Supplements Known to Benefit Prostate Health

Patients with moderate to severe urinary symptoms may be treated by medications, like tamsulosin (Flomax), alfusozin (Uroxatral), doxazosin (Cardura), or terazosin (Hytrin), which relax smooth muscle within the prostate gland and allow urine to flow more freely. Alternately, patients may be treated with finasteride (Proscar) or dutasteride (Avodart), which might shrink a very enlarged prostate (over 40 cc size) over 6-12 months of treatment.

Patients who do not have family physicians, and are concerned about prostate cancer, should note that in late September is Prostate Cancer Awareness Week . The UCI Medical Center as well as other hospitals participate in a national week of prostate cancer screening, by offering DRE exams and PSA testing. Patients were considered curable if the cancer was either confined to the prostate or had not spread outside the gland to lymph nodes and the seminal vesicles.

Treatment should be started when urination becomes a problem for the individual. This may mean frequency of urination, urinary tract infections, the inability to urinate, blood in the urine or bladder stones. Treatments such as radiotherapy or surgery are usually only considered for men with a life expectancy of at least 15 years.

For other men watchful waiting may be a better option as it will minimise the side effects at little risk to the man. Treatments range from observation to medical treatment to surgery. There are three types of surgery, two of which involve endourological techniques to decrease the size of the prostate, used when the prostate has not become too enlarged.

Supplementing the diet with DIM and eating cruciferous vegetables increases the specific aerobic metabolism for estrogen, multiplying the chance for estrogen to be broken down into its beneficial, or "good" estrogen metabolites. These "good" estrogen metabolites are known as the 2-hydroxy estrogens.