Is it Prostatitis or Diabetes?

Yesterday, a reader wrote in to us offering a helpful story of a difficult time he had getting a proper diagnosis when he had developed some unsettling symptoms.

This isn’t uncommon, since there are a wide variety of symptoms that are present across a huge spectrum of diseases.

While there are a lot of clinical tests that can be run for different diseases, sometimes it can be difficult to know which tests to run if a person doesn’t exhibit enough symptoms for a particular disease.

This was exactly the case for this man, who had spent a great deal of time suffering from a few key symptoms that could have been attributes to a number of conditions. It took several months apparently, for his doctor to finally be able to diagnose the right problem.

It started out as just one symptom- frequency. This is what is referred to as multiple trips to drain the bladder.

He attributed it to age, since it is not uncommon for those over 50 to start seeing a frequent urination problem.

After a few months of that, he started noticing that he was experiencing random pain in his lower back.

To this, he again figured age was an appropriate excuse. And his increasing erectile problems…this, he thought, was the natural progression of age.

He did bring it up with his doctor, who grilled him about other symptoms…any rash, fever, increased thirst, and so on.

During that visit his doctor noted that his blood pressure was elevated compared to what it had always been, so he considered all the history as it was reported and the logical conclusion was prostatitis, since his history also included the fact that he had needed a surgical procedure in his 30s to relieve an inflamed prostate.

So what were the symptoms so far…were you keeping track? He had reported, over a number of many months, frequency with urination, pain in the lower back, erectile problems, and elevated blood pressure.

Yet his blood tests all came back relatively normal. His fasting glucose was a little high but not enough to trip anyone’s triggers.

So on and on these frustrating nuisance symptoms went, and slowly more were added. He said the fatigue and feeling of always having the flu was starting to interfere with work, and he was getting a little depressed about how his health seemed to be deteriorating despite being treated for an inflammation of the prostate.

That seems to be how it happens. Slowly, a little at a time, and you barely even notice it. Sometimes certain symptoms appear so subtly and gradually over time that you don’t even know they are there till a loved one points it out.

It was the case for this reader, since his wife noticed he had started to lose weight and his “cheaters” (reading glasses) no longer did the job for him. He had started using hers because she had stronger lenses than he did.

By now, a year had gone by and his annual physical was due again, so his wife accompanied him this time. She had been keeping notes and he seemed amused at how she took her “tattle sheet” along to the appointment.

More blood tests were ordered and finally…the real culprit. It was diabetes after all. He didn’t experience the increased thirst because he had always been big on making sure he drank a lot every day, anyway. He didn’t have the tingling in the extremities or other diabetes red flags.

It turns out also that the pain in his lower back that he thought was age-related arthritis and sore muscles was actually kidneys struggling to do their job despite the insult of protein overload and excess keytones.

The common symptoms between the two diseases:

– Frequent urination
– Pain in the lower back
– Fatigue or flu-like symptoms
– Erectile problems
– Elevated blood pressure

Since he didn’t show the weight loss and vision issues till months after the urgency, frequency, and other symptoms started, it wasn’t enough of the right combinations of symptoms to automatically point to diabetes.

The lesson in this isn’t that doctors are frequently wrong. It is simply that you just have to pay attention to your body. If you have new symptoms cropping up, don’t just attribute them to age. Keep a journal of what you are experiencing and what seems to set you off or trigger your problems.

And finally, talk openly with your provider about what you are noticing. Let your spouse contribute to the conversation, too. You may find that he or she is a better scribe of your issues that you are.

For more information on treating type 2 diabetes and other natural health programs for blood pressure, erectile problems and other conditions, click the links here or see the full list to the right hand side of the page.

All the Best,

Jodi Knapp

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