• The prostate is part of the sexual apparatus of a man so it is only sensible to look at sexual activity as a cause of prostatic problems. Clearly a man’s sexual habits must influence the workings of his prostate.

The prostate produces fluid all the time which, having built up, needs to be discharged by ejaculation. The build-up appears to take approximately three days in the average young and middle-aged man and longer in the older man.

Finding that younger men are experiencing prostate problems which in the past were confined to the elderly has led various experts in the field to suggest that prolonged sexual excitement without ejaculation is bad for the gland. This is rather akin to the pelvic congestion that occurs in women who are aroused repeatedly but don’t have an orgasm-they too suffer from all kinds of pelvic and lower-back symptoms. Also, it is proposed that when such a man does ejaculate his prostatic contractions are poor and that he has a poor-quality orgasm with incomplete emptying of the gland.

Residual fluids degenerate in the gland and cause inflammation and need more muscle power to expel them next time.

No single type of sexual activity necessarily produces prostatic damage, but both excessive masturbation or intercourse and too little could do so. The answer must be to find your own sexual rhythm and be guided by how you feel. Certainly, long periods of abstinence from sex may produce prostatic fullness, tenderness and eventually infection which can be difficult to treat. Zinc supplements and regular emptying of the prostate both help.

• Many animal experiments show that vitamin E deficiency causes all kinds of abnormalities and problems in the sexual life and reproduction of animals. It therefore makes sense to eat foods rich in the vitamin.

• Natural substances occurring in wheat germ oil have proved valuable in animal experiments. It is an old belief among the peasants of the Balkans of Eastern Europe that pumpkin seeds are of value for prostatic well-being. Analysis of these seeds shows that they are rich in all the nutrients known to be of value to prostatic health. Other valuable seeds are those of the sunflower. These seeds contain the amino-acids glycine, alanine and glutamic acid. A study in the US of forty men with benign prostate troubles found that in 32 per cent of them their prostates shrank to normal size and there was some reduction in size in 92 per cent when they were given these amino-acids. The need to get up at night was reduced or eliminated in 72 per cent and urgent urination was relieved in 81 per cent. Men who received placebo capsules had no similar improvements. This study, rather than stimulating further research, has been largely ignored. Foods that are especially rich in these amino-acids are brewers’ yeast, milk, eggs, beef, liver, lentils, nuts and corn.

• Unsaturated fatty acids have been shown to be of value in benign prostatic enlargement. In a study of nineteen men with this condition who were fed unsaturated fatty acids, all had less residual urine at the end of the treatment and twelve of them had none. For thirteen of the nineteen the dietary change meant they no longer wanted to get up at night to urinate. Cystitis cleared up. Dribbling was eliminated in eighteen of them and in nineteen the size of the prostate gland went down. Lecithin is a good source of unsaturated fatty acids.

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