Prostrating the Prostate; Traditional Medicine, Alternative Treatments and Historical tid bits

The prostate has been the bane of men’s existence for millennia. Eventual ly nearly all men will have to reckon with it. If we do not give it the attention that it needs, it will no doubt remind us. Usually this means visiting our friendly primary care practitioner to get the dreaded prostate exam. As far as exams go, a simple prostate exam is not the worst exam. Females go through much, however this has never quelled any mens’ misgivings.
The prostate is an interesting organ. It works great for the first 40-50 years of our life. The prostate provides nutrients and protects our potential potentiates (sperm) and it doesn’t bother us. About the time that sex begins to slip from the number one spot in a man’s world, the prostate rears its enlarged head. This is when I see men in my office with symptoms of being unable to fully empty their bladder, awakening at night multiple times urinate, and the age old statement of “Doc, it takes me near twenty minutes to go to the john”.
The word prostate is derived from “prostates” first used by Herophilus in 300BC. Prostate in Greek means, “to stand before” and as Herophilus saw things, the prostate stood before the testes. Apparently the prostate does not like to play second fiddle and has caused many more common problems than our unsuspecting testicles ever did. One of the most common problems that we encounter is benign prostatic hypertrophy, otherwise known as BPH. BPH is benign enlargement of the prostate. As a result of the prostate’s close proximity to our ureters, an enlarged prostate can compress our ureters and cause urinary problems.
Through history, medicine has devised a number of different ways to treat BPH. We first learn of prostate treatment from the ancient Egyptians written on medical papyrus in 1500 BC. Egypt treated urinary retention by attempting to “force out the urine” using Crocus, Abu plant, berry of the Uan tree, fresh gruel, linseed, uam seeds, duat plant and water. How does that fresh gruel sound? No very appetizing. Ambrose Parè in 1575 is credited with performing the first definite operative prostate procedure, which is our basis of endoscopic prostatic surgery today. Now I ask you, is that treatment or torture? Our treatments has significantly improved since that time using state of the art endoscopic cameras, precision tools and anesthesia to make the procedures much less unpleasant.
Modern traditional medicine has medications that help shrink the prostate and they work well. These can be obtained from your doctor. Of course these medications have side effects but most people tolerate them pretty well. Complementary and alternative medicine has a multitude of different treatments that have been used. The most common is Saw Palmetto, which is an extract from a fruit berry. It is used throughtout the world to treat BPH. It is used much more often in Europe than the US. Studies on Saw Pametto are contradictory with some showing that it improves symptoms and other studies showing that it doesn’t improve symptoms. Pygeum africanum is an extract of bark from an African plum tree and has shown to improve symptoms two times more frequently than placebo. However there are not many studies on Pygeum africanum. Herbal medications such as these two can also cause side effects so please speak with your doctor if you plan to use these.
In conclusion, the prostate is an inevitable irritant that most men will have to endure. However, as positive reassurance, most men die with their prostate problem and not from it. We also have many good forms of treatment both traditional and alternative medicine that are available. I would try Saw Palmetto first as its side effect profile seems a little better than the traditional medications. If this does not work, then traditional medicine is a very good option. Historic treatments seem less desirable and are probably very uncomfortably. I don’t think I would ever want to eat ancient Egyptian gruel. Either way, please talk with you doctor as all medications whether natural or synthetic can cause interactions with other medications.