Previous
UPDATES described all approved and available (non- cancerous) prostate
growth therapies available at the time. For back issues, see page
4 under the heading Troublesome Prostate Growth. Back issues are available
by written request.
Be sure to review Avodart for prostate growth, and
a "heads up" on research to improve PSA for CaP detection.
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| However,
men now have a number of alternatives to such drastic surgery,
including |
| · |
Less-invasive
surgeries |
| · |
Prescription
drugs Hytrin, Cardura, Proscar or Flomax, and |
| · |
Dietary
supplements. |
This
report examines the latest non-invasive surgery, GreenLight.
But first let's be sure we understand the need to cope with
non-cancerous prostate growth. |
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steadily
growing prostate can lead to serious consequences. For example, straining
to empty the bladder causes bladder muscles to thicken, harden, become
irritated, and weakened.
This typically occurs in what is described by Germany's
famed Commission E as Stage 2 prostate growth. This stage is
"characterized by decomposition of the bladder function accompanied
by the formation of residual urine and urge to urinate." |
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New
Look at Non-Cancerous Prostate Growth. Is GreenLight
a Better Treatment for It?
Troubles created by prostate growth affect so
many American men older than age 50 that male urination stress comes
close to universal.
As you read this, about 2 million men live
under a doctor's care while they search for relief from problems
caused by their prostates' growth.
Doctors sill label such growth "benign,"
but there is nothing benign about a condition that ruins
the sleep of millions of men night after night confines their daily
activities to bathroom accessibility, and in general takes the'
JOY out of life.
In fighting their growing prostates, 350,000 men
submit to invasive prostate surgery, a TURP (Transurethral Resection
of the Prostate) every year. This requires a hospital stay, 4-6
weeks for recovery, and less than desirable side effects; e.g.,
retrograde ejaculation.
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During
a boy's dramatic changes at puberty, his prostate rapidly doubles
its size. But the gland is still very small, about the size of a
plum and only weighing about as much as one half-slice of bread.
At age 25, the prostate doubles in size again,
now growing to roughly the size of a golf ball, and weighing about
as much as a full slice of bread. Growth stops until the mid-forties,
when the gland again starts to grow, and keeps on growing until
the man dies. How much growth? Prostates have been found the size
of a tennis ball, even a softball.
To distinguish growth in later years from cancerous,
doctors call it "benign." As stated earlier, this is a
misnomer if ever there was one, and should never, ever be applied
to prostate growth, as we shall now see.
Fear of surgery, and reluctance to tinker with
sexual organs, supports a natural tendency to"live with it"
as long as possible. However, ignoring prostate growth can be dangerous
because a
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With
residual urine constantly held in a weakened bladder, crystals may
settle to the bottom of the bladder, collect together and form stones.
If prostate growth blocks the stones' exit, they cannot be passed.
Bladder stones must not be confused with much
smaller sand-like deposits in the prostate. These sand-like deposits
can rub against prostate veins during strenuous action or orgasm,
breaking the veins and causing blood in the urine. This is rarely,
if ever, serious and generally may be ignored. Bladder stones, however,
require attention. In aggravated cases, they can grow as large as
a baseball.
Straining to urinate can also push bladder tissues
through the wall of the organ and form a balloon outside the bladder
wall, sometimes as large as the bladder itself.
Years of living with a bladder damaged by daily
combat with prostate obstruction is a constant invitation to infection.
Or urine may back up Into the
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