Prostate health education

Check out if you feel uncomfortable, be less pretentious in daily life, follow the doctor's advice when treating illnesses, and don't believe in any so-called "root cure" remedies.

I met a young man in my outpatient clinic last week. He was a 28-year-old game developer who worked on a project for three months. He sat at his workstation for 12 hours every day. He even forgot to drink water. He couldn't hold in his urine before going to the toilet. Then he started to urinate frequently and had to run every half hour. He also suffered from perineal pain. I searched Baidu. The more I looked, the more I felt that I had an incurable disease. When I came in, my eyes were red. As a result, a routine urine test and prostate fluid examination revealed that he had mild type I prostatitis. He was prescribed medicine for two weeks and told to stand up and walk two steps every hour after sitting, and not to hold back his urine. I came for a review last week and found that everything was fine.

When it comes to the treatment of prostatitis, there are indeed different ideas in the industry. Western medicine will classify it first. For acute bacterial disease, sufficient antibiotics must be used. If the symptoms are symptomatic, the discomfort can be relieved in three or four days. For chronic non-bacterial disease, drugs to improve symptoms are more likely to be used, combined with adjustments to lifestyle habits; Traditional Chinese Medicine I have seen many patients use the regimen of sitz bath, acupuncture, and traditional Chinese medicine decoction with good results, especially those with chronic prostatitis that have been recurring for several years. Many people can stabilize their condition after two or three months of combined traditional Chinese and Western medicine. There is no need to stick to a certain treatment method.

Many people ask me whether riding a bicycle, eating spicy food, or drinking alcohol will definitely damage the prostate? In fact, the consensus among the kinesiology and urology circles has long since changed. As long as you don’t ride for more than 2 hours continuously, choose a decompression saddle with a hollow in the middle. Cycling can actually promote blood circulation in the perineum, which is much better than sitting paralyzed at home for a day. As for eating spicy food and drinking alcohol, as long as you don’t eat spicy food all the time, drink to the point of being drunk every day, and have no underlying prostate disease, eating hot pot and drinking a bottle of beer occasionally won’t have much impact at all. Instead, sitting for more than 4 hours in a row, holding urine for more than 2 hours, and often not ejaculating. These three habits are the most common triggering factors I see clinically. I once had an old patient who ran a long-distance freight train. He used to run a line for 10 hours without stopping. He suffered from prostatitis over and over again for 5 years. Later, he listened to my advice and stopped in the service area for 5 minutes every hour he drove. He used to go to the toilet when he had a cigarette. He didn't come to me for anti-inflammatory drugs for more than half a year.

Let’s talk about prostate hyperplasia, which is most commonly encountered by middle-aged and elderly people. Many people think that “it’s normal to be up late at night as you get older.” This is really a harmful misunderstanding. Last year, there was a 62-year-old man who got up 5 or 6 times at night for 3 years. Finally, he came to the emergency department because he could not urinate. When he was checked, he had mild hydronephrosis. If he came two months later, his kidney function might be affected. Of course, it doesn’t mean that you have to take medicine every time you wake up at night. Now different doctors have different treatment ideas. If the degree of hyperplasia is very mild and the PSA (prostate specific antigen) is normal, some doctors will directly prescribe alpha blockers. I usually ask the patient to go back to do ani levator training for 3 months, 15 minutes in the morning and evening every day, and contract for 3 seconds and relax for 3 seconds each time. Almost half of the patients persist, and the number of waking up at night can be reduced to less than once, without taking medicine at all.

As for the prostate cancer that everyone is most afraid of, there is no need to panic too much. There are currently two consensus opinions on screening. One is to recommend that men over 50 years old have a PSA test every year. The other is that if there is no family history of prostate cancer and no symptoms of abnormal urination, annual screening after the age of 55 is enough to avoid unnecessary punctures and psychological pressure caused by over-screening. At present, the 5-year survival rate of early-stage prostate cancer is close to 100%. As long as it is detected early, the prognosis is particularly good.

Oh, by the way, many people ask me if I want to buy a bottle of lycopene and prostate health supplements worth a few hundred yuan? To be honest, there is currently no clear evidence from global evidence-based medical research that this type of health supplement can reduce the incidence of prostate disease. If you eat two more fresh tomatoes and stay up less late, it will be more effective than any health supplement. There is really no need to spend that wasted money.

In fact, the prostate is a very "honest" organ. How you treat it will be what it treats you. Sit less and move more, don't hold your urine, and don't make mistakes. It will basically not cause trouble for you. If you really feel uncomfortable, go directly to the urology department of a regular hospital to register for a consultation. It costs more than ten yuan. Don't search Baidu to figure it out, and don't believe in any folk prescription of "one shot to cure the prostate". It's really not possible.