Your prostate ends up paying the price of cool

Discover how vein pressure impacts your prostate health and learn non-surgical solutions to shrink an enlarged prostate

Shrink your prostate by addressing vein health

Spermatic vein under enormous pressure alongside a very big prostate gland

Discover how vein pressure impacts your prostate health and learn non-surgical solutions to shrink an enlarged prostate

It’s the middle of the night………..YOU NEED TO PEE.

You drag yourself to the bathroom, expecting a flood, but instead you get a trickle.  The problem, your oversized prostate is causing your bladder, a whole lot of stress.   Bad prostrate !

Mmmm….not so fast.

The prostate is the problem, but is it really to blame for benign prostate hyperplasia ?

The prostate is not to blame for BPH

What if your prostate was a victim of a drama that is playing out, several floors below. In the blood vessels just above your testes.

Well according to a team of radiologists it often is.

Our team of radiologists looked at the nether regions of 901 men, ranging in age from 33-81 years, all with symptoms of misbehaving prostates.  In each case, there was a problem, in the blood vessels of the testes.

Now, it was not necessarily obvious.

Varicocele fly under the radar

The blood vessel issue was spotted when the term performed a Varicoscreen® which is a special kind of scan which looks at  the temperature INSIDE the testes. It’s often done in cases of male fertility, but it is not routinely done in older men, grappling with BIG PROSTRATES.  The reason it is one in young guys unable TO GET PREGNANT, is because  HOT is  PROBLEMATIC.

Temperature is a BIG deal in spermatogenesis.

If it’s HOT, sperm production screeches to a holt…... 

The “boys” require cool

So for this very reason, the testes “hang” OUTSIDE of the body.

This prime location, allows them to enjoy “breezes”, hopefully## – so their temperature is a cool 33-34 degrees C.   The rest of the body is a whole lot warmer, clocking in at around 37 °C.

## Tight underwear and laptops on laps can both stop those breezes.

But, this prime real estate, with breezes and views, has one problem………….

Gravity

Blood flow from testes to kidney

The blood gushing down, to supply the sperm nurseries, must return to the heart, for redistribution against gravity.   Fighting gravity is always a challenge, but in the human male, this is an especially BIG ASK.

The human testes is a sky scraper, not a parking lot.

Shape of human testes relative to other animals

Dogs, horses, rats etc.  all have parking lots.  With four legs on the ground, the testes is “short” and “squat”, but when you’re bipedal, the hang changes, necessitating some fancy biology.

Valves to the rescue

To move columns of blood, directly UP, from the ground floor all the way up to the penthouse (the kidney) a distance of 35-45 cm, against gravity requires some innovative plumbing.

No worries.

A series of strategically placed valves buffer the inevitable back flow allowing the stream  to rise against gravity.

The way a valve works

There is THE PUSH, which coincides with the squeeze of the heart, this propels, the blood forward and upward.   Then as the heart takes a moment to recoup, the little valves slam shut.  Stopping the blood from slipping all the way back down.

It works like a charm……….

Until the valves FAIL

And they do.

One by one, they pop off………. the lowest ones are  the first to go.

The damage is progressive and as a result of the fail,  the pressure in the entire internal spermatic vein system, skyrockets.

Now, exactly why they go is not clear at this stage, the trigger is probably a trauma to the testicles,  but if you’re insulin resistant, the odds of a failure, increases, probably because at the heart of it, insulin resistance is a DELIVERY problem.

The point is, with all that pressure in the system, something has to give…………..

The blood diverts to the prostate

Varicocele squirting prostate with concentrated testosterone

It arrives via the back door, bringing with it, the full testosterone load.  You see, besides making sperm, the other BIG job of the testes, is to supply the body with testosterone.  So, the blood exiting the testes is FULL of testosterone.

We’re talking about levels 100 times higher, than in the general circulation.

It’s meant to be diluted

The blood coming out the internal spermatic vein system, should mix with the rest of the blood, dropping testosterone levels, to normal healthy physiological levels.  And it is this blood, that should reach the prostate gland, helping the prostate DO it’s job.

Prostate drinking from a bottle of low testosterone wine whilst whipping up a batch of seminal fluid

 

Which is to provide the special fluid to support their sperm on their dangerous adventure TO find and win the heart of a beautiful egg princess.

The extra testosterone causes havoc….

Testosterone overload

Since testosterone regulates prostatic cell activity, the excessive amounts, cause prostatic cells, to up their game.  More cells are formed.

And the prostate gland, get’s bigger……….. and bigger.

Resulting in benign prostate hypertrophy (BPH) or in some cases, this can progress to  prostate cancer.

The current “fix” for the problem is

  • to either snip out the prostrate (ouch !) or
  • to TURN OFF testosterone production using drugs.

Lower than LOW

The way these drugs work is they inhibit the enzyme (5a-reductase) which makes testosterone more biologically active, converting it to dihydrotestosterone.   The problem is, the testosterone is not turned off in the prostate per se, because this is not where this enzyme hangs out.

Instead it is turned off EVERYWHERE else.

Comparing testosterone concentration in different body buckets when taking an alpha-reductase inhibitor

It works, testosterone levels drop lower….

Too low ?  Aging is already associated with lower testosterone.  And Low T, is synonomous with bad body chemistry.  So “lowering” testosterone to keep the prostate in check, seems  somewhat counter productive.

Time for a plan B ? 

This is what our team explored.  There are both surgical and non-surgical options to “fix” varicoceles.

Abstract of journal article reporting on success of in office procedure to embolize varicocele to treat enlarged prostate

In this study, when the non-surgical options was used, 80 % of the gents “shrank” their prostate.

So if your prostate is giving troubles, it is probably worth exploring whether you have a varicocele. And if you do…. get it fixed so you create BETTER BODY CHEMISTRY and BETTER HEALTH.

Further reading

enlarged prostrate flattening the urethra

Want to avoid bathroom trips in the middle of the night ?

You can exercise a little during the day, to keep you and your prostate gland in shape. Or you can exercise at night, as you run to the bathroom to pee.

hairless wonder in highschool yearbook

Hair happenings harbour health warnings

Most of us are a little tuned into hair chit chat …… bad hair days, need I say more ? For men who go bald early in life, the hair message warns..

sperm receiving epigenetic mark from fat cell

Could your sperm be carrying the mark of the beast ?

Obesity is characterized by changes in body chemistry and gene expression. Babies formed from “fat” sperm have changed gene expression too.

 

Want to discover more ways to create BETTER BODY CHEMISTRY ?