Monthly Archives: December 2008

Peyronies treatment and the penis stretcher

Posted on by Dr.Herazy

Peyronies treatment and the penis stretcher

last longer for men

This blog report is about the hot Peyronie’s disease treatment topic of penis stretchers, or extender, and the long awaited announcement of our new, one-hour PDI Manual Penis Stretching Method© CD video.

All of this work and the discovery of yet another way to use Alternative Medicine to treat Peyronie’s disease started because I receive so many questions about the penis elongating devices, and the sad fact that I hear so many bad stories about them. I got tired of telling people why these mechanical penis stretching devices cannot work, describing the common potential dangers they create, their mechanical limitations of use, and the many horror stories I hear from men whose PD started after using a penis stretcher. So, I started with a goal to learn if I could safely and effectively stretch the Peyronies penis, and I did.

A few months ago I wrote in the PD Institute Newsletters that I would soon offer a process that would revolutionize the concept of penis stretching as an improved form of Peyronies treatment. Now, the brand new PDI Manual Penis Stretching Method© CD is now complete and ready for your review on the PDI website at Manual Penis Stretching Method©

There are several very good reasons I looked into, and then developed, this entirely new concept in Peyronie’s disease treatment. Most of these reasons are well known to a large percent of men who have PD and have tried and failed with the commonly advertised mechanical penis stretcher devices, and should be well known to the rest of you for your personal benefit and safety.

From my experience, those over-priced penis stretcher devices you see advertised so heavily as a Peyronies treatment are not effective, and are potentially dangerous to all men with PD.

One aspect of the problem is the inability to wear the stretcher. Makers of these manual devices do not mention on their websites that you should not wear the device for more than two hours at a time – yet they want you to wear it for eight to nine hours a day to achieve results. If you could actually wear the stretcher for the full two hours, this would mean that you would put it on and take it off four or five times a day, with perhaps an hour or two rest period between each wearing cycle. Most of your day would be spent tending to the stretcher, and you would have to do this for perhaps a year or more!

However, after talking to many hundreds of men over the years I know that most men cannot wear one for longer than 10-15 minutes at a time because of the pain and injury they cause. The pain is not so much caused by actual stretching of the penis, but by the pinching and compression to the head of the penis (glans) that is needed to forcefully hold the penis while it is stretched. Now, I don’t know about you, but my penis does not have a handle on it, so there is no good or easy way for a mechanical stretcher to grab the penis in order to stretch it. Thus, it is necessary to apply a strong and constant pressure directly around and below the glans while the traction force is applied.

I have met a few men who could wear a manual stretcher for up to an hour at a time, but not much more than that. If you are one of the men tough enough to wear one for up to an hour, this would mean most of your waking hours would be spent waiting in pain to either put the stretcher on or take it off. I have met men who had so much pain, tissue erosion and broken blood vessels that they never tried to wear it more than once. I have met men whose PD started after a single use of a manual penis stretcher.

The danger of bruising, blisters and tissue erosion are so common that the instructions that come with the stretcher devices discuss what you should do when – not if – these problems occur. If this level of injury happens to the outside of the penis, it can do similar injury to the delicate tunica albuginea where the real injury of Peyronie’s disease occurs. This is how men get into trouble.

There are other practical problems with the stretchers. These involve common issues of daily living like wearing clothes, sitting down, working or urinating that make using a stretcher rather difficult or impossible. I guess these would not be a problem to men who do not wear clothes, do not sit down, do not work, and urinate wherever and whenever they wish. For the rest of us, the mechanical stretchers pose a real problem in the real world.

There are other considerations about the stretcher devices. Have you ever wondered why most of the penis stretcher companies that advertise so heavily are located outside the U.S.? It could be that it is better for them to be located outside the bounds of U.S. law when it comes to customer complaints, product returns and refunds.

Over the years I have been approached by many major manufacturers of these stretching devices, asking me to sell their products on the PDI website. When I ask a few specific questions of these people, something interesting always happens. I find that the person I am speaking to suddenly is not the correct person to answer my kind of question, and I am told that someone else will get back to me with an answer. When I do not get called back by the second person, for fun and curiosity, I call back to speak to the second person. The second person is never available, or is never in the office, and never calls me back. Never, in all the times and all the situations this has happened over the years, has anyone ever answered one of my questions. Remember, these are the people who want me to sell their product, yet this is the kind of help and service I receive. Can you imagine the help and service you would receive if you called with a problem after you spent your money?

Did you ever wonder, if the stretchers worked as quickly and easily as the advertising says they do, why do they have to advertise constantly everywhere you go when you read about PD? There is a reason they are advertised so heavily, and it is not because of effectiveness.

Yet, the concept of stretching soft tissue is interesting since Peyronie’s disease is a soft tissue problem.

So, I recently completed this experimental trial that lasted a little less than two years, in which I worked with 10 men who were customers of PDI and Natural Complementary Medicine LLC. From this effort I was able to devise a totally new concept in manually stretching the Peyronies plaque or scar. Our results showed that 80% had moderate to marked reduction of curvature and/or scar formation, with each and every man experiencing an improvement of sexual function.

I encourage you to visit the PDI website to learn more about this method to safely, painlessly, comfortably, and effectively reduce your PD scar, reduce your PD curvature, and improve your sexual ability in 80% of the cases. I ask that you understand that the same concepts of Alternative Medicine, logic and common sense you see throughout the PDI website also applies to the strategy and methods taught in the new PDI one-hour stretching CD.

If, after watching the brief demonstration video, you still have questions about the procedure then just send me an email at info@peyronies-disease-help.com You know I will answer your questions.

Bear in mind that the primary principle behind all PDI treatment concepts has always been synergy, and it always will be. Therefore, you need to understand that the PDI Manual Penis Stretching Method© is not a stand alone method.

Manual penis stretching was used in our tests in conjunction with standard PDI treatment plans as an additional method to increase synergy of care. No one used just this gentle manual penis stretching technique. In each case, greater progress occurred after using the Peyronie’s Disease DI Manual Penis Stretching Method© than without it; each man who followed the system saw better progress from his PDI therapy plan after adding the stretching technique. It seems that the PDI Manual Penis Stretching Method© increased effectiveness of our current treatment concept in eight out of 10 in our little study group.

Yes, Peyronies is a lousy problem and I wish I could tell you that this is a magical cure – just like the people who make the mechanical penis stretchers or the herbal products, but I can’t. Effectively treating Peyronie’s disease is still work.

While I can report that 80% of the group saw improvement, that means that 20% did not. I came to learn that those who did not do well with the manual stretching method were those who used very small therapy plans or did not follow their plans faithfully. So, there is room for improvement with this manual Peyronies treatment method. I would hope so. We are just learning how to apply this concept, so it will be necessary to share our insights, experiences and ideas with each other.

Please check it out. I believe you will be impressed and intrigued with the PDI Manual Penis Stretching Method©. Go to Manual Penis Stretching Method© and let me know what you think.

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Peyronie’s Disease Treatment with ESWT

Posted on by Dr.Herazy

Breaking up gravel and Peyronie's disease

Peyronie’s disease treatment has been done in recent past times with ESWT, although after just a few years of promotion and use it has rapidly fallen out of favor.

ESWT or Extracorporeal Shock Wave Therapy is a standard medical procedure that involves the use of shockwave lithotripsy (high pressure and low frequency sound wave) technology to treat Peyronie's disease.  The machine that actually creates the extracorporeal shockwaves is a device located outside the body, that is applied over the affected tissue of the Peyronies plaque. In Peyronie's disease, the fibrous plaque or scar is the target of these shockwaves that are identified with an ultrasound scanner.  The ESWT shockwaves per session range from 2000-3000, applied over several minutes, with the average patient receiving 4-6 treatments and a maximum number of sessions of 12. This procedure can be performed with or without sedation, although most men prefer sedation after their first actual encounter with ESWT.

Although ESWT is primarily used as a treatment for kidney stones, this shock wave therapy or lithotripsy, has also been attempted for Peyronie's treatment since the early 1990s. However, more recent studies re-evaluating the effectiveness of ESWT for Peyronie's disease have only shown mixed results. Some studies have found ESWT restores normal erections and reduces pain associated with Peyronie's disease.  However, additional studies could not reproduce those same findings, and have not found any clinical benefit. Further research is needed to fully evaluate what role, if any, shock wave therapy should play as a treatment for Peyronie's disease.

The current evidence concerning the safety of ESWT for Peyronie’s disease appears adequate, using accepted medical standards.  However, keep in mind that accepted medical standards also suggests that Peyronies surgery that leaves many men impotent or totally numb or more distorted after the surgery is also thought to be safe.  Even so, the evidence for the effectiveness of ESWT does not appear adequate to support the continued use of this procedure without special arrangements and for audit or research; this means that if you want to use ESWT, you will have to agree to use it on a research basis because it has not proven to be effective.  Doctors who use ESWT must therefore tell their patients that the outcomes of this procedure are uncertain and there is unclear effectiveness in relation to the risks involved.

ESWT safety

 

Safety is always an issue in any healthcare matter.  In the several studies of ESWT safety that have been conducted since the late 1990s, according to medical review, “relatively few complications were reported. Complications were mostly of a transient nature and included urethral bleeding, bruising, skin discoloration due to petechiae (small dot-sized bruises), and hematoma (large bruises). The relationship between the energy level used in the treatment and the reported complications is unclear…The Specialist Advisors did not note any particular safety concerns about this procedure. Superficial bruising and moderate local pain were noted as potential adverse events.”

This disconnected thinking seems to be typical of many medical reviews of Peyronie’s disease treatment options.  On one hand, the report of ESWT safety casually mentions urethral bleeding, along with large and small bruising of the penile tissue. On the other hand, it does not consider that small trauma is often sufficient to trigger the onset of Peyronie’s disease.  Perhaps a trauma large enough to cause bleeding and bruise marks is no big deal to a medical researcher, but ask a man whose PD started from a small and one-time injury during sexual relations.

Think of what a jack-hammer does to concrete

It seems unbelievable that medical researchers, who the public rely upon for approval or disapproval of Peyronie’s disease treatment options, can be this ignorant of the situation concerning Peyronie’s disease.  Perhaps this entire body of researchers did not consider that a trauma large enough to cause penile bleeding and bruising might just be sufficient to cause or aggravate Peyronie’s disease.

In fact, no medial explanation has been offered how beating on a Peyronie’s disease  plaque 2000-3000 times with a high pressure and low frequency sound wave is going to help the problem.  Recall that this technology was intended to break up kidney stones.  A Peyronies plaque is not a kidney stone.  The fact that the scar or plaque is sometimes calcified in latter stages is perhaps where the connection started between kidney stone and Peyronie’s disease.  Yet, it must be considered that the tunica albuginea of a man susceptible to Peyronie’s disease is unlike other tissue.  When irritated it develops plaque material, especially when subjected to something as strong as 2000-3000 sound waves strong enough to break up a kidney stone.

It just never made sense to me when I first heard of the ESWT concept several years back, and I was the only one saying that kind of direct and repeated trauma capable to break kidney stones could not be beneficial to the tunica of a man who already has Peyronie’s disease.  Over time I heard less and less of ESWT and how even the Canadian clinic that promoted it so heavily has stopped doing the procedure.

It seems that common sense is not that common, especially when it comes to Peyronie’s disease treatment.

Peyronie’s Disease Plaque, Viagra, Cialis, Levitra, and Blood Supply

Posted on by Dr.Herazy

Different way to look at Peyronie's disease and blood supply

Peyronie’s disease is all about the Peyronies plaque, because the Peyronie’s plaque causes all the problems we normally associate with this condition.  To back this idea up, and to show you are doing something that is potentially dangerous to your Peyronie’s disease by using erection enhancing drugs, let’s review some interesting research that took place about 15 years ago.

First, some background.  According to two Peyronies disease researchers, Drs. J. A. Lopez and J. P. Jarrow, from the Department of Urology, Bowman Gray School of Medicine of Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, most of the erectile dysfunction that is associated with Peyronies disease is probably not due to reduced blood supply coming into the penis.  Hence, taking Viagra, Cialis, Levitra, or any erection producing drugs, is often not effective and when it is it could be dangerous when someone with PD takes any erection producing drug.

Let’s get through the technical material first and then I will put it all together as it relates to using these drugs because you have Peyronies.

In the study done by Lopez and Jarrow, they did a penile vascular (blood flow) evaluation; they tested the penis arteries (to determine blood flow coming into the penis), and they tested the penis veins (to determine the blood flow leaving the penis).

They tested 95 consecutive men who came to them for evaluation or treatment of Peyronie's disease; of these 95 men, 19 were potent (able to become erect) and 76 were impotent (not able to become erect).  They also did the very same kind of penile vascular (blood flow) evaluation on 100 consecutive impotent men who did not have Peyronie's disease so they could compare the condition of their blood vessels as it relates to erections and erectile dysfunction.

Potent men with Peyronie’s disease

After testing the 19 potent men who had Peyronie's disease, they found only one (5%) of the 19 potent patients had abnormal arterial blood flow coming into the penis, and none (95%) had evidence of abnormal venous blood supply leaving the penis.

Impotent men with Peyronie’s disease

After testing the 76 impotent men who had Peyronie's disease, they found that 27 men (36%) had abnormal arterial blood flow coming into the penis, and 44 men (59%) had evidence of abnormal venous blood supply leaving the penis.

Potent and Impotent men who did not have Peyronie’s disease

There was no significant difference in historical risk factors for impotence between the impotent men with or without Peyronie's disease and the control population of impotent patients.

After testing the 100 men who did not have Peyronie’s disease they found they had about the same percent of abnormal arterial blood flow coming into the penis.  However, they found these same men had significantly less (16%) abnormal venous blood supply leaving the penis.

So the big difference was that the impotent men (59%) with Peyronie’s disease had a whole lot more abnormal venous blood supply leaving the penis, than the impotent men (16%) who did not have Peyronie’s disease.

This means that although men with Peyronie's disease may suffer some impotence due to artery blood flow problems, the research proves that the primary and overwhelming cause of impotence in men with Peyronie’s disease is abnormal venous blood supply leaving the penis.

So you ask, “What could be wrong with my venous blood flow leaving my penis?”  Answer:  your Peyronie’s plaque.

Peyronie’s plaque causes impotency

It is the Peyronie’s plaque that causes the veins of the penis to not close properly. Click here to understand a bit about Peyronie's disease and erection.

There are special valves within the veins of the penis that close off at special times, to trap the blood inside the penis – to create an erection.  If the veins do not trap the blood, no erection.  The presence of the plaque or scar material is the problem that causes the valves of the veins to not trap blood, hence a poor or absent erection.  Yes, there are surely many emotional reasons a man with Peyronies will develop impotency, but this vein problem is by far the primary physical reason for this erection problem that we all are interested in.

Imagine that you want to close a door to trap warm or cold air inside a room.  You try to close the door, but you cannot because there is something causing the door to not close all the way – perhaps the door is warped, or maybe there is something lying across the doorway like a doorstop and the door will not seal the room shut.  If the door cannot be closed fully, it will be difficult or impossible to close the door, and you cannot trap the air in that room. It is the same in Peyronie’s disease. If the valves of the veins cannot be closed fully, it will be difficult or impossible to close them, and you cannot trap the blood to create the erection.

The presence of one or more Peyronie’s disease plaques or scars can and will cause physical interference with the normal closing of the valves inside the penis veins and one or more areas of the penis stay soft, preventing intercourse.  It is as simple as that.

So your medical doctor, hearing that you are having a problem with impotence along with your Peyronie’s disease says to you, “Do not fear.  I have my magic prescription pad here.  I will happily write a prescription for  Viagra, Cialis, or Levitra and you will get an erection that will amaze and delight the woman you love, and amaze all your family, friends and neighbors.  Please pay the nurse at the front desk as you leave.”

Elsewhere I will write more about the potential dangers of erection producing drugs like Viagra, Cialis, and Levitra in relation specifically to Peyronies.  For this discussion it is sufficient to state that Viagra, Cialis, and Levitra only bring more blood into the penis.  The do not and cannot help you to trap it there to create an erection.  This is why they may or may not work for you, and in fact, could potentially make your Peyronie’s disease worse.

For more information about the safe and effective treatment of Peyronie’s disease with Alternative Medicine, go to the Peyronie's Disease Institute website.

Peyronie’s disease treatment: changes to look for

Posted on by Web Designer

Know what to look for in early Peyronie’s treatment

This post is about an interesting question I am asked from time to time about Peyronie’s disease treatment.  I thought it might be of interest to you.  The question is asked something like this, “When people finally get some positive changes in their Peyronie’s disease, how does it usually show up?  What usually happens first?  I want to know what I can expect, although I know we are all different.”

Well, usually – not always – as a man continues in a sufficiently large and aggressively applied Peyronie’s disease treatment plan from PDI, he will notice at first some small and TEMPORARY changes in the size and density of his scar.  The temporary nature of the change does not last long.  As treatment continues the changes and improvement become permanent.  Usually the scar itself will change before there is a noticeable change in the Peyronie’s curved penis or his ability to develop an erection.  This scar change will take place maybe during months 2-6 of the treatment cycle, although I have worked with men who see changes in the scar after just a few weeks of a PDI plan.  This fast response is the exception and not the rule, so do not plan on that kind of response although it does happen.

The initial and temporary improvement in the Peyronies plaque or scar will not last very long, maybe just a few days or so, and then it will often go back to how it was before – maybe even worse.  I wish I could say why this happens – it just does. Soon a pattern will develop in which there is improvement, regression, improvement, regression, back and forth, etc.  What happens over time is that you will notice that the amount of improvement will be greater than the regression, and the improvement will last longer than the regression.  You will likely see the pattern shifting slowly in favor of improvement – it will last longer and it will be greater than the regression.  Just like the stock market – it goes up and it goes down – but the general trend and pattern is that it slowly comes gets better.  This is how I have seen most every case of Peyronie’s disease improve.

Just as the Peyronie’s plaque changes, a little while later it is common to see a change in the curvature. The initial change in the penis curvature is not always improvement, however.  My curve worsened just after my scar showed some real strong progress for the first time.  I kept in mind that the Peyronies plaque was getting better, so I did not let the change in the curve upset me.  I kept working to reduce the scars I had and in time the curve I had also eventually improved.    See Peyronie’s picture of curved penis.

Peyronie’s plaque and pick-up-sticks

Ever play “pick-up-sticks” as a kid?   With the complex interplay of sticks lying across each other, removing one stick makes three or four other sticks shift a bit.  I think the same happens in Peyronie’s disease.

How many plaques or scars do you have?  If more than one, then the dynamics are made even more complicated.  If you have only one scar (kind of unusual) then you have one scar that could be influencing 2-3-4 different planes of connective tissue within the corpora cavernosa of the penis that it is attached to.  It is not difficult to understand that if a part of a scar is changing it could cause alteration of the tensions and angles of pull – as the scar is INCREASING or DECREASING in size – that could cause a change in the curve – to make it INITIALLY better or worse.  So in this sense, an increase in your curve is only seen as a bad thing if you know FOR A FACT that your scar(s) are increasing in size, shape or density. Over time, as the plaque continues to soften and reduce in size, and as the internal pull and tension created by these plaque begins to normalize, the curve should begin to straighten.  Continue monitoring yourself as you work aggressively, and you should see this positive pattern of recovery play out for you.

A worsening of the curve is acceptable if the plaque is improving.  As far as treating your condition and monitoring progress, the condition of the Peyronie’s plaque is far more important to monitor than the curve; plaque changes size, shape and density characteristics, and even seem to move, and so the plaque or scar tissue exerts control over the curve; the curved penis is just a reflection of plaque activity – good or bad.  A smaller plaque can create a larger curve if it is in the wrong place or is pulling or pushing in some strange way. It might make you feel sick to say “My penis is curved!”, but ignore the curve and keep checking the condition of the Peyronie’s disease  plaque.  How do you check your plaque?  Go to my book, “Peyronie’s Disease Handbook” on the PDI website,  to review information about the Peyronie’s Disease Handbook.

Whenever someone sends me an email reporting that he is seeing improvement in his plaque or bent penis, I warn him that it will not initially last very long and that his problem will surely return for a short while.  I can almost guarantee this pattern.  Come to expect it; count on it.  It is just the way it goes, so do not be discouraged or disappointed when it happens.  In a short time, you will see the pattern develop that will tell you that good things are finally happening.  Just stay with it.

How long it takes for the improvement to become permanent is also variable (just like everything about Peyronie’s disease).  Once you get your plan fine-tuned and working well for you, most of the time it takes 6-12 months or more for the progress to level off and become as good as it is going to be.  That does not mean that in 6-12 months or so you will be cured or completely well.  It just means you will be as good as you are going to be, in spite of your best effort.   For some men it is complete recovery and full return to normal, and for other men it is a variable percent of improvement.

No one can accurately anticipate or tell what level of improvement will happen even after an intense effort of Peyronie’s disease treatment.  Some of the worse cases make the most recovery, and some of the mildest problems improve the least.  You just have to do your best and do all that you can to regain your life in the best way you can.

If you want to know more about what you might be experiencing right now with your condition, let me know.  Ask a question on the blog, and I will be happy to explain what I can to you.   TRH