TESTED AN ALTERNATIVE
How Chocolate Effectively Helped My Prostate Problem
I couldn’t take Flomax & wasn’t bad enough for surgery. So, to better sleep at night, I ran an experiment on myself with an alternative.
Synopsis
As many as 90% of men in their 70s and 80s have enlarged prostates. At age 75, I am in that group.
I couldn’t take Flomax — dizziness and lack of energy. The doctor recommended putting off surgery. Unregulated remedies on the internet made me nervous.
However, one of the internet videos showed a table full of their “natural” ingredients for 2 seconds. The 72% chocolate was on it. So, I decided to test that chocolate on myself and my urologist saw no harm in trying.
It worked about the same as the Flomax was supposed to!
Everything here is based on my experience and may not work for anyone else. I’ll describe:
- Symptoms & Tests — how I got to that point - My results — what actually worked - Call for clinical trial
How I Got There
(Symptoms, Tests & Prescription drug failure)
— → Description & Symptoms
Prostate problems sneak up gradually. You go to the bathroom more frequently, flow is less powerful, or it may be hard to start. If it stops completely, you need emergency surgery and maybe a catheter for the rest of your life.
I was making 5 overnight bathroom trips, even when I drank less, like 1 glass of tea instead of 4 glasses of tea and wine. Three hours of dinner and dancing were the same, 4 or 5 trips to the bathroom before going home.
Usually, the doctor prescribes a drug like Flomax to relieve some of the symptoms for a while and slow the progression. Unfortunately, I couldn’t take it — dizziness and lack of energy.
The urethra is the tube that allows urine to pass out of the body. In men, it’s a long tube that runs through the penis. The enlarged prostate squeezes the tube and may eventually stop the flow.
— → Labs & exams
The doctor prescribed all kinds of tests to make sure I was not in a critical state after his initial exam.
The first one was a bladder flow & retention CT Scan. I drank 16oz of water, well tea, one hour before, and they scanned the full bladder. Then, I emptied my bladder and they scanned it again.
They wanted to see if the bladder emptied completely.
I’ve seen guys in the bar run to the restroom 4 or 5 times per night, or even more. If they drink six 16oz beers, they just did the prep for 6 CT Scans. No wonder they go so many times! You can see how a prostate problem restricting urine flow would make it even worse.
The second was a visual examination of the bladder. They put a tube with some kind of camera up through the penis to look around. They didn’t see anything unusual, like tumors or lesions, so the outcome was the best possible.
It didn’t hurt, but it sure was weird.
— → Surgery
The doctor gave me a UroLift surgery brochure on my first visit. Basically, it is a mechanical device inserted into the urethra that holds it open. However, after the tests, he determined that it was not yet needed.
Test on Myself & Results
Since it wasn’t serious enough yet for surgery, I looked for something else. There are all kinds of products and claims on the internet, without the supporting clinical trials. One video claimed all-natural ingredients and, for 2 seconds, showed them on a table.
I spotted the chocolate in the lead picture and decided to try it. I had nothing to lose. I mentioned it to my urologist. He had no experience with it, but no objections, either. I’ll send him a copy of this article.
Test Design
With no guidance, I did the easiest thing and decided to go about two weeks (2 bars — 16 squares).
1 square per day of the 72% with breakfast
Nothing happened for the first 10 days — still 5 overnight bathroom trips.
Suddenly, I went from 5 to 2 trips over the next 10 days. Occasionally, I would make 3 trips. A couple of times, 1 trip.
The improvement continued over the next 2 months.
I had only two relapses, once when I forgot to eat the chocolate in the morning, and the second when we were up most of the night with tornado warnings.
This is not a scientific study for a college paper, so I do not intend to retest skipping a morning’s chocolate.
One square of this chocolate contains much more pure chocolate than candy bars, which are mostly sugar. I don’t think a dozen candy bars per day would be a good idea, even if they turned out to work the same, which they may not due to other reasons. I do not plan to test it.
I did try the 86% chocolate for one bar, 8 mornings, thinking that if 72% was good, more would be better. The price was the same. I went up to 3 trips per night. It may be coincidental, but I plan to revert back to the 72% bar.
I had to change my diet slightly for the additional calories, one tablespoon less of dry oatmeal for breakfast. My article at the bottom about how I lost weight and kept it off explains why.
Call for Clinical Trial
The chocolate therapy replaces a known drug approved by the FDA. For it to become a standard treatment recommended by doctors, it would need to go through standard clinical trials. I’m not even sure the FDA gets involved with organic methods.
Normal drugs developed by pharmaceutical companies, like the COVID vaccines, go through structured clinical trials dictated by the FDA before they are approved.
COVID vaccines would have been available months earlier if they could have skipped those clinical trials.
Those who think they were rushed are either ignorant or fools.
Typically, such trials are sponsored by drug companies who expect to make money if successful. There is no money to be made here, so perhaps such a trial could be run by a university as part of their curriculum.
In any event, the trial(s) need to answer a number of questions:
- Dosage. I used a 1 oz. square from the package. Would 2 squares per day work better?
- Percent chocolate. I tried a stronger chocolate, but may not have stayed with it long enough. Perhaps parallel tests with different percentages would be informative.
- Brand. I used the brand pictured in the video because I was already familiar with it. Does the brand make a difference?
- Duration. How long do the benefits last? For me, it has worked for over 2 months. Will it continue for 2 years, 5 years, or will it slowly decline?
- Side effects. Not the chocolate itself, but its impact on the prostate and urethra. Maybe even other parts of the body. Does it change the prostate?
- Target population. At what point in the enlargement progression will it not be effective to even start with the chocolate?
- Current drugs. Probably a follow-up study if the chocolate therapy proves to work for men not already on any such medicines. Questions would be: Can it replace the drug, work with the drug, and not be started as a therapy if already using a drug.
There are probably many other questions that trained medical people would look for.
Since enlarged prostates impact such a large percentage of older men, and that population is growing, such a study is well worth doing.
Conclusion
Now, I make 2 or 3 trips at night instead of 5, 0 or 1 when out for dinner & dancing instead of 4, and never have flow problems.
I don’t know how long it will work, but I plan to follow my chocolate regime until something changes.
Disclaimer: This article is the author’s opinion based on one subject and does not constitute medical advice. Each patient is different and symptoms could indicate cancer, or other problems, besides an enlarged prostate. A man should consult his urologist about his own case before doing anything else.
2 years later
October 2023 - The chocolate is still working perfectly.
