Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH)

Male: Sometimes men get up on the middle of the night and the they are peeing a lot. And they come to neurologist and you do an examination, and they take they think the prostate is enlarge. What is that all about? Doctor: Every men over the age of 30 start getting an enlarge prostate. It depends on the age. Male: Doctor: If not, its normal. And we are not going to escape developing an enlarge prostate. As we get older, it is part of aging. We loose the hair, we get a little bit fatter, and we get a large prostate and we would be slower. Men hate to hear the word that it is a process of aging. However, this is what happens, as we get older, the prostate gets larger, as the prostate gets larger, you figure the prostate is like a donut, and it’s around the urethra which is the tube that goes between the bladder and the outside of the penis. Male: If it get enlarge, it interferes with flowing and … Doctor: If it gets enlarge and chokes the urethra. It’s like having a donut and the hole gets smaller at everytime. So the prostate can be very large. The meat of the donut, the dough could be very much enlarge without choking the hole. But most of the time, when the dough gets bigger, its start choking the hole. And as it chokes the hole, it gives you something, which is called the bladder outlet obstruction. Cause the roof the prostate is the floor of the bladder. Male: So in other words, it is interfering with the flow when it gets to certain sizes. Is that correct? Doctor: It interferes with the flow. So it gives you… Male: You give all the pressure, give a lot of pressure to let a little flow pass you. Doctor: Right, it gives you two types of symptoms. One is going to be the irritative symptoms. That is going to be urinating a lot. Frequency, you get urgency, you getting up in the middle of the night, which you did not get up before. However, getting up in the middle of the night is not only due to the prostate. It also has to do with the aging process. And one of the things that we try to tell our patients is, if you don’t want to get up in the middle of the night, the first thing you try to do is don’t drink any fluids for four hours before you go to bed. That is usually… Doctor: That’s usually is going to cut down on the nucturia which in other words, means getting up at night. Male: Is there any food, any diets you should avoid? Doctor: Anything that has this foods. Anyone of the foods that has tremendous amount of water will usually give you more fluid and it will give you much more urine volume and you going to have to get up at night. But however, if you don’t eat or drink for four hours before you go to bed, you sure you usually cut down about 50% of the getting up at night.