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