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Ooooooooo my chalfonts are twinging at the thought!!
theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20040513/HBOTOX13/TPScience/
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Botox has promise as prostate treatment
By ANDRÉ PICARD
PUBLIC HEALTH REPORTER
Thursday, May 13, 2004 - Page A19
It will give you more than just a pretty face: Research shows that Botox injections may relieve symptoms of one of the most common medical conditions suffered by older men, enlarged prostate.
A new study, presented Tuesday at the American Urological Association conference in San Francisco, showed that injections of botulism toxin A -- most commonly used to make wrinkles disappear -- can shrink the size of the prostate and relieve urinary problems, without serious side effects.
"For most men, enlarged prostate is considered to be an uncomfortable inevitability of aging," said Michael Chancellor, a professor of urology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
He said that many existing treatments have devastating and embarrassing side effects, such as impotence and incontinence.
Dr. Chancellor said it is unclear why exactly Botox works, but it is likely because it relaxes tight muscles around the prostate and urinary tract.
The prostate gland, which is found only in men, sits just below the bladder, close to the rectum. The walnut-shaped gland produces semen. It also produces a protein called prostate-specific antigen. Higher-than-normal PSA levels can be a clue that cancer is developing in the sex gland.
Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), a condition commonly referred to as enlarged prostate, is one of the most common diseases affecting older men. When the prostate enlarges, it presses against the urethra -- the tube that carries urine from the bladder and out of the penis. An enlarged prostate can act like a clamp on a garden hose, irritating the bladder and making it difficult urinate.
By age 60, almost half of all men suffer from BPH, and by age 80, it is up to 90 per cent. BPH is a benign condition and not to be confused with prostate cancer.
However, many men with BPH suffer discomfort and some serious medical problems. As many as half of men with an enlarged prostate will develop symptoms such as more frequent urination, urinary tract infections, the inability to completely empty the bladder, and, in extreme cases, the eventual damaging of the bladder and kidneys.
There are a number of drugs available for the treatment of BPH. Because the condition is often triggered by a urinary-tract infection, the first line of defence is antibiotics to clear up the infection.
Finasteride and dutasteride work by inhibiting the production of DHT, or dihydrotestosterone, a hormone involved in prostate enlargement. Other drugs work by relaxing the muscles of the prostate and the bladder: terazosin, doxazosin, tamsulosin and alfuzosin. The four are alpha blockers, meaning they can affect blood pressure and have other side effects, such as impotence.
Botox is being touted as a better treatment because it works locally, and has no serious side effects.
But some researchers question its safety. Writing in the medical journal Urology, Alexis Te of the Weill Cornell Medical College in New York said that physicians should not lose sight of the fact that Botox is closely related to botulism, a form of food poisoning caused by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum.
Dr. Te said it may not be wise to expose older men to a neurotoxin, particularly because many of them may have compromised immune systems. And he cautioned that urinary problems are not caused exclusively by an enlarged prostate, so treatment should not be focused exclusively on the gland.
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