overall health and so today we're talking about the prostate now
in order to kind of get caught up on where we are in this discussion
check out my previous video that talked about in fantastic supplement that not only helps
with shrinking the prostate and reducing the prostate size but also preventing hair loss so
today what we're going to get into is the number one nutrient that we find if you happen to be
deficient in it can fuel prostate enlargement so that's bph or benign prostatic hypertrophy
and eventually even we'll talk a little bit about prostate cancer now the one thing that i want to
let you know in advance is that i'm going to show you a very simple easy way for you to tell if you
are deficient in this nutrient right you don't even have to run out to the drugstore to the lab
you don't have to call your doctor you can test this at home to see if particularly you
might be deficient in this and if it's something that you need to work on all right so let's just
get into it now i think the big thing to keep in mind is well you know i always get the question
what does the prostate do right and how big is the prostate usually so when we're thinking about what
does the prostate do prostate is really kind of an accessory sexual organ it secretes prostatic fluid
so it is responsible for propelling um semen and and fluid from the seminal vesicles into
the chamber so into the urethra so that it can actually be expelled so it contributes to about
15 to 30 percent of the explosion that you have at the end of a sexual experience now so it it
the the power of it becomes an important part of life right so i put together this little
model here and what i did is i wanted to show you that at the top of this if you can
imagine this is where your bladder sits this little bally that i created is your prostate
and this tube is your urethra urethra is where the urine comes out of so if you think about it like
this instead of those two-dimensional pictures that we keep showing you if you think about it
like this then it starts to make sense how if this thing starts to get larger it is going to cause
your urethra or the tube that your urine and the ejaculate come out of it is going to cause it to
clamp down right so that's a basic as to what the prostate does so besides talking about what
it does i want to talk to you about what bph is and how usually what the size of the prostate
usually is and all that great stuff so the normal gland size is about 15 to 20 grams so if your
your doctor tells you it's slightly enlarged or it's gotten enlarged it's usually going to be
a little larger than that and that typically happens as time goes by so what age does the
prostate start to get bigger i get this question all the time well in the 40s is kind of when we
start to notice that you're going to have a little bit of enlargement and this enlargement can grow
and can potentially block the urethra right so block this tube that the urine and the ejaculate
is supposed to come out of that's typically why we see the symptoms those same symptoms that we
talk about when i ask okay are you going a lot at night are you having any trouble starting the year
the flow are you having any trouble pushing it out are you getting up more than once
a night to urinate and so many of you will say well yeah but i drink a lot of water
but typically our urine pattern should not be interfering with sleep because if you know me
you know that i say the sleep is one of the most important things that we can do particularly if we
need to boost testosterone and just to be healthy and to overall just make things run smoother
so the interesting thing about the prostate is is that as it starts to get larger there's
two different phases of enlargement so the first phase of enlargement is increasing in
the number of cells so the cells are kind of dividing multiplying right phase two is more
of an increase in the size of those swells those cells right so we got an increase in volume of
the cells and then those fell the cells increase in volume even more because now they're beginning
they're getting fuller they're swelling up right so when you think about it like that and you think
about the two phases what we see is that when you're in your 50s that whole process seems to
start to really take off so in the 40s is kind of where it starts but in the 50s is where you start
to notice a difference i've even had some patients come to me and just say doc this all just seemed
like it happened overnight it almost happens like that so with those two different phases
of enlargement the the one once you start to develop nodules or the cells start to get bigger
those cells really start to swell up so i think it's important that you understand not only how
that happens why that happens but also how that can actually be prevented and what can we do in
the meantime so if you notice last week we talked about dht and most importantly we talked about
saw palmetto so if you haven't seen that video i really want you to spend some time going back and
looking at it because here's the thing you may not have prostate issues now but what i want to
do is equip you with the tools necessary so that maybe you don't ever have prostate issues or if
you have them now you can go back to the doctor in six months to a year and look up and the doctor's
like wow your prostate is really shrinking it's really improving in size so that's why we're
going to be going through small dialogues that pertain to bph the prostate and even prostate
cancer because by the time you're 70 or 80 more than 80 to 90 percent of men in western developed
countries like the united states typically have some enlarged prostate and this topic is very
near and dear to me and if you follow me you know why so here's the thing about the prostate
let's talk about how this even happens and how it starts to get big because everyone's saying well
doc you're telling me it's going to get big well why okay so why does the prostate start to get
larger well for two reasons one as those cells start to multiply right it's like anything else
we want the cells that multiply to die off and just keep going right so if cells keep growing
but they don't die off a process called apoptosis then we start to have problems these are this is a
problem we would have with any organ any organ that can the cells regenerate and keep growing
and create growing if they do not die off then all of a sudden you look up and you're like damn
why do i have so many cells around here right so that's one reason and the other reason is cellular
hyperplasia which basically means those cells are actually getting bigger and they're swelling
i like the word swelling when we're talking about hyperplasia right so let's talk about why
why as time goes by we have reduced cell death now this is a picture of cell death these cells
are sitting there now you're noticing they're turning gray and they're dying off well that's a
good thing because cells that replicate and divide and grow but they don't get any that they but they
don't die off those become a problem so what fuels prostate enlargement well we talked about dht
right remember our conversation around thd the the the whole thing about dht is that
our process of dht is basically testosterone gets converted over to dht dht then creates a situation
in the prostate where it's fueling inflammation it's fueling prostate cells to grow and expand
and when we have a deficiency in the mineral that we're about to talk about
next that actually fuels the process of making it so that these cells as they
grow and expand we need them to die right because we need to make keep making more
we need those ones to die off they stop dying and just stay in this one space and keep enlarging
and enlarging the situation and causing issues so the first way that this happens is actually
dht right so the other way that this that this happens is something called
and you you'll know it because you loaded up on it during this pandemic right what was the
one thing that everybody uh was loading up on during the pandemic we all loaded up on zinc
but unfortunately so many of us have a zinc deficiency that it's actually fueling prostate
enlargement and some gentlemen so we'll talk about that in a second but another way thing that's
going to fuel prostate enlargement is metabolic syndrome so those of you who are pre-diabetic
or even diabetic the the things that are happening in your body insulin resistance fuels the
development and the enlargement of the cells right and then of course inflammation we talk about it
all the time that's why i talk about antioxidants and what we can do to get inflammation down that's
why push smoothie recipes and different natural substances that are going to decrease inflammation
decrease insulin resistance and help us with this process of inflammation because all of this
fuels prostate enlargement so when we're talking about the importance of this the
the mineral that we're talking about zinc i want you to look at this more than 16 studies
have reported that zinc is markedly decreased in prostate cancer compared to normal and benign
prostate tissue and no study reported prostate cancer without a decrease in zinc levels so far
now this is from a study that i have dropped the link in below and i put this in here because now
that we've talking a little bit about benign prostatic hypertrophy or bph we have to start
the dialogue a little bit about prostate cancer because bph puts you at an increased risk for
prostate cancer and the interesting thing about it is that when they study people who have
bph people who have prostate cancer one thing that is notably similar is the fact that they
have a zinc deficiency so you may be saying well doctor i don't because i've been taking zinc
all two years two years in a row but you would be surprised because depending on what type of zinc
that you've been taking depending on what form it is whether or not your body was able to
absorb that ink that zinc whether or not you were on acid blockers whether there's so many
factors that go into whether or not the zinc was actually absorbed and used by your body correctly
that depends on whether or not you're depleted so i'm going to actually show you a really quick
and easy way that you can test to see whether or not you are zinc depleted or not you don't
have to ask your doctor doc can you run this test or anything like that i've got a quick
way for you to do it and i'll and i'll show you that in a minute but zinc ultimately becomes a
really important thing because without zinc that whole process that i talked about about cell death
you remember those cells are expanding and they're multiplying and they're dividing
we need them to die so that we can make more but if they don't die they stay in one place and keep
replicating and that is why zinc is so important zinc helps the process of apoptosis or
cell death and without that we cannot you know have a prostate in a healthy space
another thing that zinc does is it also also helps citric acid accumulate in the prostate cells which
is really a really important part of mitochondrial process we talk about mitochondria sometimes
that's the powerhouse of the cell so ultimately that's why zinc is so darn important to the
prostate so if we take this conversation one step further you have to ask yourself you know do i get
enough zinc on a daily basis and not only that but is my body absorbing zinc now if you happen
to have an enlarged prostate already you know the the the it happens right if you've lived past the
age of 35 and you are having any type of erectile issues or if you've ever had some issues where you
notice a little pain when you're ejaculating maybe you're having a weak stream or a delayed
stream or having trouble pushing out the rest or just some new issues that have popped up it could
potentially be prostate issues so of course you want to get to your doctor and get a prostate exam
not just a psa blood draw but you also want to think about natural ways to combat this in austria
in germany they lean on nutraceuticals or plant substances before they go to the pharmaceutical
industry we are completely opposite here we don't do that so what i do want to do is encourage you
to have the tools necessary to take to your doctor and be like doc look i read this i
printed this study out for you let's look at some other ways that we can do this because oftentimes
those medications create bigger issues than than just a little prostate enlargement okay so on top
of that i want to remind you that if you get my ultimate stiffness bundle while supplies last you
get a free prostate massager because within the bundle is the ultimate guide to prostate massage
it also gives you the branded resources that i use with my own patients to help them shrink
their prostate right so keep in mind there are other ways to combat this than just the medication
that your doctor puts you on or you can ask the doctor hey can we add this in with the medication
that you've given me okay now this slide here just really demonstrates the importance of zinc and how
important it is to this process of apoptosis and making the the prostate a healthy state so now i
want to make sure that we get to this part where i show you how to decide if you happen to have a
zinc deficiency even though you've been taking it you know because all zinc isn't created equally
you're not absorbing it the way that it could be some of your medication could be interfering with
the zinc so just because you're popping one every day does not mean that you have enough on board
so here's what i want you to do just go to the pharmacy and get get some zinc i this one is zinc
drink from metagenics right um you don't have to go metagenics bland brand you can get any zinc and
what you're going to do is you're going to take about two tablespoons and put it in a little cup
and you're going to take it and you're just gonna swish it around in your mouth you're going to
throw it back like a shot swish it around in your mouth and i want you to to note now you
have an optimal zinc level if immediately as soon as you put it in your mouth you're like oh
this is terrible you spit it out right you're like oh my god i need something else right you have an
adequate zinc level if you know you notice it's a strong unpleasant taste but you don't really
notice it after you either spit it out or swallow it right you are zinc deficient if you put that
zinc on your tongue and it takes about 10 to 15 minutes 10 to 15 seconds i'm sorry before you
even notice that it tastes bad because it does right and then you are markedly zinc deficient
like super zinc deficient if you just don't notice anything you're like gee this tastes like water
that is a sign that you're zinc deficient and that's a sign that zinc supplementation may be
something that you want to do all right so i'm dr rachel and we do this every thursday we did it a
little later today kind of it's kind of nice to see where you guys stand on it do you like
it a little later like this but every week we go live and our discussion is about how to help men
optimize health so subscribe to the channel share this video with anyone that you think might find
it useful and of course go back to next week let next last week's video which actually really
spends some time talking about dht and how that impacts the prostate so hey i'll see you next week
and next week we will continue the conversation on that next supplement on my list for
the top supplements for prostate function all right and also next week when i go i've got a
special guest for you i've got a gentleman who's had a journey on this process his name is ken
we're going to bring ken on to kind of talk a little bit about his journey with erectile
function issues and some of the mistakes he made he really wants to share it because it
was been quite a journey he almost gave up several times and thought nothing was going to help but we
worked together and got things straightened out so it's always a pleasure and i'll see you next week