Prostate Problems, Not Just a Part Of Ageing

Here’s a quick pop quiz for you?

What colour is the ribbon worn for prostate awareness?

Clocks ticking, did you get it? Blue.

Each year in Australia, just as many men die from prostate cancer as women from breast cancer (Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia). Yet to a large extent the awareness of how a healthy lifestyle and nutritional habits impact prostate health is largely unknown, well maybe other than tomatores. In this article we take a look at one of the most common forms of prostate disorder affecting men, benign prostatic hyperplasia or BPH.

What Is benign prostatic hyperplasia?

Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH) is a medical term that means the prostate gland has become bigger than it should be. Because the prostate gland wraps around a part of the urinary tract, when it becomes enlarged, it actually presses on the tube that carries urine, altering the ability to pass urine. As it is benign, this is not a life threatening situation like prostate cancer, but the symptoms of an enlarged prostate gland can really make life difficult, these can include:

• Frequent urination at night or urgency of urination;
• Difficulty in starting to urinate, slow flow of urine or problems with stopping urination;
• Painful ejaculation, decreased libido and erectile dysfunction;
• Blood in the urine or semen;

These problems occur because the urethra is squashed as the prostate increases in size. While it is difficult to distinguish the symptoms of benign prostatic hyperplasia from prostate cancer it is important to note that BPH is not the same as prostate cancer, nor does BPH increase your risk of prostate cancer.

While prostate enlargement typically comes with age, 50% of men will develop an enlarged prostate by the time they are 50 years old, +it is not inevitable.+ The right nutrition and herbal supplementation and support can not only prevent the occurrence of an enlarged prostate, but also reduce an already enlarged prostate.

Natural and Alternative Strategies

Conventional medical treatment for an enlarged prostate will typically include anti-androgens such as dutasteride and finasteride. The goal of these medications is to block the conversion of the good, healthy form of testosterone to an unhealthy form of testosterone known as dihydrotestosterone. However, there are number of natural and alternative treatments that can work with your body, rather than requiring pharmaceutical drugs and without the side effects.

Zinc, The Prostate’s Best Friend!

Zinc can be thought of as the prostate’s best friend! It functions much like a natural version of pharmaceutical anti-androgens by helping to prevent the breakdown of testosterone. Zinc is also valuable in many other functions in the body including our immune system, nervous system and musculoskeletal system. This makes Zinc a very common deficiency in anyone experiencing physical, mental or emotional stress, and supplementation even more important.

Good sources of foods high in Zinc include: eggs, beef, lamb, baked beans, herring, cashew nuts, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds.

Melatonin Shrunk My Prostrate

While normally thought of as a hormone that helps in controlling mood and sleeping patterns, Melatonin is also a powerful addition to the natural medicines prostate health “stack”. In-vitro studies have shown that Melatonin reduced the growth of prostate cells in as few as 2-7 days (Gilad, E. et al). This has very good ramifications for anyone affected by prostate enlargement.

While Melatonin can be produced from dietary sources of tryptohan, such as sesame seeds, only about 1% of the tryptophan will be converted using this pathway, the remainder being used in a variety of other bodily processes. Fortunately supplemental forms of Melatonin are readily available from our Naturopath.

Tomatoes To Your Health

It has been quoted time and time again that men should be sure to regularly include tomato products such as tomato paste, sauce and ketchup in the diet to help protect the prostate. The main nutrient responsible for this claim is lycopene, a substance in which tomatoes, watermelon and paprika are all quite rich, the ready availability of concentrated tomato products though has irrevocably linked tomato and lycopene in most peoples mind.

Lycopene has been shown to not only reduce the increase in the size of the prostate, but also to reduce oxidative stress. This rightfully earns lycopene a place as an all round prostate protector. It may best though to obtain your lycopene in supplemental form; standard therapeutic doses are normally between 20mg and 60mg per day of lycopene requiring about half a kilo of tomato paste. Not the tastiest prospect!

Prostate Healing Herbs

In addition to increasing the number of prostate protecting foods in the diet, we have found that the prostate responds exceptionally well to herbal preparations. This makes herbs a particularly easy and effective tool, offering pain relief, symptom relief and reducing the overall size of the prostate.

While there are many herbs that are beneficial in treatment of an enlarged prostate, two of the herbs we use most frequently in our clinic include:

• Saw Palmetto – helps to reduce the conversion of testosterone to dihydrotestosterone, the growth of the prostate and stimulate relaxation of the smooth muscle of the bladder to reduce the pain of urination;
• Nettle Root – works synergistically with Saw Palmetto to help prevent the benign cells of an enlarged prostate from becoming cancerous and to improve urine flow while decreasing urgency;

Both these herbs are frequently available in prostate formulations. Talk to our Naturopath for more information.

Curious and Want to Know More?

Don’t let a manageable condition such as BPH interfere with your life. Call our clinic today to organise an appointment for your zinc check-up and to discuss achieving optimal health.

Resources & References

• Gilad, E. et al. ‘Functional melatonin receptors in human prostate epithelial cells.’ Endocrinology 137(4) (1996):1412-1417
• Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia. ‘Prostate Cancer Statistics.’ , . http://www.prostate.org.au/articleLive/pages/Prostate-Cancer-Statistics.html. .