A lot of men can suffer with prostate problems – the numbers are really quite huge. So, below, I discuss BPH, prostatitis and prostate cancer. I hope it helps.
Prostatitis Inflamed Prostate
This is a painful condition where the prostate gland has become inflamed for some reason. About 10% of cases are caused by some kind of infection like a UTI (see the factsheet on those here), but most of them are so-called idiopathic, no known cause. Most cases will go in a few weeks or possibly months, but some can become chronic, called CPPS, or Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndrome. It’s like the chronic pelvic pain that women get, but in men. Both nasty!
Symptoms include the pelvic pain, straining to wee, frequent urination, painful ejaculation, erectile dysfunction and infertility. It’s notoriously difficult to treat and that might be because the initial trigger is an infection, but it becomes chronic due to some pain or inflammatory mechanism being turned on.
Natural Help for Prostatitis
First, I’d look for infection in the urethra and the gut (where most infections come from with UTIs generally). If found, follow a programme to correct and ensure you include something to break down the biofilms that protect the infection from the immune system. See the Infections factsheet.
Consider if a food intolerance is involved; I’ve seen it a lot. Test for gluten issues with Cyrex 3x (the most common cause I’ve found) and a P88 for general foods sensitivities. If it really isn’t solving with other measures, also consider MCAS. I’ve a feeling overactive mast cells may be at play in resistant cases.
Check your adrenals – there is some suggestion that there is something that goes wrong with the HPA axis, which influences hormones, stress levels and the prostate. Of course, the adrenals are responsible for cortisol in your body – your natural steroid and anti-inflammatory, so this makes sense. Take steps to lower stress. Many men with prostatitis have low testosterone in studies, so check that too. Or, you could be making too much of the strong testosterone, DHT, so consider that too – on the same test page as above.
Lower inflammation generally with something like Kapparest, and take something like Prosta-DHT, which contains saw palmetto and rye extract, both renowned for helping prostatitis. Pelvic floor biofeedback and acupuncture are also known to help.
BPH Enlarged Prostate
BPH stands for Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia, in other words: non cancerous enlarged prostate. Fifty percent of men between the ages of 51 and 60 and up to 90 percent of men over the age of 80 will likely have BPH. That’s a lot of men suffering!
Typical symptoms include difficulty urinating, going a lot or needing to urgently, sometimes having to get up several times in the night, dribbling at the end of a wee and sometimes incontinence.
Treatment used to be really quite nasty and invasive, but thankfully there have been a lot of new options available over the last few years. Prostate Matters has a really good factsheet all about BPH here, which you might find useful. Start with the questionnaire there and talk to your GP if it looks likely.
Natural Help for BPH
Firstly, check if meds are behind any enlargement – taking testosterone can be an issue in some men so adjust dosages if necessary with your GP. In BPH, we want to check mechanisms that might be causing overgrowth of tissue like the proliferative oestrogen metabolite 16-OH and the very strong androgen DHT, and correct anything found. You can measure all of these here if needed.
Dietwise, foods rich in lycopene, such as tomatoes and omega 3 fatty acids, found in fatty fish like salmon and mackerel, will help. Higher glucose levels in the blood have been associated with prostate problems, so use a low GL diet like the Belly Fat Plan if needed – it helps reduce glucose spikes and insulin resistance – it’s not just about belly fat!
The supplements that can help specifically with BPH are plant sterols and things like saw palmetto – well known for this – stinging nettle and pumpkin seed. You can get a mix of those in Prostate Select.
Prostate Cancer
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men. One in 8 will likely be diagnosed in the UK at some point. Not good.
Up to now, the only real test for prostate cancer has been the PSA and biopsy. The trouble is that it is just not very good and relying on PSA misses about 30-50% of aggressive cancers. On the other hand about 70-80% of men with raised a PSA score turn out not to have cancer at all, or not aggressive prostate cancer than needs treatment. This has led to a lot of men having unnecessary biopsies and treatment, when they didn’t need it.
For many men, detecting Prostate Cancer that is very unlikely to cause them harm in their lifetime is more harmful than not detecting it.
Professor Raj Persad
MRI scans are often used to find any abnormal areas that may be prostate cancer, but the problem is that many men over 60 or so will have some kind of lesion in the area that has nothing to do with cancer, so unnecessary biopsies are done.
Thankfully technology has moved on and we now have the Stockholm3 test which is much more able to detect early cancers at very low PSA levels but also, importantly, the aggressive cancers that really do need treatment. Instead of just measuring one marker, as with PSA, it measures five different markers and over a hundred genetic markers, then uses an algorithm to predict risk of aggressive cancer.
It’s taken 11 years to develop the test and it has already been used extensively in some European countries. NICE also agree it is a better way of testing:
…the evidence suggests that Stockholm3 is more effective at predicting risk than PSA testing alone for men aged 45-74 with PSA of at least 1.5ng/ml.
NICE Medical Briefing Note
The results are done like a traffic light system:
- Green light indicates a low risk – repeat test in 6 years
- Yellow Light indicates Normal Risk – repeat in 2 years
- Red Light indicates elevated risk – referral to a Urologist for MRI/Biopsy
So, good news for men who need to test and get a reliable answer. Note, it is only done on men with no prostate cancer diagnosis between 45-74 who have a PSA >1.5ng/ml.
You can see Professor Persad talking about it here:
And I have listed the Stockholm3 test here so you can have it done. Obviously talk to your GP too.
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