Your Friend the Prostate

English: Two-panel drawing shows normal male reproductive and urinary anatomy and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). Panel on the left shows the normal prostate and flow of urine from the bladder through the urethra. Panel on the right shows an enlarged prostate pressing on the bladder and urethra, blocking the flow of urine. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The walnut-shaped prostate sits right underneath the bladder and is wrapped around the urethra. The prostate, despite its location, has nothing to do with a man’s urinary apparatus. The prostate is where it is because it’s needed for ejaculation, and the semen passes through the same urethra as urine does.

The prostate gland’s main job is to add special fluid to the sperm before it ejaculates from the penis. That’s why the prostate is where it’s at, and why prostate problems interfere with the male’s ability to have sex and urinate.

Three main types of prostate problems: enlargement, infection, and cancer.  Prostate enlargement, called benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH) is a non-cancerous enlargement of the prostate.

Although men in their twenties can suffer from BPH, prostate cancer normally surfaces later in life. It’s estimated that fifty percent of all men will have BPH by reaching the age of 60, and a full ninety- percent will suffer from BPH by age 85.

When the prostate enlarges outward, a man may not realize he has BPH unless it grows upward and puts pressure on the bladder. But when the prostate swells inward, squeezing the urethra, which passes through the center of the gland, he will certainly know there’s a problem.

With the prostate constricting the urinary tube, a man can suffer from difficulty in urinating, straining to start urination, frequent urination, getting up multiple times at night to urinate, or urgency of urination.

The principal medical treatment for BPH symptoms is the non-invasive surgery called Trans urethral resection of the prostate, also commonly referred to as reaming out the prostate.

There are also drugs like Proscar used to shrink the prostate, but these drugs have not been that effective and have negative side effects. Prostate infections, or prostatitis, are fairly common in males after their teenage years. Symptoms of prostate inflections can include frequent and or painful urination, other urinary problems, or pain during sex.

The most serious prostate problem is cancer. Cancer of the prostate is the second most frequently diagnosed cancer in males after skin cancer. It is the second most common cause of cancer death in males after lung cancer.

The early symptoms of prostate cancer are extremely similar to those of BPH, including  getting up often at night to urinate; urinating often, but only in small  amounts; having to wait forever for the urine flow to start; and a urinary  stream that starts and stops. These symptoms don’t mean that a person has prostate cancer. But these or other symptoms do indicate it’s time for a checkup.

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Two vitamin E forms appear to reduce prostate cancer risk

High blood levels of either alpha-tocopherol or gamma-tocopherol, both forms of vitamin E, appeared to halve the risk of prostate cancer in a new analysis of the ATBC trial, which supports earlier results showing that the vitamin protects against the cancer, writes Dominique Patton.

Original findings from the ATBC study, which included nearly 30,000 Finnish men, showed that daily supplements of alpha-tocopherol (50mg) reduced the risk of prostate cancer by 32 per cent.

Men with the highest levels of alpha-tocopherol in their blood at baseline were 51 per cent less likely to develop prostate cancer than those with the lowest levels, they reported in an issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute (vol. 97, no 5, pp396-399).

Similarly, men with the highest levels of gamma-tocopherol were 43 per cent less likely to develop the disease compared with men with the lowest levels.

“Further analyses indicated that the association of high serum tocopherol with low prostate cancer risk was stronger in the alpha-tocopherol-supplemented group than in those not receiving alpha-tocopherol”, note the authors.

Vitamin E is thought to fight cancer through its antioxidant activity, which combats the oxidative stress involved in cancer development. It also has other non-antioxidant properties, such as enhancement of the immune response, which may also play a role in the benefits seen.

In addition, the levels of vitamin E levels seen among the participants could be considered low and did not necessarily demonstrate support for gamma-tocopherol.

Gamma-tocopherol, found naturally in walnuts, sesame seeds and corn, was found to hold back the proliferation of lab-cultured human prostate and lung cancer cells in research at Purdue University published in December.

Previous research by the same team found that gamma-tocopherol inhibits inflammation, which had already been implicated in cancer development.

The highest tertile of alpha-tocopherol levels in the study were 15.78mg and the highest tertile of gamma-tocopherol was 1.08mg.

Vitamin E researchers are eagerly awaiting results from the Select trial, looking at whether high dose (400mg) alpha-tocopherol supplements can protect against prostate cancer. If these results fail to confirm the ATBC findings, new research will have to look at the role of dosages on cancer protection.

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What Is a Prostate?

English: Prostate and bladder, sagittal section. 中文: 前列腺與膀胱，矢狀切面。 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The prostate is a round cluster of glands located at the bottom of the bladder, about midway between the rectum and the base of the penis. The prostate encircles the urethra, the tube that expels urine from the bladder by way of the penis.

The ping pong ball sized gland produces most of the fluid in semen. Contraction of the muscles in the prostate squirt fluid into the urethra tract during ejaculation producing fluid that  makes up the majority of the ejaculate and transports and nourishes the sperm.

Prostate cancer is the leading cause of cancer related death for American men who don’t smoke. It is primarily a disease of aging. Men in their thirties and forties rarely develop prostate cancer, but the incidence grows steadily after the age of fifty-five.

About 80 percent of all prostate cancer cases occur in men over the age of sixty-five. By the age of eighty, 4 out of 5 men have some degree of prostate cancer. Many experts feel that all men will eventually develop prostate cancer if they live long enough. The three most common prostate problems are prostatitis or inflection, prostate enlargement, and prostate cancer.

Medical professionals recommend that men have annual rectal exams as part of a health checkup from ages 40 to 70, and those with high risk and all men 50 and over should add a PSA (prostate-specific antigen) blood test every year as well.

When prostate cancer is detected early and treated it has a high cure rate. Men are encouraged to discuss the options with their doctor. Based on past screenings doctors have observed that in men ages 50 to 59, the prostate cancer detection rate was basically the same whether men were screened every year or every two years.

Therefore normal-risk men in their 50s can to be safely screened every other year. Since there is no cure for advanced prostate cancer, early diagnosis and treatment are essential. Since early prostate cancer normally doesn’t have any symptoms, it is extremely difficult to detect without testing.

Screenings using both PSA and DRE tests have proven to be the best and only reliable method of identifying the disease when it can still be cured easily. Almost fifty-eight percent of all cases are discovered while the cancer is still isolated and at its most treatable stage. A doctor can detect prostate cancer by digital rectal examination and by a PSA (prostate-specific antigen) blood test.

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Edelweiss Extract and the fight against Anti-Aging

Edelweiss (Leontopodium alpinum) (Photo credit: Franco Folini)

Edelweiss extract comes from Edelweiss flowers, which are short lived perennials.  Edelweiss is a German word which means noble and white.

The Edelweiss flower is found at altitudes which range from 1,700 meters to 2,700 meters, general in areas with light soil, good drainage and southern exposure.

In ancient times the Edelweiss flower was sought after by men who wished to prove their bravery.

Because the flower grew at such heights and was often on cliff sides and in dangerous areas many people were known to have been injured, or even killed in pursuit of this flower, which led many men to wear it in the lapel as sort of a badge of honor.

Of course, the fact that the Edelweiss flower was the favorite of the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph and his wife, the Empress Elizabeth also gave it prestige.

The flower became so popular among hikers that the governments of Austria, Germany and Switzerland took steps to protect it in certain parts of the Alps.

Today Edelweiss is grown on many continents and is no longer in the danger it once was. It became even more popular however in the 1960’s when a song called “Edelweiss” in the popular stage play and film “The Sound of Music” sang its virtues and beauty.

For centuries Edelweiss extract has been believed to have positive health effects. Edelweiss teas have been popular as well as use of Edelweiss extract in hot milk, often sweetened with honey. Diarrhea and dysentery were two ailments that it was believed Edelweiss extract could cure.

People also believed that it could help fight ailments such as diphtheria and tuberculosis.  Today research by the pharmaceutical industry indicates that there was something to these ancient beliefs.

Edelweiss extract is an ancient folk lore remedy that modern science is making popular once again. They have also discovered that the ultra violet light absorbing chemicals this plant has developed from high altitude growth makes it a good additive to sun blocks.

Pharmaceutical researchers also are interested in the way some chemicals in the plant prevent amplification of oxides, which are tied to the aging process.

The future of research into Edelweiss extract looks as bright as the high Alpine sun, and the popularity of Edelweiss extract as an ingredient in high quality cosmetics means the plant will remain popular for many years to come.

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