Prostate Inflammation: Causes, Treatments, and Why Ejaculation Is Your Prostate’s Best Friend
Speaker 1: 0:08
Welcome to the Armor Men’s Health Hour with Dr. Mistry and Donna Lee.
Dr. Mistry: 0:16
Hello and welcome to the Armor Men’s Health Hour. I’m Dr. Mistry, your host here with my cohost, Donna Lee.
Donna Lee: 0:22
Hello, everybody. Happy day.
Dr. Mistry: 0:23
Happy day. This is a men’s health show. I’m a board certified urologist. And our program here is brought to you by our urology practice: NAU Urology Specialists.
Donna Lee: 0:34
What did NAU stand for?
Dr. Mistry: 0:36
It used to stand for North Austin Urology, but then we became worldwide.
Donna Lee: 0:39
We become came South and Dripping Springs Urology.
Dr. Mistry: 0:42
And then what happened ? One of my marketing people said that we couldn’t use lose the website, and now we’re probably going to lose the website because now it just doesn’t makes any sense.
Donna Lee: 0:49
It doesn’t make any sense. We’re too many names.
Dr. Mistry: 0:52
You know, it’s appropriate for this world nowadays, because the world doesn’t make any sense, so…
Donna Lee: 0:57
We can be “Urology Specialists 2020: We Don’t Make Sense.”
Dr. Mistry: 1:01
You know, sometimes you see these companies with weird names and you’re like, “I wonder how it finally ended up with that name?” And now I know. It’s because some sentimental boof out there wanted to keep a little piece of his old life. Now the name doesn’t make any sense.
Donna Lee: 1:13
That’s right. Because when people see “NAU” they go “NOW?” They try to say it out loud.
Dr. Mistry: 1:19
Well , what’s great about that is that it really speaks to one of the most important things that we try to accomplish in our practice, which is to see you now!
Donna Lee: 1:26
That was a stretch, but okay. To see you NAU–Now!
Dr. Mistry: 1:30
For years, our practice has been defined by what I learned early on were the three A’s of a successful specialty practice: the three A’s are availability, affability, and ability.
Donna Lee: 1:41
You should throw in affordability because it’s pretty affordable.
Dr. Mistry: 1:44
Okay. The four A’s
Donna Lee: 1:46
Sorry, I just messed with your whole mentality on our 3A’s.
Dr. Mistry: 1:51
It’s a concierge level practice. We’d like to see you in our office. We are seeing new patients. We are seeing them by telehealth. We’re seeing them in person. And we would highly encourage you to remember that putting off your health isn’t safe.
Donna Lee: 2:04
Does not benefit you at all.
Dr. Mistry: 2:06
It’s not safe.
Donna Lee: 2:07
Don’t let Covid win.
Dr. Mistry: 2:08
That’s right. Don’t let Covid, don’t let the terrorists win. Very good. Donna Lee, why don’t you tell people where our offices are and how do people make an appointment?
Donna Lee: 2:15
That’s right. You can call us during the week at (512) 238-0762. I feel like I sound sexy because my voice is raspy. Is that, is that correct?
Dr. Mistry: 2:24
It is true.
Donna Lee: 2:25
It’s the allergies, but also known as sexy. We’re located in Round Rock, North Austin, South Austin, and Dripping Springs, Texas. We have availability throughout the week, so call us when you can. We’re happy to help. You can send your questions to our email address, armormenshealth@gmail.com, and our website is armormenshealth.com. We have all sorts of facilities available: sex therapy, we have a sleep coordinator, we have two pelvic floor physical therapists . Now we added on a new provider, Heather.
Dr. Mistry: 2:54
That’s right. And in order to achieve that goal of seeing you where you are and when you want, we have four physicians, we have five physician assistant and mid level providers. It’s really important for us to treat you from head to toe, so we also have an integrative and functional medicine PA who works with us. She’s amazing. She really helps us kind of round the corners on what I think is a feature of medicine that is largely missed, which is this idea that the whole body’s connected and that when you come into a urologist for one problem forgetting or ignoring the other problems is a bad idea. And oftentimes we’ll help you fix your, urologic condition in ways that you may not even know. This week we had, for example, a man who had both erectile dysfunction and a slow intermittent urine stream. Both of those issues got fixed with pelvic floor physical therapy. We’ve had men with frequent urination at night along with low testosterone get fixed by, you know, repairing their sleep apnea. All of these things kind of are connected to one another, and for you to come to us with your men’s health problems or your, urologic problems if you’re a woman and let us help you take care of them as something that is a great joy to us and a great motivation.
Donna Lee: 4:00
That’s right? And I guess it is not true when I say that erectile dysfunction can usually be fixed with a hot new girlfriend. So I assume that there’s more to it than that.
Dr. Mistry: 4:08
Especially when you won’t let your husband get his hot new girlfriend. I mean, if you say it, if you say it there’s like an implicit, you know…
Donna Lee: 4:18
That I should allow it?
Dr. Mistry: 4:18
That’s correct. That sucks for you.
Donna Lee: 4:21
Sorry, Michael.
Dr. Mistry: 4:22
Your questions are what drives and motivates this show. And so we’ll tell you how to send questions, but it means a lot to us that people would take the time and be engaged enough to send us questions. There’s a lot of topics that we’ve covered in previous episodes, but it’s okay. Ask the question. If you want to catch a previous episode, you can catch it on our podcast, wherever you’re getting your podcasts.
Donna Lee: 4:42
Our award-winning free podcasts.
Dr. Mistry: 4:44
Maybe we should charge for that, Mrs. Affordable.
Donna Lee: 4:47
Something. You charged for something around here. We do have an incredibly detailed question. You ready?
Dr. Mistry: 4:51
Yes. Go ahead.
Donna Lee: 4:52
This gentleman starts off with a compliment, so of course I had to ask his question first. “Love your radio show and sense of humor!!” With two exclamation marks. “I am 63. I had a prostate biopsy due to enlargement on one side, PSA of 2.27, no malignancy in any of the six samples, but with one sample, each showing prostatic duct calcification or chronic inflammation characterized by infiltrates of lymphocytes. PSA last week was 2.29. Does calcification inflammation tend to increase risks or mask future possible cancer growth? What is the best manner to gauge changes over the coming years with annual checkups? And does prostate exercise help improve any of these situations?”
Dr. Mistry: 5:29
That’s a great question. So first we’re going to just talk about what your PSA was and why the indication for the biopsy. So if there was an asymmetry in the prostate, meaning one lobe was bigger than the neck, then your doctor may have been concerned that difference in size was due to some underlying cancer. Now, believe it or not, it’s not just the big side that could be at risk for cancer. The small side could also be at risk. So the asymmetry could have been caused by atrophy or a shrinking of the prostate due to cancer. And I think that it was perfectly reasonable to proceed with the biopsy. Now you have these results. You’re relieved that you don’t have cancer, which is what the purpose of the biopsy was in the first place. But now you have all these words on this very complex report and not know what to do about it. Calcifications, which is a hardening of the structures of the ducts of the prostate, just like the hardening of the arteries or other areas where calcification occurs, is an inflammatory response. It doesn’t mean that a stone developed there, even though that may seem like what it means. What they mean is microscopically, when they look at these cells, there’s been changes that has increased calcium deposits along the ductal walls. We would consider the most common reason for this is inflammation. Now that inflammation can be from a prior infection. It can be from an injury. It can be from blockage. There can be many reasons that inflammation occurs. And in this case, there was another indication of inflammation, and that’s the ingress of inflammatory cells . So one of the ways that our body takes care of a foreign organism is it sends in these, you know, our army of immune cells. Each of our immune cells has a different kind of process, a procedure to get rid of a foreign body. Some use very caustic chemicals, some make antibodies , some engulf the foreign body and eat it. And so, and each of these little players has a specific role in the inflammatory cascade. But you can tell whether an inflammatory process is acute, which means, you know, just now or right away, or chronic or more long lasting based upon what cells are coming. So neutrophils that come in are usually more acute, lymphocytes are usually more chronic. And so then when, then we look at what are some common causes of chronic prostatitis? I’m sorry to say, we don’t know a lot of those, a lot of those reasons. But a previous infection of the prostate or blockage or enlargement–these are all things that can lead to a chronic inflammatory process. And I guess for this listener, the first thing is, “Do I need to worry about it? Is that something that I need to worry about?” And fortunately there should not be any increased risk of cancer development just because of this inflammatory process. If you were treated in a practice like ours, we would put you on an antiinflammatory kind of regimen, which includes some mild dietary changes. Usually the addition of foods, not necessarily the subtractions of foods. We routinely put people on a curcumin supplement. We routinely put people on a supplement with Saw Palmetto, and really it comes down to whether you’re having any pain. If you’re not having any symptoms, then that chronic prostate inflammatory process may not result in anything. And you would deal with it in our practice, for example, if the lifestyle and dietary management, but you know, Donna, the last part of this was my favorite part?
Donna Lee: 8:33
Which part?
Dr. Mistry: 8:34
The prostate exercise.
Donna Lee: 8:35
Oh, I thought that might make you peak your interest.
Dr. Mistry: 8:40
You know how a man exercises prostate don’t ya?
Donna Lee: 8:44
With his finger?
Dr. Mistry: 8:44
No! Finger? You have a son for heaven’s sake . Don’t you know what he’s doing in there? It’s ejaculating. Ejaculating helps exercise the prostate. And there have been innumerable studies that have shown that increased sexual activities and the number of ejaculates can reduce the number of the risk for the development of cancer. So when you were a teenage boy, that’s why you didn’t have prostate cancer, you working it pretty hard . And it also reduces the currents and how long prostate infections last . And so I’m a big fan of exercising the prostate.
Donna Lee: 9:21
Is that why I keep getting a text every week from my husband that says, “Please help me not have prostate cancer.”
Dr. Mistry: 9:26
I think that’s a good one.
Donna Lee: 9:27
Dammit.
Dr. Mistry: 9:28
And it makes me laugh now because sometimes for a different prostate awareness programs, they show like a little prostate with legs running. I’m like, “Oh boy, that’s not the right kind of exercise.”
Donna Lee: 9:39
I wouldn’t know what a prostate looks like. With the little set of legs, that would be even more confusing.
Dr. Mistry: 9:43
I think that we need to change it. I have an idea for our next t-shirt. And if you want a t-shirt, send us a message. Tell us you want a t-shirt.
Donna Lee: 9:50
We have all sorts of t-shirts. We used have one that said, “Make America Pee Again,” but those sold like hot cakes.
Dr. Mistry: 9:54
That’s right.
Donna Lee: 9:55
We have no more of that .
Dr. Mistry: 9:56
We don’t have anymore? Thank God. Or “Nuts For Urology.”
Donna Lee: 9:59
We have those, because I keep ordering those.That’s right.
Dr. Mistry: 10:03
How do people get a hold of us, Donna Lee?
Donna Lee: 10:03
You can get a free tee shirt by calling (512) 238-0762. Our email addresses armormenshealth@gmail.com and our website is armormenshealth.com. Please check out our podcasts . They’re amazing and informative and magical, and they’re free. Thanks Dr. Mistry.
: 10:19
The Armor Men’s Health Hour will be right back. If you have questions for Dr. Mistry, email him at armormenshealth@gmail.com.