Night-Time Urination May Be Caused by Excess Salt
One in three North American adults have to get up to urinate more than twice a night, and a study presented at the European Society of Urology shows that the most common cause may be taking in too much salt.
Lifestyle Changes to Treat and Prevent Prostate Cancer
Extensive data show that the typical western diet, obesity, and lack of exercise are associated with increased risk for prostate cancer. Recent studies now show that intense exercise and an anti-inflammatory diet help to reduce markers for prostate cancer progression in men who already have prostate cancer.
Testosterone for Older Men
Medical journals have reported trials that examine the benefits and harms of taking testosterone for men over 65 with low blood levels of testosterone (less than 275 ng/dL). At 12 study sites across the country, a total of 790 participants were given testosterone gel or a placebo applied daily to the skin.
Warnings from Impotence
The same lifestyle factors and diseases that cause impotence also cause heart attacks. Many impotent men have no idea they are at high risk for a heart attack and cannot even name any of the six factors that put them at high risk for both impotence and heart attacks: smoking, overweight, diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and lack of exercise.
Lifestyle After Prostate Cancer Diagnosis
It looks more and more as if prostate cancer is a metabolic disease that is influenced by your lifestyle. Extensive research has failed to show association between infections and prostate cancer risk, but following a healthful diet and lifestyle has been associated with reduced risk for the aggressive type of prostate cancer that can spread and kill.
Healthful Lifestyle Reduces Risk of Dying from Prostate Cancer
Almost all North American men will develop prostate cancer if they live long enough. However, fewer than five percent of men diagnosed with prostate cancer will die from that disease and the 15-year survival rate is 96 percent.
Chronic Prostatitis Can Be Cured
Prostate infections are extremely difficult to diagnose and treat because many doctors do not order the right tests and even when they make the correct diagnosis, they often fail to treat the condition long enough or they fail to treat infected partners.
Should Men Take Testosterone?
Many men take testosterone because they think it will help them to function better sexually, increase muscle strength, raise bone density, and improve mood, behavior, and mental function. As of May 2022, the only FDA-approved indication for men to take testosterone is having low testosterone levels. Testosterone has not been approved for age-related drops in testosterone, and there is significant concern that testosterone use is associated with increased plaques in the arteries leading to the heart.
Prostate Cancer and Heart Attacks Share Lifestyle Factors
A study of 90,494 U.S. veterans with prostate cancer found that more than half suffered from uncontrolled risk factors for heart attacks. Men who suffer from prostate cancer have a very high rate of heart attack risk factors and heart disease.
Mediterranean Diet Associated with Improved Sexuality in Men
A study of 21,469 U.S. male health professionals, ages 40 to 75, found that those who followed a Mediterranean diet had a markedly reduced rate of erectile dysfunction. The more closely they followed the dietary rules, the more likely they were to be able to achieve an erection.
Testosterone Replacement for Older Men?
As men age from 50 to 70, their testosterone levels drop more than 40 percent, causing them to become fatter, and less sexual, muscular and assertive and have smaller, weaker bones (7,11). Twenty percent of men aged 60-80 years have testosterone levels below the lower limit of normal.
Impotence Often Precedes a Heart Attack
Impotence often precedes a heart attack by three to five years. A review of the scientific literature found that men who are impotent have a 59 percent increased risk for heart attacks, a 34 percent increased risk for a stroke, and a 33 percent increased risk for dying from any cause. One study showed that impotent men were twice as likely to develop heart disease.
Taking Testosterone Increases Risk for Clots in Lungs
A study of 39,622 men who had blood clots in their veins shows that those who took testosterone (for legitimate medical reasons or not) suffered increased risk for forming potentially-fatal blood clots.
Prostate Cancer Treatment Choices
A new study followed more than 1500 men with prostate cancer for ten years (New England Journal of Medicine, September 14, 2016). This is the first study to compare treatment with surgery or radiation to no treatment at all ("watchful waiting").
Head Injuries Increase Risk for Impotence
A study of more than 3,400 former National Football League players, average age 52, found that those who had had a concussion were at increased risk for low testosterone and erectile dysfunction, regardless how young or old they were.
PSA Test for Prostate Cancer
Many doctors recommend that every man over 40 get a blood test called Prostate Specific Antigen to check for prostate cancer. Prostate Specific Antigen is made by prostate cells and is released into the bloodstream. Large prostates have more PSA, so a rise in PSA means that the gland is enlarging rapidly, which can be a sign of cancer or that the prostate is irritated by infection.
Risk Factors for Prostate Cancer
Several studies show that a high-plant diet such as a Mediterranean diet is associated with reduced risk for the type of prostate cancer than can kill you, and if you already have prostate cancer, that diet is associated with reduced chance of dying from that disease.
Prostate Cancer and Heart Attacks
Heart attacks are the main cause of death in men diagnosed with prostate cancer. More than 230,000 American men are newly diagnosed with prostate cancer each year. Because prostate cancer usually progresses so slowly, the more than three million living American men who are diagnosed with prostate cancer are at much higher risk for dying of heart attacks than they are of dying of their prostate cancer.
Zinc and Prostate Cancer
A study from the National Cancer Institutes showed that taking more than 100 mg of zinc supplements a day doubles a man's chances of developing advanced prostate cancer. There are hundreds of products on the market today that contain zinc and they are advertised to help treat the prostate, help prevent prostate cancer, help treat an enlarged prostate, treat impotence, increase sexuality, increase ejaculation volume, and make a man more potent. All of these claims are unsupported by scientific data.
Bent Penis: Peyronie’s Disease
Three of 100 men suffer from Peyronie's disease, a bending of the penis during erection. The penis contains balloons that fill with blood to cause an erection. These balloons can develop a scar that prevents them from expanding normally during an erection, causing the penis to bend toward the scar.
Prostate Biopsy Not So Benign
Doctors do not need to biopsy every man with a high PSA screening blood test for prostate cancer. Most patients become infected from the procedure, 20 percent suffer severe pain, 10 percent require strong pain medicines, and 15 percent of previously potent patients report that they can't get an erection one month later.
Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia
If you are a man who finds it difficult to start your stream, check with your doctor to see if you have an infection or a benign or cancerous enlargement of your prostate.
Prostate Supplements Not What They Claim to Be
It should bother you that the nutritional supplement industry is unregulated because there is no way to tell what a supplement contains. Several different studies have shown that at least one third of nutritional supplements do not supply what is on the label.
Prostate Cancer Treatments
I have been asked by hundreds of men who have been diagnosed with prostate cancer whether they should be treated with surgery or radiation, or just watch and wait. One study showed that men under 60 who are in excellent health and are destined to live long lives may benefit from early treatment (1). Six years later, 4.6 percent of men who had surgery had expired, compared to 8.9 percent of those who did not have surgery.
Testosterone Warnings
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires makers of prescription testosterone products to have a label stating that taking testosterone may cause heart attacks, strokes and death, and it is approved only for men who have low testosterone levels due to disorders of the testicles, pituitary gland, or brain,
Preventing Prostate Cancer
High blood sugar levels, particularly fructose, turn on a man's immunity that is supposed to attack and kill invading germs. Instead his immunity attacks his own normal cells to damage the genetic DNA material and turn normal prostate cells into cancer cells.
Male Hair Loss and Heart Attacks
A depressing study from Harvard School of Public Health showed that loss of hair on the top of the head markedly increases a man's...
Active Watching of Prostate Cancer is Usually Safe, but Not Always
Prostate cancer usually grows slowly over many years, so a study was designed to find out if it is safe to delay treatment for many years. More than 1,600 men diagnosed with localized prostate cancer (that had not spread beyond the prostate) were randomly assigned to receive surgery, radiation or waiting with active monitoring. Fifteen years later, there was no statistical difference in deaths from prostate cancer between the three groups: 3.1 percent in the active-waiting group, 2.2 percent in the surgery group, and 2.9 percent in the radiation group.
Frequent Urination at Night
Several papers show that having to urinate frequently at night is often caused by low levels of antidiuretic hormone (1,2) and that taking that hormone can control this condition.
