been sugar pills with absolutely no curative powers whatsoever order tramadol no prescription cod payment .However when a doctor gives the placeboes to a patient and assures him that this should cure his problem after ten days, it often works.
This merges into the psychological and the psychosomatic aspects of healing, and in this area no one is right or wrong.
What works, works, there is no reason to question it hydroxyzine withdrawal .Doctors and urologists say that the placebo effect must never be underestimated.
They point out in double blind clinical tests, the patients who are given the placeboes without knowing it, often show a strong rate of improvement purchase fluconazole online with out a .The sugar pill certainly didn’t do it, the placebo effect did club soma .The patient thought he would get better, and somehow, he did get better.
In the chapter on case histories, we’ll show several actual cases of both infectious and non-infectious prostatitis, and how the problems were resolved.
Jul
14
INFECTIOUS AND NONINFECTIOUS PROSTATITIS
July 14, 2009 | Leave a Comment
INFECTIOUS AND
NONINFECTIOUS
PROSTATITIS
Prostatitis is an inflammation of the prostate gland and it is one of the most common of men’s diseases keflex tape . There is no age limit here — prostatitis attacks any man from teenager to grandfather in his nineties celebrex half life .
How do you know if you have it? You’ll be absolutely certain that something is wrong inderal for cats . Prostatitis is not subtle omeprazole and irritability . A case of acute prostatitis may bring on a sudden fever, chills, nausea and vomiting besides urgency of urination, hesitancy, burning pain during urination and even pus or blood in the urine apoe quinapril .
Most family physicians who diagnose acute prostatitis will suggest the patient go to a specialist, the urologist fosamax tumors .
Prostatitis can be caused by infection, irritation and congestion or a combination of these problems geodon msds . Many urologists will tell you that sometimes there is no apparent cause of the condition viagra teens teenager .
This ailment does respond well to treatment, even if it is a bit slow sometimes menopause high testosterone .
The infectious type of prostatitis results from some microorganism or bacteria that has invaded the prostate jitters from celexa . With its tough outer shell, the prostate is hard to get into dipyridamole allergic reaction . But it can be infected through the bloodstream, the lymph system, and the urine motrin package insert .
A lot of the infections come from bacteria from the colon prilosec long . However, antibiotics now can be used to knock out this type of infection before it gets serious effexor side effects headaches .
Bacteria can get into the prostate from sexual contact amoxicillin price overnight . The yeast infections as well as gonorrhea can be sexually transmitted order tetracycline . This danger is just another reason to be safe in your sexual life, wear a condom evanescence lithium guitar tab .
Some people can develop prostatitis simply by eating or drinking certain foods or beverages drug-herb interraction metoprolol aconite . On the avoidance list for some people are coffee, gin, red wine and Scotch whiskey arv efavirenz . Aromatic oils are used to flavor these drinks and that is what irritates the prostate and sets it to complaining leg lipitor pain .
We mentioned gonorrhea as one problem ibuprofen and benedryl . At one time it was the most prevalent infection of the male urogenital tract floxin otic . But now with the better antibiotics, this sexually transmitted social disease can usually be cured quickly benadryl prednisone interactino . A fast cure has the added benefit of stopping the infection before it can travel to the prostate avapro micardis .
Sometimes abscesses do develop in the prostate from gonorrhea unichem laboratories rimonabant conterfiet . This is often because the man has an antibiotic resistant strain or did not get prompt enough treatment to kill off the disease quickly effexor side affects uses . The abscesses result in the same usual symptoms of acute prostatitis evista and respiratory infections .
A urine sample usually shows up minute amounts of the prostate emissions and microscopic examination of the emissions will help the doctor determine what bacteria have made their attack and that will determine what treatment is prescribed does metformin help in getting pregnant . Most prostatitis clears up quickly with the proper medication 3v lithium fishing battery .
Jul
13
PROSCAR IN PROSTATITIS TREATMENT
July 13, 2009 | Leave a Comment
PROSCAR
One of the drugs of the future for controlling BPH may be a product now in final testing by Merck & Co. called Proscar. This drug blocks an enzyme that stimulates prostate growth. The Merck researchers say that the male hormone testosterone undergoes changes in the prostate gland and this is believed to be the primary factor in unwanted prostate growth when a man gets into his 40’s and 50’s and later.
By blocking this enzyme and refusing to let it change the testosterone, it would also stop the growth of the prostate.
Researchers say they are still in testing on the drug but it is in human clinical trials, one of the last of the procedures.
Using 350 patients in one clinical test, the drug reduced the size of enlarged prostates an average of twenty-eight percent. One third of the test patients also had a “dramatic improvement” in their urine flow.
Dr. John McConnell, assistant professor of urology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, said: “The drug is highly effective from a biochemical point of view. It does shrink the prostate.”
He went on to say since only about one-third of the patients had an improvement in urine flow, the drug is not applicable to all men or all BPH cases.
One advantage of the Proscar treatment is that it has resulted in no side effects, at least so far in the testing. Side effects have been the killer of most prostate drugs so far.
Proscar is in final testing and with success should win the Food and Drug Administration approval for sale in the “early 1990’s”. That could still mean that it’s three or four years away.
One drawback to Proscar has been determined so far. It takes “about three months” before the prostate shrinks enough to help in urinary flow problems.
Merck is excited about the new product from a breakthrough standpoint, but also because it could have a great financial future. The market for such a medication that works, is said to be in the hundreds of million of dollars a year. The quickly expanding male population in the “prostate years” adds to this sales potential. This is one product to watch closely.
Some drug industry spokesmen say Proscar and Merck may be facing a problem: getting urologists to prescribe a medication that could cut their income by reducing the 400,000 prostate surgeries a year. Most urologists discount this saying they welcome another tool to fight prostatic disease.
Jul
12
PROSTATITIS: CAN DRUGS BE USED INSTEAD OF SURGERY? RELAXATION DRUGS.
July 12, 2009 | Leave a Comment
CAN DRUGS BE USED INSTEAD OF SURGERY?
Over the years there have been many attempts made to find a drug that would shrink the prostate gland. The scientists worked on the belief that the enlargement of the prostate had something to do with the male hormone production.
This led to the use of female hormones that did shrink the prostate and help the BPH problem and reduced or eliminated the symptoms. The only trouble was that it also reduced and eliminated the male sex drive and often led to sterilization and impotence of the patient.
After that the lab men worked on drugs that would simply block the production of testosterone produced in the testicles. They came up with Leuprolide (lupron) which blocks ninety percent of the body’s total production.
Another companion drug used at the same time, Flutamide (eulexin), eliminates the other ten percent of testosterone made by the adrenal gland.
What these drugs do is effectively castrate the man by chemical action. This reduces the male libido, his sex drive, and sterilizes him and makes him impotent. These are mighty tough side effects even for a man in his seventies just to shrink the size of the prostate.
These drugs are most often chosen when a man has an extreme case of BPH or cancer of the prostate, and his sexual life is no longer a factor in his life whether he’s 65 or 80 years.
For most men the sexual side of life is always a vital part of their existence. It’s like watching a shiny new bus stop at your corner. It’s nice to know the bus service is always there, even though you seldom use it any more.
RELAXATION DRUGS
Some urologists find that the use of a drug such as Minipress (prazosin hydrochloride) will relax the smooth muscles surrounding the prostate. The purpose here is to get these muscles to relax or loosen to allow the prostate to expand slightly outward and thereby ease the internal pressure on the urethra.
A second drug used for the same purpose of relaxation of the muscles around the prostate is Terazosin. It relaxes the muscles and greatly reduces the spasms that these muscles frequently have which slow or prevent urination.
BPH is a highly subjective ailment. What bothers one patient may be little more than a minor and unnoticed irritant to another. Some patients who use one of these drugs may report relief from some of their symptoms, while others say they have no effect whatsoever on their life style.
Tests have shown some urologists that the use of Minipress and Dibenzyline drugs have made specific improvement in patient symptoms. Studies have been done to measure the voiding flow rate and residual urine before and after the use of these drugs, with an average of 60% improvement.
Jul
11
PROSTATITIS: LASER MINOR SURGERY AND OTHER NON MAJOR SURGICAL APPROACHES.
July 11, 2009 | Leave a Comment
LASER MINOR SURGERY
Yes, the laser is now finding its way into prostatic surgery. For some patients the balloon treatment doesn’t open the urethra enough. To help these patients, Dr. Roger S. Warner, a urologist at New York University in Manhattan, wields his laser to remove some of the offending tissue around the urethra, and then follows that up with the use of the balloon dilation. Dr. Warner said this treatment helped twenty-five out of twenty-nine patients treated.
Other doctors say that laser surgery, first used in medicine in the 1970’s, is only scratching the surface of its potential. In the future they say there will be a much greater use of the laser. Lasers can also be used to vaporize benign and malignant growths, and it’s all done quickly and simply without the patient trauma of an open surgery.
The role of laser surgery in urology is limited but it has a great potential. Dr. Israel Barken, a urologist in private practice in San Diego, and a researcher at University of California at San Diego Medical School, has a patent on a device to use in laser surgery of the prostate.
Intrasonix Company from Boston in conjunction with the Lahey clinic has developed a new device by the name of TULIP. They have used it in operations on 25 dogs so far with promising results.
In the future, from mid 1990, you may wish to ask your urologist about the possibility of having laser surgery by your urologist. Right now it’s still experimental, but work is going on in three places aroud the world.
OTHER NON MAJOR SURGICAL APPROACHES
Dr. Terrence R. Malloy, chief of urology at Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia, attacks the enlarged prostate tissue with ultrasound waves. The tissue is turned into a pulp and dislodged and then sucked out of the body by an aspirator.
Some research is now being done with microwaves. They are aimed directly at the enlarged prostate. Testing is now underway to see what results are of attempts to shrink the enlarged prostate tissue, thereby relieving the pressure on the urethra.
Another experimental type of minor surgery is the use of cryogenics. This utilizes a probe through the penis and urethra and into the heart of the enlarged prostate. The probe then releases liquid nitrogen into the enlarged tissue.
This intensely cold fluid freezes and shrinks the tissue and destroys it which relieves the pressure on the urethra. More experiments and results of this type of cryosurgery will be reported in the first half of the 1990’s we are sure.
Another new development in the opening of the urethra through the prostate is the insertion of a spring like spiral device that mechanically keeps the urethra open. This is a new technique and while some urologists have the springs available and can insert them, we expect much development in this area of the open urethra in the coming years.
Jul
7
PROSTATE PROBLEMS AND ALCOHOL, BEER AND COFFEINE.
July 7, 2009 | Leave a Comment
ALCOHOL AND BEER
You knew this was coming. Alcohol is not good for the human body. Alcohol is especially not good for men with BPH.
“Hell, give up beer and a few shots of bourbon and maybe a highball or two? Damn, I’d rather die!” Such typical comments by moderate and heavy drinkers is often answered with the assurance of: “You will die and probably sooner than you expected to.”
For years some urologists have said that alcohol irritates the prostate. It also can cause serious problems with the liver. Some of the flavorings in alcohol can affect the prostate to such a degree that it can cause a kind of chronic prostatitis
For a man with even early BPH, the sudden or overuse of alcohol can bring on a surprise attack of acute retention of urine. This condition results in a desperate need to urinate but it is impossible. A quick trip to a doctor’s office or the emergency room of a hospital for catheterization and draining the bladder follows.
Good old common sense dictates that a man with even early BPH should seriously consider his consumption of alcohol and its relation to his prostatic condition. At this point many men simply don’t want to take the risk or stand the pain and problems associated with alcohol and BPH and stop drinking.
Beer drinkers will be furious, but the pint-in, pint-out and the much used bathrooms at bars and taverns, indicate that it is well known that beer drinking is immediately followed by voluminous urination.
Here common sense leaps up again. Beer drinking in the afternoon may be easily tolerated by some men, but not by others. Late night beer drinking will almost surely trigger two or three additional night time trips to the bathroom that otherwise could have been avoided.
If you insist on drinking beer, use a little common sense so it doesn’t trigger more unpleasant BPH reactions.
COFFEE, COLAS AND CAFFEINE
Yes, caffeine is the big tiger on your back here. Caffeine is a stimulant to the urinary tract: it makes you urinate more and more frequently. For most well people this is no problem, not even a minor inconvenience. Over the years your body will adapt to the added caffeine.
But when you have BPH, it’s different. You don’t need any more stimulation in your urinary tract. Neither do you need any more volume.
The BPH coffee drinker who normally goes through twelve, eight ounce cups of coffee a day is going to have a much harder time living with his urinary tract, than the non-coffee drinker, or even the man who drinks twelve, eight ounces of non-caffeine fluids a day.
Ounce for ounce, coffee and tea contain twice the amount of caffeine that regular cola drinks do. Of course now most of the colas come in caffeine free types as well. This is one place where you can have your cola and not your caffeine.
In the same manner, there are many caffeine free coffee brands now on the market.
If you want to manage your body with a little more “smarts” give the caffeine free drinks a test in your own bathroom. You’ll probably be pleasantly surprised when you make the test.
Oh, the “Principle of the single differential”. When you make any of these intake tests, try to do everything else the same, except for the item you’re testing. If you have two differentials (variables) in your life style, you won’t be able to tell which one made the difference, if there is a difference. It’s an old principle from the physical sciences but it works.
If you drink caffeine fluids, take the test. Try the caffeine free types for a week, doing nothing else different. One BPH patient said it cut his nocturia risings down from two a night to one. After a few weeks you’ll even forget what the caffeine laced drink tasted like.
Don’t forget that many of the current pain pills for headaches, colds and hay fever also contain caffeine. While these aren’t taken often, you might look for some that don’t have caffeine in them, such as the ibuprofen medications.
Jul
7
LIES, MYTHS AND OLD WIVES TALES ABOUT PROSTATITIS
This is a good time to start debunking some of the wild stories and myths and gossip that usually makes the rounds about the lowly prostate. Here are a list of the top ten. You may have heard of some more:
1. Prostate surgery always causes a man to become impotent.
This is simply not true. In the past it was more true than it is today, but now there are newer techniques used in surgery that do not disturb the nerve bundles that run on either side of the prostate. These nerves control a man’s ability to have an erection and intercourse. In cancer surgery, doctors have learned to remove the prostate usually without damaging these nerve bundles. However, some patients still suffer impotency. In the BPH surgery, only five percent of patients suffer any impotency.
2. An enlarged prostate, BPH, is a leading cause of prostate cancer.
Absolutely not. The enlargement of the prostate is in no way connected to the development of prostatic cancer. The cause of the enlargement is not known, but the cause of cancer is and the two are not linked. This myth may have come about because during some surgeries for the relief of BPH, the prostate is found to be cancerous when it had not been so diagnosed before. This actually can be one of the hidden benefits of such surgery.
3. Prostate surgery automatically sterilizes you.
In one half to two-thirds of the patients who have prostatic surgery where some or all of the prostate is removed, the normal course of the semen and other fluids usually ejaculated is disrupted. The fluid takes the course of least resistance and flows upward into the bladder instead of down the urethra and out the penis. To a man 60 or 65 this is usually not so important. However if children are wanted, the semen can be captured from urination soon after the orgasm and used for artificial insemination.
4. Prostate problems turn a man into a wimp.
If this happens it isn’t the result of the prostate problems. There is no loss of manhood, physical or psychological from any of the prostatic problems. There may be psychological side effects by various individuals, but these are mental in nature and could be casued by any number of reasons.
5. Prostate disorders are embarrassing to talk about because they mean a man is oversexed and having sex far too often.
A pure fantasy. Prostate problems and their treatments should not be embarrasing to talk about. Indeed a woman should realize an intelligent and understanding attitude toward prostate testing and evaluation, could save her husband’s life.
6. Orgasm for the man after prostate surgery isn’t the same, isn’t satisfying.
Simply not true. In case after case, the men report that the feeling at the time of orgasm and ejaculation is unchanged from what it was before surgery. Whether the ejaculation fluids go back into the bladder or out the penis, the feeling is exactly the same for the man. If there is a change, it is psychological and unfounded.
7. “Damn, man. Your sex life is over after BPH surgery.
Again, not factual. Any man’s sex life changes as he gets older. In his sixties and seventies a man has sex less frequently than when he was twenty. For at least ninety-five percent, a man’s sex life will be the same after BPH surgery as it was before. For the other five percent, there will be some problems with impotency—but that can be dealt with.
8. Incontinence is an automatic result of BPH surgery.
Researchers show us that only four percent of all BPH surgeries will result in the patients having trouble retaining their urine. That’s twenty-five to one odds, not bad.
9. There are lots of over the counter remedies that will cure my prostate without surgery.
By the end of 1990, the FDA took all such advertised remedies off the market. Previously the Postal Inspectors had closed down dozens of mail order houses who sold them. We will talk about the compounds in these products. Many people believe they are effective in reducing symptoms of BPH. Most do not say they can cure prostatic problems.
10. Prostate is a dirty word and a gentleman never mentions it in mixed company.
Ridiculous. In this more enlightened age, when women are encourged to examine their breasts for lumps, men must be encouraged and badgered into having at least yearly prostate examinations. The best way to do this is through education, and talking about the problem. Talking to the wives of the target men is often the most effective method.
Now, let’s move on to an in depth look at the ailment that affects nearly all older men, BPH.
Jul
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BPH AND OTHER PROSTATE DISORDERS
July 7, 2009 | Leave a Comment
OTHER PROSTATE DISORDERS
Besides BPH there are several other problems that the prostate can develop which we’ll investigate in this book.
One is infectious prostatitis, both acute and chronic. This is an inflammation of the prostate that is common. It can occur at any time from teenage to octagenarian. It is painful and can bring about severe psychological based fears.
Often it seems more serious than it really is and it usually responds well to treatment.
Non-infectious prostatitis includes conditions brought about by sexual activity. Curiously enough this can result from too much sex, or too little, from extreme sexual excitement where there is no ejaculation, as well as prolonged abstinence from intercourse. We’ll go into these problems in detail later.
The last disease of the prostate is the most serious and the most frightening to men—prostatic cancer. Cancer is simply the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells. In the prostate it is often painless and not quickly detected. Once a problem is suspected, diagnosis is relatively quick and simple. Cancer of the prostate is the second most common cancer in men behind lung cancer. However it’s easier to defeat today than it ever has been before.
One out of every eleven men in this country will develop prostate cancer at some time during his life. This is the educated estimation by the American Cancer Society. They say 28,000 men die of prostate cancer each year, but the number would be much lower with a vigorous campaign for early detection.
We’ll look into each aspect of prostatic cancer in later chapters.
So, there you have the first look at your prostate. Nothing to go into a panic about, only a small gland with external secretion, that everyone of us should know more about and learn how to live with it and sometimes in spite of it.
Remember that anytime a physician or urologist can catch a problem early, the better he can treat it, and often cure it. Here is a list of prostate trouble symptoms for you to ponder. The symptoms are the same for several different types of prostate troubles. If you have any of these problems, make sure that you see a doctor or urologists quickly. Such a trip just might save your life.
Prostate problem symptoms:
• A slowing of urine stream or force.
• A frequent urge to urinate, most noticed by needing to get up two or three times a night.
• Slowness in starting to urinate. Hesitancy, stopping and starting. A spasm that stops urination.
• Discomfort or pain during urination.
• A sharp pain in pelvic or rectal area.
• Incomplete emptying of the bladder.
• Inability to stop urinating, a continuing dribble.
• Trace or stains of blood in urine.
• Nausea, dizziness or unusual sleepiness.
“How can something so small cause so much trouble?
Doctors wish that they knew. The biggest problem is getting men to realize there might be a problem and going to a doctor to find out what it is. Most prostate troubles are not cancerous. One doctor said no more than 30% of all prostatic troubles were the result of cancer.
If it is cancer, your very life could depend on an early diagnosis and treatment.
Most prostate problems and their treatments will not sterilize you or cause impotency or any other sexual performance changes in your current lifestyle. Even the BPH surgery that may result in sterilization is usually not an important factor to a man in his late sixties or seventies. But the chance of finding an early cancer could be lifesaving.
No. We’re not trying to scare you. One urologist has said that men over fifty years of age should get a prostate examination for cancer every time his wife gets a mammogram.