• Frequent or sudden need to urinate
• Frequent waking up to urinate at night
• Weak, variable, or dribbling urine stream
• Need to strain or push bladder to urinate
• Difficulty beginning urination
• Feeling that your bladder never completely empties
• Pain or burning during urination

Enlarged Prostate (BPH): A Common Part of Aging

It is common for the prostate gland to become enlarged as a man ages. Doctors call the condition Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH), or Benign Prostatic Hypertrophy.

As a man matures, the prostate goes through two main periods of growth. The first occurs early in puberty, when the prostate doubles in size. At around age 25, the gland begins to grow again. This second growth phase often results, years later, in BPH.

Though the prostate continues to grow during most of a man's life, the enlargement doesn't usually cause problems until late in life. BPH rarely causes symptoms before the age of 40, but more than half of men in their sixties and as many as 90 percent in their seventies and eighties have some symptoms of BPH.

As the prostate enlarges, the layer of tissue surrounding it stops it from expanding, causing the gland to press against the urethra like a clamp on a garden hose.

The bladder wall becomes thicker and irritable. The bladder begins to contract even when it contains small amounts of urine, causing more frequent urination.

Eventually, the bladder weakens and loses the ability to empty itself. Urine remains in the bladder. The narrowing of the urethra and partial emptying of the bladder cause many of the problems associated with BPH.

Many people feel uncomfortable talking about the prostate, since the gland plays a role in both sex and urination. Still, prostate enlargement is as common a part of aging as gray hair.

As life expectancy rises, so does the occurrence of BPH. In the United States alone, 375,000 hospital stays each year involve a diagnosis of BPH.

(More Information on BPH.)

Regular use of Prostate Dr. will help to:

• Assist in male health maintenance and promote bladder health
• Prevent the occurrence of BPH
• Promote strong and healthy urine flow
• Prevent weak and dribbling urine stream
• Reduce pain and burning during urination
• Reduce swollen prostate glands
• Strengthen the immune system

What About Other Products?

Many natural remedies for BPH contain only Sabal Serrulata (Saw Palmetto). While Sabal Serrulata is an excellent tonic for prostate health and can relieve many of the symptoms associated with BPH, it does not reduce the swelling of the prostate.

There are also remedies that use just Beta-Sitosterol. This is one of the active ingredients in Saw Palmetto berries and is extracted from the herb in order to treat the symptoms of BPH.

While it is true that Beta-Sitosterol is one of the main active ingredients of saw palmetto and one that has a significant effect on reducing inflammation of the prostate gland, it is not the only active ingredient in saw palmetto.

Most naturopaths advise against the extraction of only one active ingredient of an herb - stating that it is the combination of many different active ingredients in individual herbs which makes the most effective remedy and also reduces the risk of side effects.

For this reason, Prostate Dr. has been created with the addition of two remedies to increase the effectiveness of the Sabal Serrulata (Saw Palmetto) - Epilobium Parviflorum and Hypoxis Rooperi.

Clinical studies have revealed that Epilobium Parviflorum has an inflammation-inhibiting and healing effect on acute and chronic inflammation of the prostate and can help to reduce the gland to its normal size.

In addition it has antibacterial properties (Prostatitis may be caused by a bacterial infection) and is useful in the treatment of urinary system disorders.

Hypoxis Rooperi is effectively used to strengthen the immune system, treat testicular tumors, prostate hypertrophy and urinary infections.