Prostate
Gland - The
prostate gland is responsible for the deaths
of approximately 44,000 men in the United States every year. Every 3
minutes, another man is diagnosed with prostate cancer. Can
you avoid being next?
Is
Your Prostate Abnormal?
Over
50% of men aged fifty and over have an
enlarged prostate gland, a condition known as Benign Prostatic
Hypertrophy, or BPH. This percentage increases to 75% by the age of
60 and 90% by the age of 80.
Only
about 50% of men with BPH have symptoms.
Unfortunately, most of them won’t begin to occur until around the
age of 50. Of these, 25% will have surgery to try to alleviate their
symptoms.
Signs and Symptoms
BPH can often lead to a variety of
miserable symptoms. These include:
-
Nocturia (continually awakening at night to urinate)
-
Incontinence, in which urination cannot be controlled
-
A full feeling in the bladder even after urinating
-
Weak urine stream
-
Urgency - the inability to "hold it"
-
A decrease in the force and magnitude of the flow of urine
-
Hesitancy (urinary difficulty)
-
Frequent infections of the urinary tract (which can damage
the kidneys and lead to kidney failure)
The Medical
Expenses of BPH
In
the US, about 10% of men will, at some
point, have some type of medical procedure performed because of
their prostate. After the age of 65, prostate surgery is the second
most common surgery performed on men. Yearly medical costs for
managing BPH surpass 3 trillion (yes, that's trillion with a
"T") dollars in the US alone!
The
signs of an enlarged prostate are often the same as the signs and
symptoms of prostate cancer; however, BPH is much more common.
Prostatism (prostate enlargement) can be caused by prostate
cancer; therefore, it is important to get a professional medical
opinion to ensure a proper diagnosis. The physician may also need to
rule out prostate infection and other possible causes of the
patient's symptoms.
You Should be
Tested
A
rectal examination should be part of each annual physical checkup
recommended for men beginning about age 40-50 years. The physician
can feel the surface of the prostate through the
wall of the bowel. Abnormal tissue
developments can be investigated through further testing.
Researchers
are testing new technologies and laboratory tests that could
possibly improve the early detection rate of prostate cancer and
other prostatic diseases.
One method is a blood test that measures
concentrations
of Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA), a protein produced in the
prostate that may be elevated due to aging.
If the prostate is
enlarged or infected, cancer may be present and additional testing
must be done. PSA is the primary tool responsible for the increased
incidence of prostate cancer detection.
Other
Tests
Unfortunately, these tests are
more invasive and can be very painful. One such test studies the
bladder through the use of a cystoscope, a thin tube that is
inserted into the urethra and down into the bladder.
The cystoscope
allows your doctor to actually see the inside of your bladder. If a
severe blockage is found to be caused by the prostate, a procedure
called a transurethral resection of the prostate, or TURP, may be
performed.
Commonly
Prescribed Treatments
A
TURP is an operation involving the partial removal of the prostate
gland by passing a device through the urethra down to the prostate
gland. While TURP is often successful at
treating BPH, 5-10% of men will have some kind of sexual dysfunction
and become impotent from the procedure.
Most
doctors usually prescribe drugs to slow prostate growth by
terminating the production of the enzyme 5-Alpha Reductase, which
causes the buildup of DHT.
Proscar, the drug of choice by most
physicians, does effectively shrink the
size of the prostate gland; however, more than 50% of men have found
it to become ineffective after taking it for just one year. Proscar
is an expensive and largely temporary treatment with potentially
dangerous side effects.
Taking Proscar can also hide the presence of prostate
cancer because it does block the enzyme 5-Alpha Reductase, which
renders the PSA test ineffective.
Proscar
can also have very serious side effects on women. Pregnant women
or those whom wish to become pregnant should not even handle the
drug or be exposed to the semen of a man that is taking Proscar,
because it has been proven to cause birth defects.
Cardura,
Flomax and Hytrin have also been prescribed to treat BPH.
Unfortunately, these drugs also have very similar side effects and
are about as efficient.
Safe and Natural
Alternatives
Several
natural herbs have been found to safely and effectively treat many
ailments, including BPH. Saw Palmetto Extract, which comes from the
small saw palmetto tree found in the West Indies and the southern
Atlantic coast of North America, has been known to effectively
inhibit the production of the 5-Alpha
Reductase enzyme without the harmful side effects of prescription
drugs.
Men who have used Saw Palmetto Extract have reported
improvements within 30-45 days of use, with an average increase in
urinary flow of 27% after 90 days of use.
Pygeum
Africanun is another herb that has been helpful in the treatment of
BPH. It is derived from an African evergreen tree and has been used
in Germany since the early 1980’s to treat BPH. It is also
included in about 80% of BPH prescriptions
in France.
The
combination of Pygeum Africanun and Saw Palmetto Extract has
been shown to improve the symptoms of BPH immensely.
Nutrients
are also of great importance in maintaining a healthy prostate.
Zinc, which occurs naturally in the prostate, is extremely important
for its health and nourishment.
A normal prostate gland usually has
about 10 times more Zinc than any other body organ. In several
documented cases, Zinc supplementation has been proven to alleviate
the symptoms of chronic prostitis.
Lycopene
is
an antioxidant that has been shown to significantly reduce your risk
of developing prostate cancer by as much as 35%!
Lycopene is a
member of the carotenoid family and can
be found in naturally reddish fruits, such as tomatoes, guava and
pink grapefruit. It must be included in a healthy diet
because it is not produced naturally in the body.
