Health and Fitness > Men Issues > What Is The Prostate?
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Article rating : 0.00, 0 votes. Author : Bruce Reid
The first step toward understanding how the prostate
affects your health is to learn what the prostate is
and how it functions. It is surprising how little many
men know about such an important part of their anatomy.
The prostate is an important segment of the male
reproductive system. It is a gland that is located in
the lower abdominal cavity, just below the bladder,
in front of the rectum and behind the pubic bone.
It partially surrounds the urethra. The urethra is
the channel that carries urine to the penis from the
bladder and it runs right through the prostate. A
healthy prostate is about the size of a walnut, weighs
approximately 1 ounce and is shaped similar to a donut.
There are "seminal vesicles" that are attached to the
prostate.
They produce a protein that mixes with prostatic fluid
which forms semen. How this works is that tubes from the testicles carry sperm up to the prostate where sperm is
mixed with the seminal vesicle and prostatic fluids.
This fluid is ejaculated during orgasm through
ejaculatory ducts that connect to the urethra. In
addition,the prostate helps to control the flow of
urine. Nearly every man will experience some type of
prostate problem during his lifetime. Men who are over
forty-five may experience an enlargement of the prostate.
While this is not a problem in itself, it is uncomfortable
and can be a forerunner to other more serious maladies
which we will discuss further. The prostate actually
continues to grow throughout life, but grows very slowly
after the age of twenty-five. Enlargement of the prostate
is part of the normal
aging process due to hormonal
changes and usually does not become a serious problem
until a man reaches sixty years of age.
SYMPTOMS OF PROSTATE PROBLEMS
Enlargement of the prostate is called benign prostate hypertrophy, or BPH. While this growth is usually
considered a nuisance, if a man experiences problems
with burning, or difficult urination at any time, the
prudent course of action is consulting a urologist.
Other symptoms may be:
· A feeling of having to push out urine
· A sensation that the bladder is not emptying
· Increased urinating, especially at night
· Intermittent starting and stopping of the urinary stream
After a diagnosis of BPH, many men will just continue
to live with the symptoms and subsequent discomfort.
It is not a life threatening condition, and there are treatments. In some cases surgery might be considered if
the enlargement is significant. Ignoring BPH can be
extremely dangerous and lead to other disease such as
kidney infections or damage as the urine can back up into
the kidneys because of the blockage of an enlarged prostate. There can also be an occurrence of bladder infections.
There is a huge difference between BPH and prostate
cancer. BPH is a normal part of aging. Prostate cancer
is a condition where prostate cells grow exponentially
and out of control. These cells create tumors that may
spread to any part of the body. Numerous health
organizations report that 1 in 6 men will experience
prostate cancer. However, if the condition is diagnosed
early, approximately 99.3% of them will survive.
The key is early detection.
Bruce Reid is an independent 4Life Distributor.
Selling the worlds most advanced dietary supplements.
http://www.wholebody-dietary-supplements.com
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