Jul
22
HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE
July 22, 2009 | Leave a Comment
HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE
• Measure your blood pressure, (Omron)
• Monitor your stress level with a mood ring *** •Take time-outs and relax (www coated ibuprofen .drmiller evista negative .com)***
• Learn to breathe (RESPeRATE) I**
• Stay connected with friends and family
• Follow the DASH diet ****
• Lose weight (it’s worth the effort!)
• Drink tea and avoid coffee and soda
• Try pomegranate juice I ****
• Drink Concord grape juice
• Treat yourself to a little dark chocolate ***
• Maximize your minerals (magnesium!)
• Beware of the beta-blocker blues
• Avoid licorice and drugs that raise blood pressure
• Ask your MD about chlorthalidone ****
• Have an ACE up your sleeve *****
High blood pressure is a very big deal evista raloxifene massachusetts . According to the American Heart Association, it affects up to 65 million Americans (nearly one in three adults) identify prednisone placebo pills . The majority (more than 70 percent) are not controlling it adequately lithium bromide ammonia safe . For the most part, the experts are still trying to figure out what causes this common condition and why it becomes so widespread as people age caffeine and jet tea .
If you were to reduce traditional medical wisdom on hypertension to its essence, it would probably come to these four points:
1 trazodone buy . High blood pressure is bad! It contributes to atherosclerosis and leads to strokes, heart attacks, kidney damage, and dementia avadart vs proscar .
2 coumadin blood thiner . Low blood pressure is good propantheline and dog .
3 ibuprofen positive drug screen meloxicam . Eat less salt purchase benzoyl peroxide products .
4 what is zovirax . Take your pills effexor patent .
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if it were that simple? Like so many things, though, blood pressure (BP) is complicated adverse reactions to erythromycin in children . For one thing, your blood pressure is not a single, solitary number that remains stable day in and day out risperdal dangerous side effects . If you were to monitor your BP every few minutes throughout the day and night you would likely discover enormous vafiability prozac maximum dose . Over the course of 24 hours, readings could change by as much as 50 points lipitor atorvastatin nevada .”
Some people may have relatively low blood pressure in the morning when they first get Up georgia accutane attorneys .550 After drinking coffee and dealing with rush hour traffic, however, their BP may go up by 10 or more points usa today fosamax .551 A stressful interaction with a co-worker or family member can jack it up even higher zocor and neuropathy .”‘ Exercise (including sex) pushes up blood pressure dramatically, but after a strenuous workout, pressure often comes down below where it started job outlook pharmacy paxil . And blood pressure can vary while you are asleep, depending upon whether you are dreaming, sleeping peacefully, or snoring (with sleep apnea) lithium cell phone batteries transportation .”‘
Even the day of the week can affect your blood pressure topamax for anziety . One study revealed that readings are substantially higher on Monday and Tuesday compared to Saturday and Sunday augmentin suspension .”‘ That’s presumably because people relax on the weekends and are under a lot less stress at home than at work what is augmentin xr 1000 mg .
Then there’s the whole issue of “white coat hypertension,” so named because it is triggered by the presence of a health professional wearing a white coat provera to induce menses . Some years ago Italian researchers demonstrated that when a doctor walked into a patient’s room, systolic blood pressure (the first, or top, number of a blood pressure reading) went up an average of 27
“Although a large number of guidelines and recommendations describing how blood pressure [should be> measured are available, research shows that health care providers frequently do not comply with these guidelines inderal for performance anxiety . This leads to possible mistakes in the diagnosis and treatment of hypertension mini-mite dremel 10.8 lithium . Additionally, the
guidelines are not always consistent with each other points within 2 minutes fosamax heart . 5-16 This increase occurred in 47 out of 48 subjects regardless of whether they started with normal blood pressure or had a history of hypertension amitriptyline for anxiety . SittinS in a doctor’s exam room in a goofy gown with your butt hanging out while you wait forever to see the doctor is not designed to put you at ease diclofenac sodium forum . The minute he knocks on the door and comes rushing in, you are likely to feel even more stressed out pituitary testosterone .
The point is that blood pressure is a constantly moving target zoloft versus effexor . Relying on a single measurement in a doctor’s office would be like looking at a still shot from a 90-minute movie and trying to decipher the plot doxycycline small dogs recommended dosage . If you happened to catch a love scene, you might think the movie was romantic other birth control similar to mircette . If the actors were laughing, you might assume it was a comedy can viagra hurt younger males . In reality, though, you could not predict how the movie would play out based on a couple of quick snapshots testosterone sulfate urine . Likewise, trying to draw conclusions about someone’s blood pressure based on a few readings in a doctor’s office is virtually impossible fosamax don’t lay down .
Measuring Blood Pressure
Many physicians, nurses, and physician’s assistants assume that they know how to take your blood pressure correctly carbamazepine price of . It is, after all cialis sources . one of the primary tricks of the trade effects of salbutamol on pregnant uterus . In truth, there is tremendous variability in technique tnt atorvastatin .557 How your blood pressure is measured will affect the number recorded in your chart and, ultimately, whether you will receive a prescription alternative to synthroid .
European and American guidelines suggest that you be allowed to sit quietly for 5 minutes before any measurement is taken metformin pregnancy . Tight clothing should be removed from the upper arm glucovance patient odor . The health professional should measure your arm circumference and select the appropriate cuff to match your arm size effexor xr cause weight gain . The cuff should be applied snugly to the bare arm about half an inch above the elbow crease dexamethasone dosage cancer paranoia . The arm should be resting comfortably on a desk, and the cuff should be at heart level bayer asprin rapid release . Your back should be suppmled lithium model . Sitting on the exam table to Wave your blood pressure taken could raise it by as much as 5 points ponstel capsule 500mg .
You should never talk prior to or during measurements agency carisoprodol drug drug enforcement picture . Blood pressure should be measured twice in each arm with at least 15 seconds between readings levitra vs cialis viagra . If there is a difference of greater than 5 points between readings, repeat measurements should be taken until this variability is below 5 griseofulvin without artificial colors .Me two numbers should then be averaged caffeine gain weight .
Omron Digital Blood Pressure Monitor with IntelliSense
We like this device because it is so easy to use another name for calcitriol . The cuff wraps around the arm without requiring any assistance and fits people with medium to large arms (9 to 17 inches in circumference) atenolol dosing schedule . This is important to get accurate readings lexapro patent teva . There is easy cuff storage and memory recall so you can monitor your progress over time children’s ibuprofen liquid .
Cost: Approximately $80 to $90
Even if everything is done correctly at the doctor’s office or clinic, it is still only a snapshot of your 24-hour blood pressure zyrtec utah . The only way to really know what is going on is to measure your own blood pressure on a regular basis under a variety of different circumstances nolvadex gynecomastia studies . Many physicians now believe that even white coat hypertension may be a predictor of problems to come how to stop taking prevacid . Someone who has “normal” blood pressure at home and elevated readings in a doctor’s office may react to other stressful situations (such as a demanding boss or a spat with a spouse) with bouts of high blood pressure how much does clomid cost . This might lead to true hypertension, with all its negative health consequences, down the road memory lithium ion battery .
So, how would you begin to determine whether you have high blood pressure? If you even suspect you may be at risk, invest in a blood pressure monitor penicillin’s effect of life . If you have hypertension, this device is crucial for measuring your progress dystonic cymbalta . We have looked at lots of machines over the last three decades and have found that those in the Omron line are as easy to use and as accurate as anything on the market vitamin b metformin . In past years Consumer Reports has given the, Omron Automatic BPM with IntelliSense its highest rating is lopid a statin .55′ The ReliOn brand, available from Wal-Mart, is also manufactured by Omron, but is less expensive ($40 to $60) zyprexa papers . We prefer the old-fashioned arm cuff to a wrist device zocor and suicide . We think the arm cuff produces more reliable readings most of the time snorting strattera for a high .
We encourage people with borderline or diagnosed hypertension to measure blood pressure regularly under a variety of conditions celexa and 20mg . Until you detect clear trends, we think it makes sense to monitor in the morning, in the middle of the day, and again in the evening taking prednisone for a long time . Keep a machine at work so you can check your blood pressure in stressful working conditions drug toradol .
Once you have a pretty clear picture of what’s going on, you can cut back to once a day or even a couple of times a week, as long as you change the time of day you take your measurement atarax susp . Keep a diary of all your numbers so you can show them to your physician ziprasidone schizotypal personality . If you want to really go high-tech, you can plug the values into your computer and use a program like Excel to plot out your readings in a graphical form how to use nexium . Your doctor will be blown away by your diligence lady soma . It will also make it easier for her to track your progress urso forte 500mg .
We cannot emphasize enough how critical it is to work closely with your physician to find a blood pressure—lowering approach that controls hypertension and maintains your quality of life buspar buspirone anxiety . It will take patience and persistence pictures of digoxin allergies .
How High Is High? How Low to Go?
Just as cardiologists keep lowering the target levels for cholesterol, they are also reducing the goals for blood pressure lotrel hydrochlorothiazide . It used to be that many physicians didn’t treat high blood pressure unless the systolic pressure (the upper number) stayed above 160 millimeters of mercury (mmHg) and the diastolic (the bottom number) was above 100 mmHg prescribing information on nizoral . These days many doctors define hypertension as anything over 140/90 price comparison cialis .111 Some who would have us aim even lower have proposed a goal blood pressure reading of 115/75 allergy to penicillin hereditary .5«’ To be perfectly candid, even the experts cannot decide precisely when it is necessary to treat prevacid soltab pediatrics . Different countries frequently have different guidelines benzoyl peroxide acne .
Some data even suggest that very low blood pressure may have certain negative consequences tell me about aricept . Although many physicians believe that there is no such thing as too tow a cholesterol score or blood pressure reading (unless someone is MAY sick), that might not always be true caverta mail order . Older people may be more vulnerable to falls if they experience low blood pressure when they stand suddenly lenor reclame . (This can be caused by some blood pressure medications evista the drug .) Dizziness is a frequent complaint when blood pressure drops dramatically ampicillin potassium .
Swedish researchers have reported that although elevated blood pressure in midlife is associated with Alzheimer’s disease, so is a fall in blood pressure when people get older pediatric ampicillin dosing .
TIPS FOR BLOOD PRESSURE MONITORING
• Use the proper cuff size diovan hct use in pregnancy description . If your arm is larger than 13 inches in circumference, you must use a larger cuff (just as your doctor must when taking your blood pressure!) rozerem plus sinequan . Using a normal cuff if you have a large arm can lead to falsely elevated blood pressure readings ceftin breastfeeding .
• Maintain correct arm position zetia tanning beds . Rest your arm horizontally on a desk or the arm of a chair or couch can give cough medicine and motrin . Your arm should be at roughly the same level as your heart and resting comfortably general anxiety disorder wellbutrin serzone working . If your arm is lower (like in your lap) your blood pressure reading may be falsely elevated what foods contain caffeine .
• Do not talk! Doctors and nurses often try to put patients at ease by chatting them up while taking their blood pressure lexapro compendium . A seemingly simple question like “How are the kids?” could trigger a dramatic jump in blood pressure soma body cells . We don’t know why, but talking while measuring blood pressure can increase a reading by more than 20 points zithromax refrigerat .561 Sit quietly and breathe deeply from the belly for 5 minutes before measuring blood pressure digital camera batteries lithium .
their study, elderly subjects who experienced a 15-point or greater decline in blood pressure had an elevated risk of Alzheimer’s disease or dementia does methotrexate decrease effect of zoloft . evista medicine .562
Q sideaffects of prozac . My father has had trouble getting his blood pressure under control uses for metformin . His doctor has him on atenolol, reserpine, Accupril, Norvasc, and hydrochlorothiazide synthroid alchohol effects . Dad is terribly depressed and can barely drag himself out of bed what is metformin 500mg . As a result, his doctor prescribed Lexapro why is caffeine bad for you . Isn’t this too much medication?
A lamictal rare side effects . We are astonished physicians are still prescribing reserpine for hypertension tramadol online cod shipping . It is an old-fashioned medication lamotrigine titration bipolar . Reserpine is notorious for causing severe depression levothyroxine sideaffects . Treating it with an antidepressant like Lexapro is not logical amoxicillin penicillin false positive drug test .
A meta-analysis of atenolol in the journal Lancet (November 6, 2004) “cast doubts on atenolol as a suitable drug for hypertensive patients methotrxate prednisone dematomyositis .” It may cause fatigue, dizziness, or depression in some patients, but such blood pressure medication should never be stopped suddenlyl
Your father should discuss his symptoms with his doctor who should be able to control your dad’s blood pressure without severe side effects like depression or fatigue cheap generic cialis .
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The bottom line is that there is no bottom line for you withdrawal symptoms from verapamil . Hypertension guidelines are created for large populations or countries, but not for individuals taking ultram er and floricet . Remember, blood pressure is just one more risk factor for cardiovascular disease, like cholesterol, smoking, and diabetes vardenafil bayer side effects . Granted, it is a key risk factor, but the point of treatment is not only to get your numbers down to some arbitrary ideal—the goal is to keep you as healthy as possible and prevent atherosclerosis that might lead to a heart attack, a stroke, or kidney damage kamagra direct .
Aggressive treatment may be called for in some cases when there are many other risk factors like diabetes, overweight, high triglycerides, and coronary artery disease keflex symptoms in dog .563 In other situations, a more modest approach may be appropriate ultramed in california .564
Lowering Blood Pressure without Drugs
Hundreds of medications lower blood pressure, but they all can cause side effects deal with effexor xr symptoms . In some cases the complications are extremely subtle, such as a loss of potassium nolvadex d20 . This serious situation can go undetected for years unless you get a blood test reuters and propecia and october 2004 . If potassium levels go too low, an irregular heart rhythm may result or, in the worst case, cardiac arrest lexapro sam-e . Since there is no perfect pill to control hypertension, it only makes sense to try to manage things first with nondrug approaches caffeine free diet coke nutritional .
Jul
9
YOUR PROSTATE
PLAN IT OUT AHEAD
There are other ways to live more comfortably with your BPH.
• A long car trip. Plan where you’re going to stop. Most car rides tend to stimulate the urinary tract. This may be partly due to nervous tension if you’re the driver. Figure out where you can stop at least every two hours.
This will allow you to gas up, have a snack and use the bathroom. Some patients with BPH say sometimes on car trips they have been stuck in big cities where there were no filling stations, and by the time they found one they nearly tore the door off the men’s room to get inside.
• Going to a scary or suspenseful movie? Again nervous tension can increase the need to urinate. Performers get this problem before they go on. A really wild movie can do the same thing to most men. Try to use the bathroom before the movie starts. As a precaution, don’t buy a large cola drink to go along with your popcorn.
Remember “a pint in, a pint out,” and often the “pint out” part won’t wait until the movie is over.
• Let’s say you waited too long, your whole crotch is burning and throbbing and you have to urinate so bad you’re almost upset to your stomach. When you at last get to a bathroom, try for the toilet stall. Simply close the door, drop your pants and sit down.
No one seems to know why, but sitting down to urinate relaxes some muscles or the sphincter muscle, or something, and it makes urination at these difficult times much easier. At stress times like this, many BPH patients say it’s taken them five minutes of standing at a urinal or at the bathroom at home before they can get even a drop of urine out.
Spasming of muscles seems to be relaxed, and the whole system simply works easier and much faster in these stress situations, if you can sit down and bend forward toward your knees.
At this point who cares why it works, it does and will work any time you have trouble getting a urine flow started as well. Don’t fight it, just try it!
COPING WITH YOUR BPH
You’ve known that you’ve been living with your BPH for what - a year, three years? You’re a short timer. Most urologists have had literally thousands of years of experience with BPH through their patients. Your doctor may have a dozen little hints and helps like those above that have worked for hundreds of his BPH patients. No, these are not big dramatic findings that can be reported in the New England Journal of Medicine or the Journal of the American Medical Association.
However, your own doctor or urologist may have a small gold mine of tips and hints that he’s picked up over the years to make a big difference in how you can live easier and more comfortably with early and more advanced stages of BPH.
The next time you’re in his office, ask him if he has any of these little gems of BPH trivia advice that might just fit some problem that you’ve been having. The best advice is: Always go to the expert: talk to your urologist.
Jul
7
ACUTE URINE RETENTION. BHP.
July 7, 2009 | Leave a Comment
ACUTE URINE RETENTION
In this busy, busy world of ours, many men are working so hard and going so fast that they don’t take time for regular physical checkups. Some never think about prostate problems until it’s almost too late.
Again the symptoms of BPH can slip up on a busy man. He simply figures that by sixty-three he should be urinating more often and he’s heard other men talk about needing to get up at night once or twice. He thinks nothing of it.
Then one day he needs to urinate but can’t. He stands there waiting and then straining but he can’t pass even a few drops and he’s hurting like crazy. Soon the pain is so agonizing that he calls his doctor or rushes down to a hospital emergency room to find out what’s the matter.
A catheter drains the urine from the distended bladder and relieves the problem. Some patients with acute urine retention might be holding as much as a quart of urine. Most patients will look much better within minutes and feel fine in an hour or so.
A sudden attack of acute urine retention can happen to almost any man who has some obstruction already in his urethra. There are also conditions that can bring on such attacks.
Prolonged exposure to the cold, especially if you are not used to it can sometimes bring on such an attack. Drinking alcohol by someone not used to it. The sudden use of antihistamines is also a culprit in this case.
Such an attack is usually enough for the patient to have his prostate checked critically by an urologist who will advise him if any treatment or surgery is needed — as well as suggestions about how to prevent such an attack in the future.
So, there is your primer on BPH, its symptoms and some details about the problems it brings up. Now, is there a way to live with these problems during that time when the doctor recommends no major treatment is needed. We’ll look at that in the next chapter.
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
BENIGN PROSTATIC HYPERPLASIA (BPH)
Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia, sometimes called Hypertrophy, is the medical way of saying that the prostate gland has enlarged. In early stages this enlargement may not cause any problems. As it enlarges more and more with a man’s increasing age, it may squeeze the urethra smaller and smaller.
This reduces the force and size of your urine stream, and if left untreated, BPH could lead to the closure of the urethra resulting in severe sickness and even death.
Doctors say that in BPH the glandular tissue within the prostate capsule enlarges, grows, and no one seems to know why it happens or how to prevent or stop this growth.
This is a benign growth. That means it is not cancerous, it does not spread to other parts of the body or attack other tissues or cells. If it were malignant, as in cancer of the prostate, it would destroy and attack other tissue or cells and spread.
In the drawings here, notice how the urethra is fully open in the first one. It passes through the prostate allowing normal flow of urine from the bladder through the urethra and out the penis.
In the second drawing, the darker growth of benign tissue has begun and already has taken the bulge out of the urethra. In the third drawing, the BPH tissue has almost closed the tube the urine must pass through, making urination extremely difficult and bringing on all sorts of BPH symptoms and problems.
We come back to the apple example. Your prostate is like an apple with the core taken out. Through the core goes the urethra. The size of the urethra may begin to shrink when the prostate starts to enlarge when most men are about forty to forty-five. Often by the time a man is in his fifties he’s noticing some changes in his urination pattern.
It is just outside the urethra where the benign growth of the prostatic tissue begins, and it usually grows in both directions, which at once impacts the size of the urethra.
The growth of the tissue usually is not uniform or consistent all along the urethra. It may develop in one section and not in another, so the urethra is not compressed all along its length, at least not at first.
However, as with any tube or a garden hose, pressure at any one spot can shut off the tube entirely and cause all sorts of problems.
The new growth in the prostate consists of the same types of tissue as the normal prostate gland has, but in different proportions. The new, benign growth is going to have more of the glandular type of tissue.
The new growth in the prostate usually develops in both an inward and outward direction, toward the urethra and toward the exterior of the gland. When it grows outward it compresses the normal prostatic tissue against the sturdy outer capsule of the prostate.
When this outer growth takes place in the two lobes of the prostate nearest the rectum, a specialist can feel this with a digital examination. The outward growth does not narrow the urethra so there would be none of the usual BPH symptoms.
In most cases, however, when there is an outward growth of the tissue, it also grows toward the inside as well. Now we get the narrowing of the urethra over the years, and the normal symptoms of BPH.
The prostate has several sections, and digital examination can touch only the back part of the prostate. The sections that can’t be felt can harbor benign or malignant growth. This is one of the reasons for other tests for prostatic cancer that we’ll explain in detail later.