The Changing Face Of Prostate Care

Most men do nothing to look after their prostates. They spend more time looking after their hair or teeth. Baldness or rotten choppers are seldom life-threatening, but a rotten prostate will kill you quick. As the second leading cause of cancer death in American men, prostate cancer carries a lifetime risk nearly double that of breast cancer.Whether you are 20 or 50, you should start taking care of that pesky little gland today.

Twenty years ago, the standard treatment for BPH and early stages of prostate disease was transurethral resection of the-prostate (TURP). In other words, whip it out. But the high rates of impotence, incontinence and other side-effects of this arcane little surgery, have prompted most urologists to seek other ways to remove chunks of overgrown prostate tissue.

Less invasive surgeries include transurethral incision (TUIP), electroevaporation, transurethral needle ablation, ultrasound destruction and laser prostatectomy. Surgeons today can even burn out bits of your prostate by microwaving. All these procedures are less effective than TURP and have almost as high rates of side-effects. Whether or not you are still able to have erections on command, sex without pain, and urinate only when you want to, depends on the skill of the surgeon wielding the instruments. And prostate surgery is not reversible.


The Move To Drugs

In contrast, non-surgical drug therapies for BPH are both controllable and reversible. It is not surprising then that prostate medicine has moved in that direction. There are still many older physicians who were trained long ago to whip out the prostate at the first sign of trouble. If you run into one, get a second opinion. Chemo-control is a much better way to go.

Androgen-blockers, which eliminate bodily production of testosterone and dihydrotestosterone, cause rapid prostate shrinkage and rapid reduction of the prostate specific antigen (PSA) score. But they also cause almost 100% impotence. In addition, they carry a high rate of depression, because, as I have documented elsewhere, normal testosterone levels are essential for emotional well-being. The only consolation is that the course of therapy is usually less than one year, and the side-effects are reversible.

Alpha-adrenoceptor antagonists block testosterone and dihydrotestosterone receptor sites on prostate cells (and other body cells). They cause relaxation of the smooth muscle of the prostate, with consequent improved urination, ejaculation and reduction of symptoms of BPH. These drugs work quickly to relieve symptoms, but do nothing to reduce prostate size. Also, the symptom reduction is moderate, overall about 20%.

The main culprit in prostate overgrowth is dihydrotestosterone . The most effective drugs for prostate problems are those that block the enzyme alpha-5-reductase, which converts testosterone to dihydrotestosterone. And the best news from studies on these drugs' effects is that men with the largest prostates benefited the most.

___________________________________________________

For more information on prostate disorders and their treatment options go to: Prostate Health Supplements

Even If You Have A Tumor

Even if a localized prostate tumor is correctly detected by the PSA, it may not be a big problem. Autopsy studies of old men who die from other causes show that about one man in every three has a malignant tumor of the prostate — a tumor that was not involved in his death, was never treated, and probably did not cause any great health problem during his life.

Prostate tumors are mostly slow growing and can sit there unnoticed and without symptoms for 20 to 30 years. That's probably the reason why there's no controlled evidence showing that PSA detection of cancer has had any effect whatsoever in reducing prostate disease, or in reducing deaths from prostate cancer. As explained above, existing evidence points in exactly the opposite direction.

In sum, the PSA predicts as many non-existent cancers as it does real cancers, and misses most of the real cancers anyway. Despite all this hard evidence, The American Cancer Society (which positions itself as a medical authority, but is not) recommends the PSA, and has been largely responsible for the growth in use of this inaccurate and soul-destroying test. And some uninformed medicine men take it as gospel.

On the other hand, the International Union Against Cancer advises against routine PSA testing. So does the Canadian Task Force on Periodic Health Examinations. The official health authority in the US, the Preventive Services Task Force, came down solidly against the PSA in its Guide to Clinical Preventive Services, and does not recommend its use.

Thumbs down on the PSA, however, doesn't mean you can forget about your prostate. Latest figures show that prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths of American men. You definitely don't want BPH progressing into cancer. And there are ways to prevent it. If you have the beginnings of a waterworks problem, or even the anticipation that you will develop one in the future, read on for the details.

For more information on prostate disorders and their treatment options go to: Prostate Health Supplements

That Pesky PSA

It is important to understand that the PSA test has one of the highest false-positive rates of any medical test used today. It's bad business. It is very common to score high on the PSA but show no trace of cancer when subjected to a biopsy, and vice versa.

In one of the latest trials, in 78% of the cases, PSA results of men with prostate cancer are negative, assuring those men that they do not have prostate cancer. By failing to detect it, the PSA falsely classifies them as healthy. Consequently, they take no action to protect their prostates, allowing the disease to progress unchecked.

Worse, when you examine correct cancer diagnosis by the PSA, the rate of detection is just over 20%. So, for every one hundred cases of real prostate cancer, the PSA detects only about 20. And, from the study above, for each one of these 20 it also falsely detects a non-existent cancer in a healthy man. Imagine the effect on your life if you were one of those men falsely predicted by the PSA to be suffering from cancer.

In sum, the PSA predicts as many non-existent cancers as it does real cancers, and misses most of the real cancers anyway.

Even If You Have A Tumor

Even if a localized prostate tumor is correctly detected by the PSA, it may not be a big problem. Autopsy studies of old men who die from other causes show that about one man in every three has a malignant tumor of the prostate — a tumor that was not involved in his death, was never treated, and probably did not cause any great health problem during his life.

Prostate tumors are mostly slow growing and can sit there unnoticed and without symptoms for 20 to 30 years. That's probably the reason why there's no controlled evidence showing that PSA detection of cancer has had any effect whatsoever in reducing prostate disease, or in reducing deaths from prostate cancer. As explained above, existing evidence points in exactly the opposite direction.

In sum, the PSA predicts as many non-existent cancers as it does real cancers, and misses most of the real cancers anyway. Despite all this hard evidence, The American Cancer Society (which positions itself as a medical authority, but is not) recommends the PSA, and has been largely responsible for the growth in use of this inaccurate and soul-destroying test. And some uninformed medicine men take it as gospel.

On the other hand, the International Union Against Cancer advises against routine PSA testing. So does the Canadian Task Force on Periodic Health Examinations. The official health authority in the US, the Preventive Services Task Force, came down solidly against the PSA in its Guide to Clinical Preventive Services, and does not recommend its use.

Thumbs down on the PSA, however, doesn't mean you can forget about your prostate. Latest figures show that prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths of American men. You definitely don't want BPH progressing into cancer. And there are ways to prevent it. If you have the beginnings of a waterworks problem, or even the anticipation that you will develop one in the future, read on for the details.

For more information on prostate disorders and their treatment options go to: Prostate Health Supplements

The Problem With PSA

A Typical Case In Point

Here’s a typical case in point and the standard medical answer to the modern plague of prostate disease. A man in his late 40s or early 50s notices a mild but growing problem with his waterworks. He begins to suspect BPH (benign prostatic hyperplasia). That's the medical gobble for overgrowth of the prostate gland. When it gets too big, the prostate chokes the hell out of your urinary stream and your sexuality.

As an aside, it is well established that though BPH doesn't affect most men until after age 50, athletes tend to get it earlier in life. Unless they protect themselves, male athletes in strength sports and track and field sports are affected most of all. They have at least an 80% chance of developing some degree of BPH by age 45. Why? Probably because athletes with high levels of muscle mass tend to have higher levels of testosterone than average. African Americans have some of the highest levels of testosterone and, predictably, suffer more BPH and more prostate disease than whites. Part of the testosterone hormone converts to dihydrotestosterone (DHT), the main culprit that causes your prostate to grow beyond normal size.

Back to our typical middle-aged man, let’s call him Bob. He is getting up four or five times a night to urinate. His urinary stream is dwindling. He feels urinary urgency numerous times a day but finds it difficult to initiate urination. Then he begins getting burning and irritation of the prostate after sex, then discomfort on ejaculation. He is finally forced by his symptoms to go for medical help.

After a thorough evaluation, his physician diagnoses BPH together with prostatitis, caused by a low-grade infection of the prostate. Prostatitis isn't a bad guess, because over 90% of men get prostate infections some time or other. He puts our man on antibiotics and gives him a form to get a prostate specific antigen (PSA) test. The antibiotics do nothing except make Bob nauseous, but the PSA is devastating. Diagnosis: a 65% chance of prostate cancer. The doctor prescribes androgen-blocking drugs which drain Bob’s energy, his ability to maintain muscle and his sex drive.

Over the next two years Bob loses a lot of muscle, gains many pounds of fat, and becomes a physical and emotional wreck. His sex life declines to non-existent and his marriage goes to hell. He is on three different anti-depressants and walks and talks like a zombie. But it doesn’t reduce his prostate problems. At Bob's two-year examination, his physician detects a palpable lump on digital rectal examination of Bob's prostate, and insists he has a multiple biopsy. Locked in major depression, Bob puts it off for months, fearful that if he did have localized prostate cancer, the biopsy would create needle tracks to leak it out. It's a legitimate fear. Relative to cancer cells, 'needle tracks' created by a biopsy are as big as a six-lane highway, along which cancer cells can migrate to other parts of the body.

Finally, when his PSA goes through the roof, Bob succumbed. But guess what? The multiple biopsy comes back negative. The lump is benign. The PSA and the physician's digit were not as accurate as commonly thought. Bob had spent three years in abject fear, had destroyed his love relationship and decimated his healthy body — all for naught.


That Pesky PSA

It is important to understand that the PSA test has one of the highest false-positive rates of any medical test used today. It's bad business. It is very common to score high on the PSA but show no trace of cancer when subjected to a biopsy, and vice versa.

In one of the latest trials, in 78% of the cases, PSA results of men with prostate cancer are negative, assuring those men that they do not have prostate cancer. By failing to detect it, the PSA falsely classifies them as healthy. Consequently, they take no action to protect their prostates, allowing the disease to progress unchecked.

Worse, when you examine correct cancer diagnosis by the PSA, the rate of detection is just over 20%. So, for every one hundred cases of real prostate cancer, the PSA detects only about 20. And, from the study above, for each one of these 20 it also falsely detects a non-existent cancer in a healthy man. Imagine the effect on your life if you were one of those men falsely predicted by the PSA to be suffering from cancer.

In sum, the PSA predicts as many non-existent cancers as it does real cancers, and misses most of the real cancers anyway.


Even If You Have A Tumor

Even if a localized prostate tumor is correctly detected by the PSA, it may not be a big problem. Autopsy studies of old men who die from other causes show that about one man in every three has a malignant tumor of the prostate — a tumor that was not involved in his death, was never treated, and probably did not cause any great health problem during his life.

Prostate tumors are mostly slow growing and can sit there unnoticed and without symptoms for 20 to 30 years. That's probably the reason why there's no controlled evidence showing that PSA detection of cancer has had any effect whatsoever in reducing prostate disease, or in reducing deaths from prostate cancer. As explained above, existing evidence points in exactly the opposite direction.

In sum, the PSA predicts as many non-existent cancers as it does real cancers, and misses most of the real cancers anyway. Despite all this hard evidence, The American Cancer Society (which positions itself as a medical authority, but is not) recommends the PSA, and has been largely responsible for the growth in use of this inaccurate and soul-destroying test. And some uninformed medicine men take it as gospel.

On the other hand, the International Union Against Cancer advises against routine PSA testing. So does the Canadian Task Force on Periodic Health Examinations. The official health authority in the US, the Preventive Services Task Force, came down solidly against the PSA in its Guide to Clinical Preventive Services, and does not recommend its use.

Thumbs down on the PSA, however, doesn't mean you can forget about your prostate. Latest figures show that prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths of American men. You definitely don't want BPH progressing into cancer. And there are ways to prevent it - if you have the beginnings of a waterworks problem, or even the anticipation that you will develop one in the future, stay tuned for the details.

For more information on prostate disorders and their treatment options go to: Prostate Health Supplements

Understanding Your Prostate

Your prostate is a doughnut-shaped gland the size of a large walnut, lying just below your bladder. A small but vitally important tube, the urethra, descends from the bladder, passes through the doughnut hole of the prostate and continues through your penis. This tube carries your urine and also your sperm out of the body.

It's the prostate doughnut hole that causes most of the trouble. If it gets inflamed or squeezed because the prostate has grown too large, you get all sorts of waterworks problems — pain, irritation, increased urinary frequency, especially at night, and eventually urinary retention and kidney problems. These may be the least of your troubles, however, because prostate disease also whacks your sexuality.

Popular accounts describe the prostate simply as an accessory gland that secretes an alkaline fluid when you ejaculate, to protect the sperm from acidity of the urinary tract and of the female vagina. But it's much more than that.

Above the prostate lie two pouches, the seminal vesicles, which secrete a thick liquid full of fructose. This sugar provides energy for your sperm on their journey up the female reproductive tract. The vesicles squirt out this liquid from ejaculatory glands deep inside the prostate, to mix with the thin, alkaline fluid that carries the sperm.

Ejaculation releases the sperm into the urethra deep inside the prostate. So the mixing and release of the whole shebang vital to male sexuality and human reproduction, all takes place in the doughnut hole of your prostate. No surprise then that prostate disease whacks your sexual potency hard — causing pain, impotence, loss of desire, and the inability to achieve orgasm — devastating all the vitality, well-being and confidence that are part of male virility.

You have a lot to lose if you let prostate disease get a grip, from loss of urinary function all the way to the myriad physical and mental aspects of healthy sexuality. Many men don't really mind having to get up five or six times a night to urinate, and could put up with the day-time symptoms as well. But very few could stand the loss of their virility. To keep yours, you need to know how to keep that prostate doughnut hole wide open and whistle clean.

For more information on prostate disorders and their treatment options go to: Prostate Health Supplements

Prostate Disorders – A Man-Made Plague

By age 50, most men suffer some degree of prostate disease. They get recurrent prostatitis (inflammation of the prostate, usually caused by infection), or benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH, overgrowth of the prostate gland), or both. By age 85, over 90% of men develop prostate cancer. Urologists are loathe to admit that earlier prostate disease eventually develops into cancer, because how it does so is still unclear. Nevertheless, the figures are undeniable.

Up until a few years ago, degenerative conditions, such as prostate disease, were thought to be inevitable consequences of human aging. Recent discoveries, however, indicate they are much more the consequences of faulty nutrition and lifestyle. Yes, we have created much of the prostate disease that now plagues our lives. The good news is: being man-made, the circumstances that create a lot of prostate disease are easy to discover — and to change. When they are changed by strong public health policies, a great deal of prostate disease will simply disappear. Until that occurs, which may take quite some time, you will have to take care of yourself.

Right now, virtually nothing is being done to prevent prostate disease. To the contrary, the increasing pollution of our environment, the destruction of nutrients in our food supply by mass agriculture and food processing, and the progressive adoption of unhealthy lifestyles continue to increase the degenerative burden on all tissues, including the prostate.

The incidence of prostate disease and the death rate from prostate cancer have soared in the last 30 years. In America, during the last decade alone, the death rate for prostate cancer has grown to nearly twice that for breast cancer. It is now the second leading cause of cancer death in American men, with over 300,000 new cases springing up every year. With the right information, however, you should be able to prevent it for life.


For more information on prostate disorders and their treatment options go to: Prostate Health Supplements