When Nature Calls At Night: Prostate Enlargement and You

Just when you thought you could get a good night's rest, all of a sudden you get urges, so you get up and go to the bathroom. A few hours later in the middle of the night, you get urges again. Just before sunrise, you go again! Could it be a small bladder? You go to the doctor and after a few tests, he tells you it's benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), which is the medical term for non-cancerous prostate enlargement due to age.

One of the symptoms commonly associated with this common condition in older men is frequent urination, especially at night. This is also referred to as nocturia. When your body forces you to get up and go to the bathroom, you could be losing on a good night's rest. Less sleep means less productivity and exhaustion throughout the day, leaving you vulnerable to irritability, stress and weakened immunity.

During this time of the global pandemic, your immunity is very important to keeping you safe, so one of the basic recommendations has been to get a good night's rest. This is not a prevention or cure for covid-19, but rather one way to maintain your immune system by letting your body rest as much as it needs to so that your body is better able to fight off symptoms, infections and so on (this goes for the cold, flu, and any other infections or a bacterial or viral nature that may enter your body).

This is where BPH could get in the way. If you are experiencing nightly trips to the restroom which don't let you sleep well throughout the night, your body may be the very thing that's partly keeping you from maintaining your immune system defenses at optimum levels. Other factors that may contribute to immunity are nutrition, mental health, and the management of other pre-existing conditions.

One solution may be to have a bed pan or medical grade urine bottle near your bed so that if you're feeling urges, you can relieve yourself in the same room without having to get up and move. This means you could fall back to sleep faster. Another solution is to speak with a naturopathic physician about a compatible and clinically proven herbal therapy to support your urinary symptoms of BPH, especially when it's in the mild stages.

All parts of the body can affect each other in a complex, interconnected relationship. To strike a balance, it is necessary to be mindful of your health and be proactive to maintain it. Although we may hear the old stereotype that men care more about their cars than their own health, we hope that shedding light on BPH can get the community to support men and for men to support themselves a little more, too!