Herbal Health
Herbal Remedies Blog
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THE EXPLANATION FOR LINGERING BACTERIAL PROSTATITIS
One of the explanations for lingering bacterial prostatitis may be the presence of infection in tiny stones, called calculi, in the prostate. Prostatic calculi (the prostate’s version of gallstones or kidney stones) are quite common—about 75 percent of middle-aged men and 100 percent of elderly men have them. They can be detected with an imaging process called transrectal ultrasound. They’re usually small, found in grapelike clusters, and, most important, harmless. But when they get infected—as they often do in men with chronic bacterial prostatitis—prostatic calculi can cause an infection to persist, and symptoms of urinary tract infections and prostatitis to return again and again. (What causes calculi? Molecular analysis has shown that these stones contain ingredients generally found in urine but not prostatic secretions—which suggests they form when urine somehow “backs up,” or refluxes, into the prostate.)
When a man has both prostatic stones and a history of chronic bacterial prostatitis, it’s pretty safe to assume that the stones are infected. The significance of this is that infected calculi have never been cured by medication alone, although antibiotics can certainly treat the symptoms. The only way to cure infected prostatic stones permanently is to remove them surgically, by a procedure known as transurethral resection of the prostate.
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Men's Health-Erectile Dysfunction
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BPH TREATMENT:LESS INVASIVE PROCEDURES. BALLOON DILATION
For more than a century, doctors have tried to find mechanical means—using catheters, for example—of opening up the urethra constricted by BPH. In this technique, originally designed for expanding clogged arteries, a balloon is passed into the narrowest part of the urethra and then inflated to stretch the opening, and thus improve urine flow. This procedure has a lot of advantages: It’s safe and simple, can be done on an outpatient basis using a local anesthetic, and so far has shown no signs of causing impotence or retrograde ejaculation. Even the most high-risk patients, those in precarious health, are eligible and can get immediate relief of symptoms.
But does it work, and for how long? The answer is, symptoms may improve at first, but the results don’t last. One study found a 50 percent improvement in urinary flow at one month; however, this improvement disappeared after one year. Current studies suggest that balloon dilation is not a long-term cure, that the urethra does not stay open for years, as it does with prostatectomy. (As one urology textbook puts it, “It would appear that the objective, long-term results will be measured in months, rather than years.”) Much more research is needed. Also, not everyone is a good candidate for this procedure; for example, it’s not recommended in men with a decompensated bladder, middle lobe enlargement, or an active urinary tract infection. Finally, the procedure does not yield any tissue samples for a pathologist to inspect for prostate cancer, so a digital rectal examination and PSA blood test are as important now as ever.
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Men's Health-Erectile Dysfunction -
UNDERSTANDING BPH AND HOW IFS DIAGNOSED: WHAT SETS ALL THIS IN MOTION?
There probably isn’t one clear-cut explanation for BPH; it involves too many disparate factors. But we do know that the development of BPH has at least two prerequisites—the testes, and aging. And new research suggests that a third condition, family history, may also be important.
The testes, housed in the scrotum, are the main source of the male hormone, or androgen, called testosterone, which is responsible for secondary sex characteristics, like post-puberty body hair and deepening of the voice, and for fertility. Testosterone acts on the prostate, but it’s not the only thing that makes the prostate grow. In fact, as it turns out, testosterone is not even the primary troublemaker in BPH; it just initiates the process. The trouble starts when testosterone is converted by an enzyme called 5-alpha-reductase to DHT (dihydrotestosterone). DHT is the major androgen, or male hormone, inside the prostate cell. (The thermostat that regulates all this activity is the hypothalamus, located in the brain.)
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Men's Health-Erectile Dysfunction -
PROSTATE CANCER: THE VERY UNDERSTANDABLE PROBLEM
The very understandable problem most people have in accepting this approach is the uncertainty associated with it. What is my cancer going to do? Will it just sit there for years, or will it begin to spread quickly? And, the biggest worry of all, how long have I got to live? Am I going to die soon?
No doctor can answer these questions, because in every man, prostate cancer is different. However, although we don’t know the absolute answers for your specific cancer, we do know some things, and they are reassuring.
We know what generally happens to men in your situation who are followed carefully with watchful waiting: Gradually, over time, the PSA level will go up. At some point, the bone scan will become positive. This is the time to begin hormone therapy. Once hormone treatment is under way, the PSA level almost always falls dramatically and stays low indefinitely—for some men, this can mean many years. However, at some point down the road, if the patient lives long enough, the PSA will begin to rise again, as the hormone-resistant cells start to multiply. This is when both patients and their physicians begin to worry, because if these cells cannot be stopped, a man’s lifespan is generally only one or two years from this point.
Now, having said this, we also add that for men facing this today, there is great hope. Within the next five to ten years, we expect major new advances that will make it possible for us to control these hormone-resistant cells. Monumental research efforts are being focused on finding new and better ways to treat advanced prostate cancer. And it is entirely possible, if and when you ever reach the point where the hormonal therapy is no longer working, that more effective treatments will be there waiting for you.
Therefore, it is impossible to tell any man with prostate cancer how long he will live today because there is great and reasonable hope that he will have a much brighter outlook tomorrow.
So, to sum up: All of this means that if you have positive lymph nodes and embark on a plan of watchful waiting, you will be avoiding unnecessary side effects today from treatments that will not prolong your life; that these treatments will be there tomorrow, if you develop symptoms and need them. And that, in the future, there is a strong likelihood that we will have new treatments available for you that will do a better job of controlling this cancer.
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Men's Health-Erectile Dysfunction -
RESULTS OF RADIATION SEEDS: MOST IMPLANTATION PROGRAMS DON’T DO ANYTHING TO FIGHT CANCER OUTSIDE THE PROSTATE
Studies have found that men with higher tumor stage and grade were more likely not to be cured by radiation seeds (which makes sense, considering that most implantation programs don’t do anything to fight cancer outside the prostate). Also, some studies have found that a significant number of men—20 percent in one study—who got radioactive iodine implants required radical prostatectomy to help fight cancer that had returned. With external-beam radiation therapy, this number is much lower, about 8 percent. (Note: Many urologists feel that radical prostatectomy after any radiation treatment is not going to be very successful and will not perform the operation on these men.)
And in studies comparing seed implantation’s results in controlling cancer to other therapies, the seeds have come in a distinct third to radical prostatectomy and external-beam radiation therapy. In no major study has interstitial brachytherapy ever proved a better method than the other two main forms of treatment for prostate cancer. However, many studies looking at “relapse-free survival” have shown, at ten years after seed implantation, that 58 percent or more of men are still alive and cancer-free, and one study found that 53 percent of men who didn’t have cancer in the lymph nodes were alive and cancer-free after fifteen years. The bottom line from a host of studies seems to be that seed implantation—if it doesn’t ultimately cure prostate cancer—can at least delay it significantly, for years.
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Men's Health-Erectile Dysfunction -
HOMOSEXUAL OFFENDERS VS. CHILDREN: CRIMINALITY
The homosexual offenders vs. minors include a moderate number of individuals (14 per cent) with records of juvenile convictions, falling between the two other homosexual-offender groups in this respect. However, a rather large proportion of these convictions led to imprisonment for six months or more—that is, the offenses were more than trivial. The homosexual offenders vs. minors rank fourth in the number with juvenile sex offenses (7 per cent), and one will recall that the homosexual offenders vs. children ranked third.
The involvement in antisocial or asocial behavior, as measured by conviction, was rather slow until these men were well into the third decade of their lives. About one fifth had been convicted by age eighteen, but the one-half mark was not attained until the midtwenties. By age thirty three quarters had been convicted and from that age on their percentages are intermediate.
There is nothing remarkable about the average age at which they were first convicted—twenty-five—or at the age they were first convicted for sexual behavior with a minor boy (30.2). The latter age is identical with that for the average homosexual offender vs. children at his first conviction for sexual activity with a boy under twelve.
Taking all the convictions of the homosexual offenders vs. minors, one finds a large proportion (62 per cent, third largest) were for sex offenses and a small proportion (38 per cent, third smallest) were for other offenses. Similarly, a very large number, about three fifths, had been convicted solely for sex offenses—only the homosexual offenders vs. adults had more “pure” sex offenders.
This specialization in sex offenses is again visible in an examination of type and number of offenses. These men had 3.74 convictions per capita, a moderate number insofar as total convictions are concerned. However, they also had 2.32 sex-offense convictions per capita, a number exceeded only by the most repetitive groups—the peepers and exhibitionists.
Turning to the nonsexual offenses, we find that, as is true for homosexual offenders in general, very few (3.6 per cent) were offenses against the person. No group displayed a smaller percentage. On the other hand, the homosexual offenders vs. minors had a large proportion (44 per cent, second in rank-order) of their nonsexual charges for vagrancy and/or disorderly conduct. This type of charge is easily lodged against perambulating or loitering males looking for homosexual contacts, and is even more readily lodged against adult males loitering around places where children or minors congregate.
As stated previously, the homosexual offenders vs. minors tend to confine their misdemeanors and felonies to sex offenses; in addition, they tend to limit their sex offenses to homosexual offenses, which constitute 85 per cent of their sex offenses. Within the homosexual category, of all their sex offenses other than those against minor boys, 36 per cent were against male children, and 24 per cent against male adults. Their next most frequent offenses, against willing or acquiescent females, comprised only 14 per cent.
The homosexual offenders vs. minors are very like the homosexual offenders vs. children in their moderate rate of recidivism: nearly one fourth had only one conviction, one fourth had two, and slightly over one fourth had four to six.
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Men's Health-Erectile Dysfunction -
INCEST OFFENDERS VS. ADULTS: EARLY LIFE
The incest offender vs. adults was rarely the youngest or oldest child, and rarely an only child. In fact, he was reared with more siblings (an average of 5.1) than any other type of offender. He was well supplied with sisters: 80 per cent had sisters, and the average incest offender vs. adults had 2.67 of them—the second largest number recorded. In addition, an astonishing 40 per cent had two or more older sisters—a proportion far beyond that of any other group. This group was even better supplied with brothers: 84 per cent had male siblings and had, on the average, 2.75 of them—again the largest number recorded. The sex ratio was 107.4 brothers for every 100 sisters, which comes close to that of the prison group (106.5) and is not too far removed from that of the control group (101.5).
The incest offenders vs. adults had, at ages fourteen to seventeen, the best relationships with their fathers. In this respect they did slightly better than the heterosexual offenders vs. adults who, incidentally, are the only other group whose offenses consisted mainly of mutually voluntary sexual contact with adult females. It is no accident that as far as getting along well with their fathers is concerned, the groups closest to the incest offenders vs. adults are the heterosexual offenders vs. adults and minors, and that they are followed by the control group.
The incest offenders vs. adults got along extremely well with their mothers, being second only to the offenders vs. minors. Significantly the next “best” groups are again the heterosexual offenders vs. adults, with the control group once more following in fourth place. If one devises a rating system measuring relationship with both parents, the incest offenders vs. adults and the heterosexual offenders vs. adults share first place in excellence, the heterosexual offenders vs. minors are in second place, and the control group is third.
Most of the incest offenders vs. adults said that they got along equally well with both parents (50 per cent), fewer were partial to the mother (36 per cent) than any group except the heterosexual offenders vs. adults, and fewest favored the father (14 per cent). This is the “normal” ratio that characterizes four groups: the control, prison, and heterosexual offenders vs. minors and adults. At this point it is worth recalling that this favorable ratio did not obtain for the other incest offenders, although the incest offenders vs. minors approximate it. One can say that the normalcy of parental preference correlates, in the incest offenders, with the age of the daughter.
While relatively few of the incest offenders vs. minors came from broken homes, some 60 per cent of the incest offenders vs. adults did, a figure close to that for the incest offenders vs. children. The average, offender vs. adults was almost seven years old when his first home broke up, a not uncommon average age. All incest offenders are within the upper half of a rank-order of average age at the breakup of the original home.
Slightly over half of the incest offenders vs. adults said that when they were between fourteen and seventeen years old their parents got along together well; this percentage is somewhat low. On the other hand, few (18 per cent, a figure below that of the control group) said that their parents got along poorly or badly. To put it briefly, the parents of the incest offenders vs. adults got along better than the parents of the other sex offenders, although not so well as the parents of the men in the control and prison groups.
Despite the rather high incidence of broken homes, the incest offenders vs. adults are second only to the control group in a rank-order of those who had lived 15 or more years in a home in which there were both a husband and wife. This agrees with the fact that none of them had been sent to institutions such as orphanages.
While the incest offenders vs. adults got along exceptionally well with their parents, they seem to have been unable to socialize effectively with their contemporaries at ages ten to eleven. Whereas one fifth to one fourth of most groups said they had had many boy and girl playmates, only 12 per cent of the incest offenders vs. adults could make the same claim. As far as female companions are concerned, they make the worst showing of all: slightly over half had no girl playmates. This is an early intimation of the later limited sociosexual life characteristic of this type of offender. Since we have seen some groups with poor parental relationships having compensatory good relationships with their peers, one wonders if the excellence of the relationship of the future incest offender vs. adults with his parents may represent some sort of withdrawal from life outside the family, a tendency to be a stay-at-home mama’s (and papa’s) boy, obedient to his parents and later to the moral dictates of society.
This picture of poor socialization with females of their own age in childhood becomes even worse when one recalls that the incest offender vs. adults was unusually well supplied with sisters. What with all his sisters and their friends, he was in a singularly advantageous position to learn about females, to learn to socialize effectively with them, and to have prepubertal sex play. The fact that he failed to utilize his opportunities seems in retrospect a bad sign.
This initial impression of restraint is fortified by an examination of the prepubertal sex life of the incest offender vs. adults. Forty-eight per cent (the highest number of any group) had no sex play; only 36 per cent had heterosexual play, the second lowest percentage of any; and 28 per cent (the smallest percentage of any group) had prepubescent homosexual play. Also, they were strongly inclined to be exclusive in their type of sex play: only 12 per cent had both heterosexual and homosexual experience. This low percentage plus the small amount of prepubertal sex play combines to give a picture of restraint and sexual psychological rigidity which we shall see carried into adult life.
As one would anticipate, the duration of sex play was correspondingly brief, and there is nothing distinctive about the techniques involved. The number who had prepubertal sexual experience with adults is too small to permit analysis, but this in itself is significant. No case was found of physical contact with an adult female, and only one case of physical contact with an adult male. This latter case is worth noting only because the other two incest groups also had extremely little contact with adult males.
Like the incest offenders vs. minors, the incest offenders vs. adults were reasonably healthy during childhood, so their social deficiencies and sexual restraint in preadolescence cannot be attributed to ill health.
Their early reticence is evident from the fact that by age ten only 10 per cent had seen the genitalia of an adult female; this is the lowest percentage of any group, and indicative of moral restraint, lack of interest, or an especially conservative environment. Even by age nineteen one quarter of them had never seen adult female genitalia.
Another sign of excessive sexual inhibition is that despite having had a large number of sisters, and the fact that 40 per cent had two or more older sisters, not one of the incest offenders vs. adults reported that his first sight of postpubescent female genitalia was sight of a sister’s genitalia. One can only envision a large but prudish family or a boy so inhibited that he actively avoided opportunities that some other boy would exploit or at least passively accept.
Still another evidence of minimal sexual activity is seen in the record of prepubertal masturbation: only 32 per cent of the incest offenders vs. adults had this experience and thereby share with the incest offenders vs. minors the distinction of having had the smallest percentage of their members with prepubertal masturbation. This in conjunction with their record of having had the lowest percentage of constituent members with sex play makes the incest offenders vs. adults the least active sexually (in preadolescence) of any group.
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Men's Health-Erectile Dysfunction -
HETEROSEXUAL AGGRESSORS VS. ADULTS: EXTRAMARITAL COITUS
Seventy-seven per cent of the ever-married individuals, while married, had coitus with females other than their wives. This is the third largest percentage and not far below the record of the aggressors vs. minors. All the heterosexual aggressors fall within the first five ranks in this respect. The age-specific incidence of extramarital coitus with companions is greater for these aggressors than for any other group. In the four age-periods available for comparison (spanning ages sixteen to thirty-five) they rank first in three periods and second in one, with proportions varying from 50 to 63 per cent. In brief, within any five-year age-period for which we have data, half or more of the aggressors vs. adults had extramarital coitus with companions. Not counting the peak years from sixteen to twenty, only a moderate proportion had extramarital coitus with prostitutes.
Although the frequency of extramarital coitus was moderate to low, a comparatively large amount of it was with prostitutes. While in most groups the frequency with companions far exceeds that with prostitutes, for the aggressors vs. adults the two figures are often closer. For example, the average individual with extramarital coitus in age-period 21-25 had coitus 0.14 times per week with companions as against 0.10 with prostitutes.
The proportion of total outlet from extramarital coitus with companions was relatively large in youthful marriages. These aggressors are in first place in age-period 16-20 with 11 per cent and maintain third or fourth position in rank-order until after the age of thirty, when the proportions become small. The notable high frequency of extramarital coitus with prostitutes is not evident in the proportion of total outlet; it is submerged by the other activities.
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Men's Health-Erectile Dysfunction -
HETEROSEXUAL OFFENDERS VS. ADULTS: AGE OF COITAL PARTNER
In studying the ages of the companions with whom the offenders vs. adults first had coitus, we see that for only a moderate number the girls were thirteen or younger; for 29 per cent the girls were fourteen to fifteen, for 28 per cent, sixteen to seventeen, and for 21 per cent eighteen to twenty. In the next age-category, that of women twenty-one and over, the offenders vs. adults plummet to the bottom of the rank-order with only 11 per cent of their members having had their first coitus with females who had attained legal age. This drop does not reflect any marked age preference, but is chiefly the result of the fact that nearly all of the offenders vs. adults had had coitus before they were twenty-one; there were very few virginal offenders vs. adults left to have coitus with women their own age or older.
A direct question regarding age preference revealed only a moderate predilection for girls aged sixteen to seventeen. The fact that 16 per cent (fifth in rank-order) of the offenders vs. adults at the time they were interviewed (and the average age then was nearly thirty) preferred girls aged sixteen to seventeen does indicate an above-average though not extreme desire for youth. Note that only 8 per cent of the control group shared this preference. Obviously, while the majority of offenders vs. adults may not have preferred girls of sixteen to seventeen, they did find them quite acceptable as coital partners, as is demonstrated by the fact that about three fifths of the “victims” were girls of that age.
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Men's Health-Erectile Dysfunction -
HETEROSEXUAL OFFENDERS VS. CHILDREN: MASTURBATION
The incidence of masturbation after puberty is so high (92-100 per cent) in all groups that comparison is meaningless. Neither does the median age at which it began lend itself to comparison in most instances. However, the unmarried offenders vs. children are distinguished in that relatively few of them engaged in self-masturbation in the various age-periods of life. From puberty on into middle age, they are in the lower half of every rank-order in this respect and sometimes are near the bottom. The percentage differences in this age-specific incidence are, however, ordinarily small. As far as married males are concerned the offenders vs. children are in no way unusual; their percentages are quite like those of the control group.
An analysis of masturbation frequencies is best confined to individuals who masturbated during the particular age-periods under scrutiny. These constitute what we term an “active group” as opposed to the “total group” which includes as well individuals who never engaged in the sexual activity under discussion (in this instance, masturbation). Inspection of the average frequencies of masturbation among these so-called active groups reveals that the single (never-married) heterosexual offenders vs. children are in no way unusual; however, their mean frequencies exceed those of the control group. The married offenders vs. children who masturbated exhibit higher frequencies than the married offenders vs. minors and vs. adults. Their median frequencies are fairly high in comparison to most other groups as well, but because of the presence of some individuals with extreme frequencies the average (mean) frequencies are higher by far—in general being exceeded only by the exhibitionists and the married homosexual offenders vs. adults. The rather high frequency of masturbation by these married offenders vs. children is especially noteworthy in light of the fact that they also had the highest frequencies of coitus with their wives. One is tempted to speculate that the high masturbatory frequency reflects some lack of satisfaction in marital coitus.
Studying the maximum masturbation record of an individual in any one week, one sees that most of the offenders’ vs. children maxima were in the once-to-twice-per-week category. However, 16 per cent had at some time masturbated nearly twice daily or more (13 or more times per week); this is a rather high percentage and almost thrice that of the control-group individuals.
Though the masturbation record of the offenders vs. children is not remarkable, this outlet was more important to them than to most other groups. While single, they found a large proportion of their total outlet in masturbation (over 40 per cent in all but one age-period), and while this proclivity was masked during marriage, the postmarital picture is startling. For those males separated, divorced, or widowed in early age-periods, masturbation assumed the importance it had had before marriage, or even more importance. They rank first in all but two age-periods in the proportion of postmarital outlet from self-stimulation, the percentages grading from 60 per cent (at ages sixteen to twenty) to a plateau of around 30-36 per cent which is maintained from age thirty-six on.
The importance of masturbation to these offenders when the easy availability of coitus afforded by marriage was absent suggests difficulty in heterosexual adjustment, a difficulty also reflected in other aspects of their lives. The extremely large masturbatory proportions of total outlet shown by those whose marriages broke up in their teens or early twenties leads one to think that the marital failure aggravated preexisting difficulties in working out sexual adjustments with women.
As is usual, the masturbation was ordinarily accompanied by sexual fantasies. The fantasies of the heterosexual offenders vs. children seem to have been, with two exceptions, similar in general content to those of other sex offenders. The two exceptions to this are fantasies of sexual contact with animals and fantasies of a bizarre or highly specialized nature. Some 8 per cent of the offenders vs. children fantasied, on occasion, contact with animals; this is a small percentage in absolute terms, but it is the second largest exhibited by any group, and more than double that of the control group. Perhaps those who will disregard age taboo are more inclined than other offenders to disregard species taboo, at least in fantasy. However, not an unduly large percentage of the offenders vs. children had had actual sexual contact with animals. About one fifth had bizarre fantasies, the third highest figure within that classification and far in excess of the prison (2 per cent) and control groups (1 per cent).
The offenders vs. children closely match the control-group individuals in the amount they worry about the possible bad effects of masturbation. During 40 per cent of the years in which masturbation occurred there was concomitant worry ranging from mild concern to real anxiety. In terms of rank-order this percentage is neither high nor low.
Turning to the question of how they first learned of self-masturbation, the offenders vs. children reveal no distinctive trends. As in all other groups, the majority obtained this knowledge through a mixture of talking, reading, and observation.
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Men's Health-Erectile Dysfunction