Prostate health education

More than 90% of prostate-related problems (including prostatitis, which is common among young adults, and benign prostatic hyperplasia, which is common among middle-aged and elderly people) are preventable and controllable. There is no need to search blindly to scare yourself away from trouble, nor do you need to force yourself to make symptoms worse.

Last week, I met a 24-year-old Internet practitioner in the clinic. He had been working on a project for three days in a row. He suddenly developed frequent urination, urgent urination, and urethra swelling. In the middle of the night, he read a popular science post and read "Prostatitis can cause infertility and cancer." He was so frightened that he couldn't sleep, so he came to register before dawn. The results of the prostate fluid and B-ultrasound tests showed that he had mild aseptic prostatitis. He was not even prescribed any medicine. He was only asked to stand up and walk two steps every 40 minutes, and take a sitz bath with warm water of about 40 degrees for 10 minutes every day. After a week of follow-up, all symptoms disappeared.

Speaking of which, many people's impression of the prostate is either the "man's lifeline" boasted in micro-business advertisements, or the "scourge" exaggerated by bad science fiction. In fact, it is not that exaggerated. It is just a chestnut-sized gland hidden deep in the pelvic cavity. It is true that it is delicate, but as long as you work hard to create it, major problems rarely occur.

Take the most commonly asked question "Should we take antibiotics for prostatitis?" There is currently no unified standard answer in the industry: the conventional standard of Western medicine is to first conduct bacterial culture of the prostate fluid. Only if bacterial infection is confirmed and white blood cells are significantly elevated, targeted antibiotics are needed. This accounts for less than 10% of prostatitis patients. Most sterile cases can be relieved by adjusting living habits.； There are also many schools of traditional Chinese medicine that believe that asymptomatic or mild aseptic prostatitis is mostly caused by dampness and heat. Treating it with some Chinese patent medicines that clear away heat and diuresis is much more effective and gentler than forcing it or taking antibiotics indiscriminately.

Many people never remember "don't sit for too long." In fact, if you put it another way, you will have the impression: when you sit in queue all afternoon and drive a four-hour long distance, what is sitting under your butt is not a chair, but a "pressure cooker" for the prostate - the pelvic cavity is continuously congested, the prostate duct is pressed and blocked, and metabolic waste cannot be discharged. It would be strange if it doesn't get angry. I forgot to bring a cotton cushion when I went to the clinic last winter. I sat on a cold clinic chair all morning. I also had a slight incontinence in the afternoon. After drinking warm water for two days and standing for half an hour before going to bed, I was fine the next day. There are also people who always like to hold back their urine. They find it troublesome to drive in the service area when driving on the expressway or refuse to quit the game while playing group games. When they hold back their urine, the urine refluxes into the prostate duct, which is equivalent to directly opening a green channel for bacteria, which can cause inflammation even if there is no inflammation.

As for the question that everyone is ashamed to ask, "Is sex good for the prostate?", there is currently no unified "standard frequency": the mainstream Western medicine view is that regular ejaculation can help clear the prostate ducts, and 1 to 2 times a week is perfectly fine for young adults. On the contrary, long-term abstinence is more likely to cause duct stasis.； However, there are also opinions from traditional Chinese medicine that if you are already in the acute stage of inflammation and have obvious pain during urination and distension in the lower abdomen, appropriately reducing sexual stimulation and avoiding repeated pelvic congestion will be more conducive to the resolution of symptoms. There is no need to impose any "standard answers". The most important thing is your own comfort.

There are also many middle-aged and elderly people who are frightened when they find "prostatic hyperplasia" during physical examination. They always feel that they need surgery or cancer, but in fact it is completely unnecessary - benign prostatic hyperplasia means that the prostate "gets fat with old age". It is not a tumor or cancer. If it is just hyperplasia found in physical examination and there are no symptoms of excessive nocturia or difficulty in urination, there is no need to treat it at all. Just do a PSA (prostate specific antigen) screening and follow-up every year. Even if you do have symptoms, you don’t have to have an operation: if the symptoms are mild, you can take alpha-blockers to relax the smooth muscles of the urethra. Many clinicians believe that early use of plant preparations such as Perxtaline will have fewer side effects. Only if you have experienced urinary retention and are completely unable to urinate, you need to consider surgery. Nowadays, they are all minimally invasive transurethral surgeries, and you can be discharged from the hospital in three or four days without suffering any consequences.

One last word, don’t believe in the “prostate care” and “prostate massage” offered by health clubs. Prostate massage in regular hospitals only has two functions: either to collect prostate fluid for examination, or to clear the ducts of patients with chronic prostatitis. Both must be performed by professionally trained urologists. Those technicians outside can’t even figure out where the prostate is. If the technique is too harsh, it will pinch the gland and aggravate inflammation, which is purely IQ tax.

To put it bluntly, the prostate is a delicate little gland. If you sit less, don’t freeze it, and don’t hold your urine all the time, if you really feel uncomfortable, go to a regular hospital and call a urology department. The registration fee of more than ten yuan is much more effective than searching Baidu all night to scare you half to death.