Your prostate are you aware of it? While October was Breast Cancer Awareness Month November is Prostate Cancer Awareness Month. I often jokingly say in my live seminars that men usually don’t even know that they have a prostate let alone know that it can get sick.
The Prostate is a small gland, about the size of a walnut surrounding the urethra, the tube that takes urine from the bladder to the penis. The urethra also carries semen during ejaculation. The prostate gland grows during puberty and remains the same size until about age 50, when it often begins to slowly grow again and, in many men, doesn’t stop. Half of men aren’t bothered by their growing prostate. But the others will develop one of three prostate diseases; enlarged prostate, (BPH – benign prostate hyperplasia) prostate cancer, or prostatitis an inflammation in the prostate gland usually due to bacteria.
Issues usually develop in men over 60 but we are observing that younger men are developing enlargement of the prostate gland. STAT FACT: Over 50% of men in their 60s and as many as 90% in their 70s or older have symptoms of an enlarged prostate (BPH). It is interesting that those in the field of medicine say this is normal. Enlargement of the prostate gland may be common but it is NOT normal. However it does occur as a result of a hormone imbalance.
What Hormones are out of balance in men?
We know that men of 50 most often have higher estrogen levels than women of 50!! Estrogen is a hormone that causes cells to grow and to multiply and to divide – we call that cell proliferation. We also know that many men experience falling levels of Testosterone as their Estrogen levels rise. We learned from Dr. John R Lee in his book Hormone Balance for Men that Progesterone can play a protective role against prostate issues as it opposes estrogen.
Does enlarged Prostate – BPH lead to Cancer? No one knows the answer to that …but researchers do know that each year over 230,000 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer and about 30,000 will die of it.
We think it is expedient for men to test their hormone levels to find out if estrogen is rising and testosterone is dropping. If a hormone balancing program is warranted then a saliva test will reveal that.
Any unusual variation or difficulty in the pattern of urination is a red flag that a problem may exist. So check it out with your doctor this month- have a exam and do a saliva test to check all your hormones. Most blood tests only check testosterone levels. Test them all…. Don’t Guess.