Prostate health education

There is no magic medicine or folk remedy that can protect the prostate once and for all. The truly reliable logic is always to "prioritize daily habits, seek medical treatment early when abnormalities occur, and do not be blindly anxious or bear it hard."

I have been in the urology clinic for almost ten years, and I have met between 10,000 and 8,000 related patients. Many people’s knowledge of the prostate is either frightened by false advertisements on the Internet, or they don’t take it seriously because of their youth. Both extremes are very fatal. Last week, I treated a 22-year-old college student. After playing games for three days and nights, he had frequent urination for two days. After searching on the Internet, he was so scared that he cried. He said that he had chronic prostatitis that cannot be cured and would not be able to have children in the future. When he came to check, it was simply congestion from sitting for a long time. After going back and running for two more days, he was fine. There was also a 56-year-old uncle who had been urinating profusely at night for almost three years. When he came, he had already retained urine so much that his belly was as bulging as a rubber ball. A urinary catheter was inserted on the spot to solve the problem.

You can think of the prostate as a soft valve stuck at the outlet of the bladder. When you are young, it opens and closes flexibly. As you get older, it slowly begins to proliferate, just like the valve has scale and cannot open and close smoothly. This will naturally lead to frequent urination, incomplete urination, and labored urination. When it comes to this, many people's first reaction is to ask, "So, can I not sit for a long time?" In fact, there is no completely unified conclusion in the academic community: Research in the field of public health shows that men who sit for more than 2 hours continuously have a 32% higher risk of prostate hyperplasia and inflammation than those who get up and move every half hour; but some sports medicine scholars have proposed that as long as they get up and walk every 40 minutes In 2 minutes, even if you just go to get a glass of water and watch two short videos while standing, you can offset most of the pressure on the prostate caused by prolonged sitting. There is no need to spend hundreds of dollars to buy a "prostate cushion" with a hollow center - I have met several patients who bought that kind of cushion. On the contrary, because of the unreasonable curvature design, the pressure on the perineal blood circulation was worse, and the feeling of bloating became more severe after sitting for half a month.

Oh, by the way, there is also the most frequently asked question: "Is there any use in eating lycopene?" Cohort studies in Europe and the United States have indeed shown that consuming more than 15 mg of lycopene per day can reduce the risk of benign prostatic hyperplasia by 18%. Some nutritional scholars also recommend appropriate supplements for middle-aged and elderly people. However, our clinical tracking data shows that as long as you eat scrambled eggs with tomatoes two or three times a week, and often eat red-fleshed fruits such as watermelon and grapefruit, you can fully absorb enough lycopene. Not only is it unnecessary to take additional supplements, but some people with poor liver and kidney metabolism will increase their metabolic burden if they eat too much.

Many people are ashamed to ask about the relationship between sex life and prostate. In fact, there is no unified standard answer. The mainstream urology consensus is that regular ejaculation is beneficial to clearing the secretions of prostate gland ducts, 2-3 times a week for 20-30 years old, and about once a week for those over 40 years old. As long as there is no obvious perineal swelling or backache afterwards, it is completely fine; however, There are also some schools of traditional Chinese medicine that advocate that young adults should appropriately reduce the frequency to avoid repeated congestion of the prostate and consumption of kidney qi. Both opinions are supported by their own clinical cases. They can be adjusted according to their own physical feelings. There is no need to deliberately abstain from sexual intercourse, and do not overindulge. It is important to mention that the "prostate massage and detoxification" that is so popular in physical therapy shops outside is not to be done blindly. In regular hospitals, only patients with chronic aseptic prostatitis will be massaged by professional medical staff after they have been evaluated by a doctor. Ordinary people can do it by themselves or find unprofessional people to do it. It is easy to damage the prostate tissue and make the disease worse.

To be honest, 90% of prostate problems are actually caused by oneself or by fear. Two years ago, there was a patient who worked on the Internet. He suffered from chronic prostatitis for more than half a year and took a lot of antibiotics and Chinese patent medicines to no avail. Later, I chatted with him for a long time and found out that he didn’t go to bed until 2 a.m. every day and sat for more than ten hours. He also liked to drink ice cola and eat spicy hot pot. Later, he got advice and gave up the habit of staying up late. He ran 3 kilometers three times a week and ate less spicy and cold ones. Within two months, all the symptoms disappeared and he even stopped taking medicine. There are also many people who are scared to death when they see "prostate calcification" written on the physical examination report. In fact, it is a small scar left after the previous inflammation of the prostate has healed, just like a scar left by a wound on the hand. No special treatment is needed at all, just regular review.

I generally recommend that men over 50 years old have a PSA (prostate-specific antigen) physical examination every year. If this indicator is abnormally elevated, don’t panic. It may not necessarily be prostate cancer. It may be that you rode a long-distance bicycle the day before and pressed the prostate, or it may be ordinary hyperplasia or inflammation. Just ask a doctor for a digital examination and combine it with ultrasound to make a judgment. Don’t frighten yourself by blindly checking Baidu.

In fact, the prostate is really not that delicate. You don’t need to check various health posts every day to check your symptoms, and you don’t have to rely on your youth to stay up late, hold in your urine, or sit for long periods of time. If you really have frequent urination, urgent urination, painful urination, or nocturia more than twice, go directly to a regular hospital to get a consultation at a urology clinic. It costs more than ten yuan, which is much better than searching online for a long time and scaring yourself.