On the Treatment of BPH, the Rationale for Dangerous Misconceptions
Symptoms of BPH
Medical facilities that practice privately have a list of symptoms of benign prostatic hyperplasia which can be compared in size to a newspaper article. But most of them can be easily detected when looking for some other disease. The most precise medical assessment is not based on some characteristics and cannot be done visually. Such assessment report can be made as a result of ultrasound diagnosis or after blood analysis in a laboratory. This should be done in two cases: if you are 40 or more, or if the genitourinary system experiences consistent unhealthy changes.
Some diagnosticians recommend drinking plenty of fluid before ultrasound scan or transrectal ultrasound, i.e. filling your urinary bladder to the maximum (to ensure maximum precision of analysis,). Even in a healthy person such a procedure causes compression of blood vessels around urinary bladder and disrupts blood circulation causing spasms of muscles and impossibility to fully urinate. As a result you will receive an assessment report stating that your condition is close to critical and you need urgent surgery. In case of initial stage of BPH this is absurd. The whole analysis is a mistake. You need a better doctor, while professional level of your diagnostician needs to be assessed.
What causes BPH
I have no intention of frightening you. I tried, but I could not remember reading any scientific article linking benign prostatic hyperplasia with vascular and cardiac problems. Numerous observations and communication prove such fact unconditional. Most people don’t want to know anything about their diseases, not to mention their interrelation, because of their fear (“If I figure out what is going on, my psychological condition will get worse”). When a person is overwhelmed with chronic laziness or hopelessness, when he has no knowledge or desire to obtain it, the only thing left is to be afraid and to hope. Cause of the disease may include arterial hypertension or hypotension, as well as various disturbances in function of cardiac muscle. If your condition is not irreversible yet, it is possible to treat from anything mentioned above. You will need effective diagnostics. Complications can be caused by flu, sore throat, other acute infectious diseases, i.e. long-term loads on heart. I believe it should not be difficult to restore your condition. Here is another example. Weather sensitivity (common in those who suffer from hypertension) causes jumps of arterial pressure that in turn leads to spasms of prostatic gland. The greater the change, the greater the compression. If you know that you are prone to weather sensitivity, you can decrease its impact and avoid urinary retention by means of at least restricting certain products in your diet. Application of the method allows eliminating risks of complications completely.
Side effects of BPH
You should always remember that if you do not fight the disease actively or if your treatment is ineffective, sooner or later spasms will spread to your prostate and block your urinary bladder. You won’t be able to urinate. If you don’t fight for your health, you should know in advance who will help you and where (if necessary), i.e. who will put catheter to ensure outflow of urine. This might be a serious problem with dangerous consequences, for example, if you live far from any medical facility. Not all doctors know how to do it. Probability of spasm cannot be predicted (there are many reasons for that), but typically it happens at the wrong time: early in the morning (I believe partial dehydration is the cause), or closer to midnight (for example, after heavy supper followed by rest). Until catheterization is performed try not to worry, don’t eat anything, don’t drink fluids, breathe smoothly and deeply.
BPH surgery, TURP
Many doctors say that removal of part of prostatic gland is inevitable and it is easier for adults to overcome it as early as possible. Perhaps they (doctors) enjoy making mistakes, especially if nobody disproves their claims. Such recommendations only prove that such removal is difficult and unpredictable. Surgery is performed using high temperatures. Maybe injured tissues get cauterized, but the rest of healthy tissues (the rest of prostate and surrounding tissues) are subjected to high temperatures too thus changing their structure. The result is disruption of metabolism and blood circulation. Further complications may lead to disruption of some function, urinary incontinence, and decrease in sexual potency. The decision to have surgery or not is up to you. And this decision should be thought over not superficially, not intuitively, and not under influence of advertisement. You have to understand that new complications will be only yours to deal with. Thus carefully analyze your possibilities: working capacity, capability to perform health-improving physical exercises, ability to control your diet, rational self-control, readiness to get rid of bad habits (if you have any).
If resection surgery was postponed, it does not mean you are healthy, because you didn’t receive any treatment. Endocrine and cardiovascular systems still function the same way without any positive changes. The disease is still there, and it progresses. I recommend the following of at least rules of self-preservation, diet, and moderate muscle activity.
I believe that surgery (transvesical adenomectomy, transurethral resection) should be used only as a last resort. However, propaganda considers surgery to be the “gold standard” (typical phrase from numerous advertisement websites). When you hear such nonsense in a form of slogans, it is hard to escape a peculiar conclusion. Despite oath of Hippocrates certain category of doctors are interested not in preservation of human health, but in personal gain. Surgery itself is a best way to get money. After surgery is done, nobody holds the patient for long. Nobody gives him any recommendations. In our country doctors who practice privately even look forward to meeting the patient again. They have an unspoken motto: “There are no former patients”.
Ureteral stent
Stenting of prostatic gland is a relatively new method that involves installation of a spiral in prostatic channel. On one hand this measure puts the patient on his guard. But the human body gives a completely different signal: “I don’t like many of those rules you follow, and above all your ignorance and immobility! Here you go! Benign tumor. Correct your mistakes before it’s too late!”. But no. the opposite is being imposed on the patient. “Give us your money and we will try to ease your sufferings by means of a ruse. We will widen you channel and one day you will face prostate cancer”. They don’t tell the patient that such surgery will eventually require expensive drug therapy. They don’t tell him about adverse effects (they are inevitable). In general, such attitude reminds me of experiments on speechless guinea pigs.
Let me say a few more words about ignorance. The following is more characteristic to quacks. They say that administration of various drugs through anus is the most effective method. Their motives are peculiar: in such case greater amount of drugs occurs near prostate, thus increasing the effectiveness. I don’t know what this method is supposed to cure, but disturbance of microscopic flora of rectum is inevitable in such a case, not to mention other consequences. Especially if such drugs do not contain oil.
Thermotherapy prostate
Many people recommend sunbathing for the purpose of replenishment of vitamin D. I have never witnessed any positive results from such kind of therapy of BPH. Such a procedure causes dehydration. Dehydration is an extremely dangerous factor that can lead to unpredictable consequences! Solar irradiation is also dangerous. If a person keeps a healthy lifestyle, sun irradiation received during outdoor exercises will be enough to accumulate such active agents as vitamin D. I tested this method on myself when I had a vacation near the sea. I tried moderate sunbathing, but I still had problems in the end. For this reason I am against sunbathing.
You should be very careful with heat treatment. Such procedures may ease symptoms of chronic prostatitis and BPH, but they are contraindicative in case of malignant tumor. The essence of such therapy is that the source of heat radiation thins the blood and facilitates improvement of microcirculation in prostatic gland itself and surrounding tissues causing a small dispersion effect. In some cases heat therapy can temporarily dull the pain. Increase in temperature should be slight (1-2 degrees above body temperature) and it shouldn’t last for too long. Excess duration or excess heat will cause edema and spasms or absence of any positive result at best. One way or another, this method of physiotherapy may be applied, but only if increase in size of the prostate is small (i.e. if it is possible to improve circulation). Earlier people used simple and accessible materials and appliances with good heat-retaining capacity: sand, mineral wax, clay, later paraffin. Nowadays heating pads (ideally electric pad with regulator) is the optimal solution. Human avarice and greed changed everything. Swindlers use all means to camouflage these simple and accessible methods. They use deceit to deprive people of their money. They advocate unreasonably expensive procedures with the involvement of some unknown devices efficiency of which is equal to warm poultice (I will not be surprised, if soon they will start calling such methods nanotechnology-based in order to fool more people). Such crooks also influence our minds offering us “in-home mini-clinics” (they are good at attracting people) and selling any kind of trash at fabulous prices (see other articles on this website).
BPH and sex
Doctors say sex is useful. Qigong, Yoga, and other eastern practices describe BPH as a disease caused by excessive sex. Both opinions are true. Active sex makes our heart beat faster (the faster within reasonable limits, the better) leading to improvement of blood circulation with simultaneous discharge of prostatic fluid. All this facilitates elimination of spasms of muscles surrounding the prostate. This is great! However, excessive sex does not let prostate restore to its full capacity. In such case hyperarousal causes harmful congestion of blood. That is why you need to be reasonable and moderate in sex. The most important thing is to maintain the “Golden Rule ”. If prostatic gland is inflamed, it needs to rest.
BPH, alternative treatments: unpredictability of naturopathy
This paragraph is for people who practice extreme treatment techniques (ice hole swimming with subsequent vascular spasms, shock without any control over heart function, long-term starvation without drinking any water, other types of naturopathic medicine). Such non-traditional methods bring various results: from alleviation of symptoms (usually superficial) to irreversible harm (usually latent). In his search for the truth a sick person does not want to perceive anything objectively and to see negative aspects of the treatment. Such people ignore even strong arguments. Firstly, if you haven’t yet started this “saga”, try figuring out its meaning carefully and without any naivety. Without active thinking, without rational knowledge, you will not be able to defeat any serious illness. I am sure that your desire to practice such things will disappear as soon as you obtain knowledge. Secondly, if you have already started practicing such things and the process has brought insignificant and short-term improvement or none at all, you should check your condition before trying anything else. Such experiments may cause serious side effects (not overnight, but slowly), and medical examination will help you detect them early. In such case you can blame either the one who recommended such methods or yourself (the latter is more reasonable).
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Respectfully yours, G. Plotyan, the author of the site, Kryviy Rih, Ukraine, 2014
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