It Starts Out Small But Causes Big Problems

Here's a man whose prostate is causing a considerable discomfort in most of the rest of his body. How can an organ the size of a walnut have such a drastic impact on so many other parts of your body? If you're facing a diagnosis of prostatitis, read on to get the facts and find out what you can do.

Case #: 1163

Concern：

For about 5 months now I have suffered with prostatitis. I have tried various herbal remedies and so far haven’t been able to rid myself of this problem. I get pain in the pelvic area, prostate, testicles. Upon waking in the morning or after being off my feet for a while my feet are very sore on the bottoms until I walk around for a while. I also get pains in the lower abdomen during and just before I ejaculate. I also do not produce as much ejaculate as I used to and don't feel quite as good as I should when I'm done. I have lower back pain, joint pain, blurry vision, ringing in ears, eye floaters, mental focus loss, anxiety, and panic attack. I know that I have gall stones and liver problems due to sluggish bile movement. I do not over masturbate, nor excessive sex, no drug abuse. The only surgery I had was a vasectomy. I appreciate any and all the help you can give me. Please!

Discussion：

Tradition tells us that your prostate is usually a little bigger than a walnut. To use more precise, technical terms, a normal, healthy prostate is a fairly spongy organ that weighs between 11 and 16 ounces. It sits beneath your bladder, enclosing your urethra. Its normal function is to produce a milky or white fluid and add it to your semen during ejaculation.

What Is This Thing?

The fluid is slightly alkaline, and it enhances your sperm cells' chances of survival in the harsh, acidic environment of a woman's vaginal tract long enough to fertilize an egg. Think of it as something like giving your little swimmers their wetsuits, but with an extra acid-reducing coating. And it's a thick raincoat, too: the fluid usually accounts for half to three-quarters of the total volume of your ejaculation.

So What's The Matter With It?

You've specifically mentioned having a vasectomy, which means that the after-effects of the surgery may have inflamed your prostate. An inflamed prostate, in turn, can screw up your hormone balance and result in some of the symptoms you describe.

For example, DHT and prostaglandin E2 are vasodialators; normally, these compounds will increase blood flow to parts of the body that are either injured or otherwise being asked to perform at higher than normal levels, such as when you are running and you need your lungs to work faster. But you don't need your lungs to be supercharged all the time, so your body is capable of filtering the surplus out of your bloodstream... under optimal circumstances.

The trouble comes when there’s more of this substance in your bloodstream than your body can filter out. Malfunctioning organs/glands are churning them out faster than necessary or failing to take the excess levels out of your bloodstream, which can lead to inflammation. Remember where your prostate is positioned? That's right: just under your bladder and around your urethra. If that starts swelling, you'll immediately start having problems with urination, both frequency and urgency, and difficulty in finishing the business when you do get to go.

This may also account for your pain during urination. The urethra has a series of openings called “prostatic ducts” in its walls that allow the prostatic fluid to be mixed with the other components of ejaculate. When you're urinating, these openings are supposed to be firmly shut, so the urine does not irritate the sensitive tissues of the prostate. Prostatitis can cause these ducts to close poorly or not at all, so the urine goes where it shouldn't. This can make an already bad situation even worse, as not all of the prostatic fluid can make it out of the gland and into the urethra, which could leave you with a smaller volume of ejaculate.

However, because you specifically mention that you do not engage in excessive ejaculations, you may also be suffering from chronic bacterial prostatitis (CBP) which tends to strike older adults as shown in this table. Please be sure to double-check with your health-care provider to see if this is the case.

What Can I Do?

The most important thing you can do to manage this problem is to keep your health-care provider informed about your symptoms, as well as what you're doing about them. One option you might try is prostate massage under your health-care provider's direction, to help release all the stuff that's trapped inside the swollen gland. (SEE: Prostate Massage for Prostate Pain Relief) You might also consider using a powerful herbal supplement designed to alleviate many of your symptoms. (TRY: Natural Prostatits Pain Relief Formula)

It's easy to make a cheap joke about how the numbers of men suffering from prostatitis are swelling, but the condition is no laughing matter. You've avoided the trap of ignoring it out of embarrassment, so the next steps are to keep on top of the situation so that you can get the correct treatments for the problem. Prostatitis is a frequently-underestimated opponent, and your best defense against it is vigilance and information.