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
EXAMINATIONS TO CONFIRM BPH
The first exam will be the digital one. Since the prostate is right next to the rectum, it can be palpitated. In this slightly uncomfortable digital exam, the doctor is checking to see if your prostate feels enlarged. He is also finding out if there are any hard spots or lumps or nodes on the two lobes he can touch.
The healthy prostate is smooth, elastic and about the size of a walnut. If there is BPH, the prostate will still feel about the same way but it will be obviously enlarged.
Most urologists say that a digital examination can’t confirm 100 per cent the presence of BPH. They point out, however that with such an exam showing the prostate is soft and rubbery, that there is an enlargement outward of two of the prostate lobes, and that the patient reports three symptoms of BPH, there is sufficient evidence to diagnose BPH.
In the fast paced routines in many HMO’s these days, a patient with these workups may very well be told he has BPH, be shown a video tape concerning the problem, and be told what to do to make living with the condition easier.
He’ll be told that in the early stages of BPH, a patient is not a good candidate for surgery or other regular treatment. Rather he will be put on a “maintenance” program where he is checked by a urologist yearly for any progress of the condition.
Many doctors and urologists say this is the proper course of care. They show histories of men in their fifties who have been on maintenance care for ten, even fifteen years before the prostate enlarged to such a point that surgery or one of the new treatments was necessary.
Another test your urolgist may make is a peak flow test. This can be done with an instrument that will record the flow much as the charts below show.
The first chart shows a more or less normal rate of flow with a peak about half way through and stopping quickly. The lower chart shows a much weaker flow and over twice to three times the length of time. This usually means some serious blockage in the urethra and the urologist will want to follow up with other tests.
Some urologists use a stop watch and a timed urination into a glass to approximate the same results.
25 ml/s Flow Rate
Results of UROFLOWMETRY
T100 17 s
TO 17 s
TOmax 7 s
Qmax 24.0 ml/s
Qave 14.1 ml/s Vcomp 247 ml
0 10 20 s
25 ml/s Flow Rate Results of UROFLOWMETRY
I
T100 60 s
TO 51 s
TQmax 8 s
Qmax 10.2 ml/s
Qave 4.1 ml/s Vcomp 211 ml
I T I
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 s
ARE ANY OTHER TESTS AVAILABLE?
Yes, there are several other tests that urologists can use with the prostate. Some of these are used when prostatic cancer is suspected.
However, since some ten percent of all surgery done to relieve BPH results in finding early stages of prostatic cancer development, some men ask for additional tests. They want to make sure that their prostate is not cancerous as well as having BPH.
These tests in effect become Negative Testing, to assure the patient that there is no cancer in the prostate lobes that can’t be felt by the digital exam.
One of these routines is a simple blood test called the prostate specific antigen (PSA) test. If this test shows an elevation of the antigen, it is a positive factor that cancer possiblyy is present in the prostate. A companion test, the PAP test for prostatic acid phosphatase, may show if the cancer has spread outside the prostate to other parts of the body.
A biopsy could be performed on the prostate, but it would be done only if the doctor found hard lumps and suspected spots on the outer lobes when he examines them digitally.
ULTRASOUND TESTING
One of the newer tools of the urologist is the use of ultrasound. This is sometimes called sonography. It simply uses high-frequency sound waves to examine a specific part of the body and make a record of it.
The record can be a sonogram on special film or on paper, or the whole process can be recorded on video tape for critical examination later, and as a record for comparison later of any growth or changes or condition of the examined areas.
The test is quick, simple and painless. A wand instrument called a transducer is passed back and forth over the area being examined. The wand transmits sound waves that are echoed back to it much like a radar does.
The echoes are electronically transmitted to the recording or viewing device.
When examining the bladder and prostate with ultrasound, the bladder needs to be full of urine. Then the test is repeated after the man has urinated to see what urine remains in the bladder.
Ultrasound is becoming more and more popular with urologists and most hospitals have it available. Many urologists now have ultrasound capability as a part of their office equipment for use when needed.
Another use of the ultrasound system is called a transrectal probe. It can be used in conjunction with a surface sonogram.
Many urologists recommend the transrectal. In this test a probe, covered with a rubber balloon which is then filled with water, is inserted into the rectum. This creates an ultrasonic image of the prostate and bladder area that can be recorded and at the same time viewed on a screen.
Some urologists say the transrectal sonogram will show many false leads that are not really cancer. Others say it is a fine method to determine if there is an area that seems to be a cancer and calls for more investigation.
MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING
MRI is an expensive testing method that is painless and quick and can produce a three-dimensional cross section of any part of the body. Users say it is even more detailed than the images produced by a CAT scan.
This test is non-invasive and has no radiation. It uses radio waves in a magnetic field to produce the picture. This test is almost always done in a large hospital.
These days, all testing is expensive. If you have the three-symptom case of BPH, and the digital examination has led to a diagnosis by the physician that as far as he can feel there is no sign of cancer, then it is up to you to decide if you wish to have any more tests to prove to yourself that you are cancer free. Some of these tests, such as ultrasound, are not covered by some of the insurance companies.
One patient was adamant about receiving more tests. He had the three symptom BPH, felt fine, but had a friend who was dying of prostatic cancer. It was well worth it to him to have a $200 sonogram taken that showed no noticeable sign of cancer in his prostate. He was still concerned about the 10 percent of BPH surgery that reveals prostatic cancer. His doctor pointed out to him that such surgeries were performed at a much later point in life than he was. The doctor also said that such BPH problems were much farther developed and had been growing for a greater length of time than his had.
He understood the logic of the urologist. He had been living with his BPH for only about five years. He left the office but a week later called for another appointment. When he came in he said he wanted to take the two blood tests that could reveal the presence of cancer in the prostate, the PAP and PSA tests. Both were made and both showed up negative. Another sign that he did not have prostatic cancer.
The patient was now convinced. He told the urologist that he was not showing disrespect for his qualifications or his skills, but he wanted a little more assurance that he didn’t have cancer than the simple digital examination by the doctor.
Jul
7
BPH SYMPTOMS. WHAT CAUSES BPH?
July 7, 2009 | Leave a Comment
WHAT CAUSES BPH?
No one knows what causes BPH. Just why the prostate starts to enlarge itself in the forty to fifty male years is not understood.
There are two significant factors in this mystery that have been tied down by medical research over the years. One is that a man who has been surgically or hormonally castrated, eliminating the male hormone from his body, never develops an enlarged prostate.
The other uncontested fact is that the onset of BPH is started only with the passage of time.
Castration at an early age to eliminate BPH is a totally unthinkable idea. The other alternative, death at an early age is equally ridiculous as a prevention of BPH.
Which leaves medical science still in kindergarten when it comes to determining the cause of BPH and the chances of scientifically developing a preventive drug or routine and this stops any work on a cure.
Many medical studies have been made in an effort to isolate some other common factor in BPH patients. So far all of these human factors have been ruled out: specific blood types, coronary heart disease, celibacy, hypertension, use of alcohol or tobacco, industrial and environmental conditions.
One constant has been determined: By the age of sixty years, fifty percent of all men will have, to some degree, an enlarged prostate whether or not it is bothering them. By the time American men reach their eightieth birthday, only five out of one hundred will not have BPH.
After broad studies involving Asian men, it was determined that as a group they had fewer cases of BPH and prostatic cancer. However Asian men who moved to the US for a period of time had a significantly increased rate of both BPH and prostatic cancer.
Since Asians typically have had a low cholesterol and low red meat diet, it is speculated that diet may have a larger impact on BPH and prostatic cancer than had been previously thought. With the current wave of anti-cholesterol and anti-fat foods including the campaign against red meat, American men could be experiencing a lower rate of BPH and prostatic cancer in the future.
Is a man’s sex life in any way connected with the cause of BPH or prostatic cancer? A man’s sexual life appears to have no bearing whatsoever on the development of BPH or cancer of the prostate. However, sudden surges in sexual activity, or sudden celibacy often does affect the prostate. These situations will be discussed in a later section.
SO WHAT HAPPENS TO ME NEXT?
Let’s say that you’re reading this book in the first place
because you had some questions about your general health,
or your urination, or your prostate, and after reading the
list of symptoms, bingo! you have three of the symptoms.
Let’s say that you have a hesitancy to start to urinate,
you have a noticeably reduced stream, and you’ve been getting up about three A.M. every night to urinate. What should you do next?
Pick up the phone and get an appointment with your family doctor or call a urologist. It’s time you found out just what’s going on and how serious your BPH really is.
Your next move is to have an examination by a medical professional or a specialist. Just how does a doctor examine you for possible BPH or other prostatic troubles?
Jul
7
BENIGN PROSTATIC HYPERPLASIA (BPH). SYMPTOMS OF AN ENLARGED PROSTATE.
July 7, 2009 | Leave a Comment
SYMPTOMS OF AN ENLARGED PROSTATE
Do you have any of the symptoms of an enlarged prostate? Here is a list of those problems that relate directly to BPH. Study the list critically. Have you experienced any of them?
• A slowing of your urinary stream and its force.
• A slowness to begin urination. You say “start now,” but it may be a few seconds before your stream begins.
• A problem with stopping urination. You tighten the muscles to stop the flow or to prevent any more, but you get a series of continuing dribbles.
• A sensation that your bladder is not completely empty when it should be.
• Frequent urination. You may not notice this during the day, especially if you’re near a bathroom. But at night this is much more evident. Doctors call this nocturia, and it may get you up two, three, four times a night.
• In extreme cases, urinary retention — when you simply can’t urinate. The discomfort and pain can be tremendous.
• Nausea, dizziness, unusual sleepiness brought on if retention has caused kidney damage.
A SIMPLE TEST YOU CAN GIVE YOURSELF
Below is a chart with the symptoms listed above. Some of them are worded differently. At the top are the points to be given for each symptom and its severity. Along the left side are the symptoms.
TOTAL SCORE
POINTS 0 1 2 3 4
STREAM Normal Variable Weals Dribbling
Abdominal
VOIDING No Strain strain or re”
HESITANCY None Yes
INTERMITTENCY None Yes
BLADDER Don’t know Variable Incomplete Single Repeated
EMPTYING or Complete retention
Yee ii ,Wd .9 INCONTINENCET— =
URGE None Mild Moderate Savers
tlmo-d~)
NOCTURIA 0-1 2 3-4
DIURIA ci>llh q2-3h qt-2h ci<lh
Intermittency means that your stream starts, stops and starts again once or more before you feel empty. Incontinence means that you can’t stop urinating when you want to, or you dribble, or pass some water when you don’t want to.
Diuria, means how often your need to urinate during the day. Zero points for three hours or more and 3 points for the need to void each hour during the day.
Mark down what you think your symptoms are. If your score reaches 10 or more, you should probably see your doctor soon about the chances you have BPH.