Prostate Health: Lifestyle
Your prostate health is a very delicate matter that you need to pay special attention to. If your condition does not bother you and your symptoms are mild or insignificant, you can simply use home remedies to deal with them. It’s still important to visit your doctor regularly, as that way you will make sure the illness doesn’t progress.
There are certain things you can do to keep the symptoms under control and prevent the condition from progressing. Here is some advice that may help you:
• Double voiding. Urinate as much as you can, relax for some time and try urinating again to make sure the bladder is completely empty.
• Don’t wait long. Try to go to the bathroom when you feel like it. Don’t accumulate the urine as the walls of your bladder can stretch and it may be unable to contract as it should.
• Relax and think. Try not to worry about the symptoms as it puts additional stress on your system. While you are waiting for the urine flow to start, you can think about abstract things or even read something. You can also imagine a faucet with running water: such images help to many people.
• Give it time. Don’t be in a hurry and take as much time as you need to empty the bladder. If you feel prostate pain, try not to strain.
• Urinate right. The best way to urinate is while being seated on a toilet seat.
• Control fluid intake. Although it seems a logical thing to do, don’t try to limit the fluid intake: this will not solve the problem and may even cause dehydration. Drink plenty of fluids during the day.
• Empty your bladder. It’s totally different if you have to get up at night to go to the bathroom. In that case you need to limit the fluids you drink in the evening and go to the bathroom before going to bed.
• Avoid certain drinks. Alcohol and caffeine can make you urinate more often than usual and also cause dehydration.
• Limit diuretics. Talk to your doctor if you are currently taking diuretics but don’t just stop taking them. Your doctor can advise you to lower the dose or change the schedule of taking them.
• Limit decongestants and antihistamines. Both these kinds of drugs are likely to cause an intensive contraction of the muscles surrounding the bladder, obstructing the urine flow.
• Stay active. Sedentary lifestyle and lack of exercise can lead to urine retention. It doesn’t have to be something serious and strenuous – a brisk walk or half an hour a day of another activity will work wonders. It is also thought that regular prostate stimulation may help.
• Dress appropriately. Wear warm clothes when the temperature is low to avoid urine retention.
• Prostate vitamins. Your prostate needs vitamins to function properly.
Another thing you can try to improve your prostate health with is herbal therapy. Saw palmetto and beta-sitosterol are both good options, but make sure you discuss this decision with your doctor to see if there are any contraindications in your case. In case you experience any of the following symptoms, you should discontinue the use of any home remedies you were using and contact your doctor:
• You cannot urinate at all.
• You feel pain when urinating; have body aches, chills and a fever.
• There are traces of pus or blood in the urine or semen.
• You feel pain in the lower back and you know it is not caused by exercising or an injury.
• The symptoms you had before (for example, prostate pain) are deteriorating.
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