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By
Joel Hirschhorn
Published
June 21, 2007.
As they grow older, men and the women that love them learn to become
concerned about prostate
cancer that virtually all men will develop, if they live long enough.
But millions of men at relatively young ages suffer from a chronic
disease, though less deadly, that causes considerable suffering. It is
prostatitis, periodic inflammation of that devilish prostate organ. When
you Google
prostatitis you get about 1.6 million hits, demonstrating that this
condition is indeed a serious affliction. In fact, it affects 2 million
men annually in the United States.
To
sufferers of prostatitis trying to cope with pain and considerable
urination problems, prostate cancer seems a distant fear. According to one
study, men with prostatitis have a diminished quality of life that is on
par with those who have recently suffered a heart attack.
As
The Prostatitis Foundation correctly notes on its website (www.prostatitis.org): "The current state of scientific and medical knowledge about
prostatitis is not very good, as any honest doctor will admit." As a
long term sufferer of prostatitis that has seen many urologists, I can
attest to the truth of this statement.
The
causes of prostatitis remain obscure. Worse yet, there is no terrific
medical cure and, even worse, what is prescribed for symptomatic relief is
often marginally effective at best.
Men
afflicted with this disease will learn over the long haul to accept their
ugly fate and hope against hope that offered medical remedies will, at
best, reduce the frequency of attacks and, when they do hit, moderate
their effects and duration.
This
is one disease where even conventional physicians have, for the most part,
recognized a herbal remedy. Both for preventing prostate cancer and
fighting prostatitis, all men should take saw palmetto extract several
times a day. Many companies sell saw palmetto combined with some other
herbal compounds. These should also be considered.
This
is also a case where a remarkable prescription medicine has been a godsend
to prostatitis sufferers like me. It is Flomax (tamsulosin hydrochloride), a drug/alpha blocker that greatly
reduces the urgency, hesitation, frequency and discomfort of urination.
Many men should be taking this drug daily along with saw palmetto
permanently.
One
of the great debated issues is whether antibiotics really work. Based on
my experience and extensive reading of the technical literature, the odds
are against antibiotics working, though many urologists insist on
prescribing them, often for long times, even when laboratory tests find no
evidence of a bacteriological infection. Nearly 95% of patients are
thought to develop prostatitis from nonbacterial causes, which have yet to
be identified. This is critically important, because treatment of
nonbacterial prostatitis is extremely difficult, and no one treatment has
been proven to improve symptoms for most men, as most sufferers will
attest to.
One
theory that I find especially interesting is this: Prostatitis may be
caused by an autoimmune disorder. The immune system mistakenly attacks
healthy prostate tissue and promotes inflammation, similar to the way
rheumatoid arthritis targets the joints.
There
are also various non-prescription, herbal and relatively expensive
remedies marketed to the millions of men suffering with prostatitis.
Desperation will lead most men to trying some of these. The Prostatitis
Foundation website offers information on obtaining a month's supply of one
of the more popular remedies for just the cost of postage and handling. A
number of ordinary lifestyle changes are also worth considering,
especially eliminating coffee and spicy foods.
Besides
the normal digital rectal examination, cystoscopy is a routine diagnostic
examination necessary to rule out prostate cancer and other possible
causes of symptoms. Though terribly uncomfortable, it is necessary to put
up with the discomfort of an instrument being inserted into the penis to
reach the bladder.
Prostatitis
is certainly not an everyday topic of conversation for most people. But it
is one of the most debilitating diseases ruining the quality of life of
millions of men and their families. Now you know more about it.
Associated
Content Inc, USA http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/276526/living_with_prostatitis_disease.html
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