Male Prostate

purpose. Located just below the bladder, the prostate encircles the urethra, the tube that passes urine from the bladder to outside the body. The prostate produces semen and secretes it into the urethra, providing the liquid medium that sperm cells need for nourishment as well as to exit the body.

Prostate enlargement problems occur when the cells in the inner core of the gland, surrounding the urethra, grow to form fibrous nodules, eventually squeezing in on the urethra and blocking the flow of urine. The cells appar­ently grow in response to hormones, especially testosterone, and the growth seen in older men may be related to alterations in hormone balance associ­ated with aging, experts say.

Nutritional intervention for BPH includes a healthy low-fat, high-fiber diet, weight loss if necessary, vitaminmineral supplements, and, in some cases, essential fatty acids such as flax seed oil. Some doctors also consider the herb saw palmetto an essential part of treatment.

Male Pelvis

urine. Your urine stream may be weak or intermittent. You find yourself getting up at night to urinate, or you feel like your bladder is still partly full after you’ve gone. These are all signs of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), an enlargement of the prostate gland.

Statistics suggest that BPH is hard to avoid. More than half of all men over age 50 have significant prostate enlargement, and the rest have at least some. Simply getting older seems to be the main risk factor.

Male Reproductive Tract

The vast majority of men have some degree of prostate involvement as they age; it’s a consequence of aging that’s almost unique to the human species. Enlargement does not inevitably lead to drugs or surgery, however.

The best way to attack the problem early is by getting routine prostate exams every year after age 55. And some doctors contend that it’s possible to slow enlargement enough to avoid surgery and drugs, especially if you take the right steps at the first signs of problems. The steps they recom­mend include dietary changes, herbs, and nutritional therapy.

Hair Skin

overall masculinity associated with a full head of flowing hair is understandably something that many men would do anything to hold on to . . . and the inse­curity associated with losing your hair is the reason so many hair loss prod­ucts have been so successful.

But in reality, we’re all losing our hair—all the time. On average, you lose 50 to 150 hairs a day. The difference between Fabio and your bald Uncle Frank is that people with full heads of hair are constantly regrowing new ones to fill in the empty spaces. With hereditary baldness, known medically as androgenetic alopecia, though, about one-third of men will someday notice that new hair is not growing back, sometimes as early as their teens. And they have nobody to blame but their family—specifically their mother’s side of the family.

When it comes down to it, baldness is just something most men have to learn to live with. A couple of drugs, Rogaine (minoxidil) and Propecia (fin­asteride), can help some men regrow hair or prevent the loss of what they have. But the results are mixed, and the effects of the drugs stop as soon as people stop taking them.

And unfortunately for men, the fountain of youth cannot be found through nutrition. (Sorry, guys. Except in cases of extreme malnutrition, no amount of vitamins or minerals will regrow hair.) But for some women who have experienced hair loss related to physical trauma, crash dieting, or heavy menstrual flow, certain nutrients can help.