Prostate Health: Prostatitis and Benign Prostatic Hypertrophy

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PROSTATITIS

The prostate is a walnut-sized gland located between the bladder and penis, just in front of the rectum. The urethra, which lets urine out of the body from the bladder, runs through the centre of the prostate. This gland secretes fluid that nourishes and protects sperm. With ejaculation, the prostate squeezes this fluid into the urethra and is expelled with the sperm as semen.

Inflammation of the prostate, called prostatitis, may be due to infection. The prostate may also become enlarged with aging. Most men over age 50 may experience this, with possible difficulty with urination. One in seven men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer, the most common type of cancer for men after lung cancer. Prostate cancer is quite successfully treated, as only one in thirty eight men will die from this.

Treatments

Acupuncture and Chinese herbs can be used as an adjunct treatment for acute bacterial prostatitis as well as some chronic types. It can also help manage and reduce symptoms of an inflamed prostate that is under observation by your doctor and not in need of medical intervention.

BENIGN PROSTATIC HYPERTROPHY

As men age, the prostate gland can swell which may cause discomfort and urinary complications. Most cases do not require medical intervention, but symptoms may decrease the quality of life. Acupuncture and Chinese herbs can be used as a way to manage benign prostatic hypertrophy and slow the progression over time.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), Kidney System also supports the health of the lower back (the house of kidneys), knees, bones, and hearing. As people age, our Kidney Energy also declines, which could lead to dysfunction of reproductive health, such as prostatitis, impotence, and etc. However, there is many that TCM can do to delay this process.

Treatments

Acupuncture & Moxibustion, and Herbal Medicine: After 10 weeks of twice acupuncture treatments a week, nearly 75 percent of men in one study experienced symptom relief when compared with only 47 percent of men who had sham acupuncture. Additionally those who had acupuncture were 2.4-fold more likely to enjoy long-term benefits from the treatment than were those in the sham group.

According to a meta-analysis and review that looked at research over more than six decades, acupuncture for prostatitis provided statistically significant benefits when it came to voiding problems. Another plus was that the efficacy of the acupuncture treatments got better over time. On a downside, too few acupuncture trials were reviewed to definitively determine their effectiveness in treating chronic prostatitis or chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CP/CPPS). The authors of a more recent review, appearing in the Journal of Andrology, also had some promising words to say about acupuncture for prostatitis. These experts reviewed nine trials involving 809 men. Overall, they felt that “the evidence that acupuncture treats CP/CPPS is encouraging,” but that “the quantity and quality of the existing evidence prevent firm conclusions.”

We in TCM highly encourage you to try Herbal Medicine if you are busy, and can’t have an acupuncture treatment on a regular basis. Still, the best option is to take herbal medicine along with acourse of acupuncture treatments (10 Sessions).