Men’s Health - Anti Aging and Your Prostate
By Deborah Arnoldy - LPN, BA

Never before has the public been made more aware that prevention and preservation of our minds and bodies are the biggest keys to anti-aging than during the past decade. Since time began and reflection was discovered we have denied our genetic predisposition to aging by altering our outward appearance cosmetically. As we continue to become more educated we learn that anti-aging comes from within: eating well, avoiding and eliminating toxins, and physically participating in life. Men, I’m talking to you. Over the past 10 years you, not unlike your female counterparts, have taken cosmetic action against the exterior signs of aging by helping to support a multi-billion dollar glamour industry. First it’s the hair coloring “for men”, and then suddenly you’re reaching for the alpha-hydroxy facemask, toner and lotion when soap used to do a fine job. And yes, the reason you request the aisle seat on airplanes and in theatres becomes “just in case” replacing the former “my legs are long”. Welcome, Gentlemen, to your 50s! Since the repair your prostate may require if it becomes dysfunctional is extreme, and sometimes leaves you with more problems then you had to begin with, it needs to be preserved from the very beginning.

Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia / Hypertrophy (BPH), commonly known as enlarged prostate, is the silent disease among men. Afflicting over 10 million American males, BPH is a painful and embarrassing ailment that can attack men as young as 30, though most commonly begins to trouble men after the age of 50. The disease begins with an increased need to urinate (often at night), frequently coupled with difficulty in doing so. This leads to general pain and discomfort in the groin region, a feeling of residual urine in the bladder even after voiding and, in serious cases, may result in the complete inability to urinate.1 Indications of BPH may include one or more symptoms: difficult or urgent urination, frequency, incomplete emptying of the bladder, and/or poor urinary flow rate.

Anatomy and Physiology
The major function of the prostate, a gland associated with the male reproductive system, is to produce and discharge a viscous alkaline liquid that provides a major portion of the seminal fluid. This gland is made up of both muscular and glandular tissue. It produces semen to carry sperm in the ejaculate. Sperm are protected, at least to some extent, and can survive longer after ejaculation because of the environment afforded by the presence of prostatic fluid. Prostatic fluid also contains prostaglandins, which are fatty acids that, similar to hormones, affect smooth muscle fibers and blood vessel walls.
Although the prostate plays no direct role in the functioning of the male urinary system, many urinary perturbations occur when it expands via growth due to its location at the outlet of the bladder. The prostate is located in front of the rectum and below the urinary bladder. Importantly, it surrounds the urethra, a tube that carries urine from the bladder to the tip of the penis for expulsion. The gland is the size of a pea at birth and grows slowly until puberty. Driven by sex hormones, the prostate grows at a faster pace. During the 20s and 30s, the gland is characteristically the size of a walnut, weighing roughly one ounce. Around age 45, cells in the prostate multiply once more causing the gland to grow up to 10 times the normal adult size.2

Clinical Studies
There are a substantial amount of open placebo-controlled and double blind clinical trials proving the successful use of Cernitin™ Swedish Flower Pollen Extracts in the treatment of chronic, non-bacterial prostatitis and BPH. Studies conducted in the United Kingdom in 1988/89 give Cernitin™ a high reputation in the medical community. For the first time Cernitin™ showed a significant shrinking of the prostate after 3 months of treatment. The clinical data were judged sufficient to apply for an EEC-Registration as a pharmaceutical specialty, as well as for an IND in the USA.
Other clinical indications include reduction of LDC-Cholesterol levels, antioxidative effects, and a decrease in blood plasma lipid levels to assist in the reduction of arteriosclerosis. Current (2001) clinical trials are researching Cernitin™ and its action on the liver in relation to promoting the improvement of the immune system and for enhancing the repair and regeneration of liver cells. There are also indications that Cernitin™ has prophylactic effect against upper respiratory infections and hay fever.
Cernitin™ Swedish Flower Pollen Extract is composed of a combination of water-soluble (20mg) and fat-soluble (3mg) fractions. The pharmacological effects using this exact combination are well documented and published. Cernitin™ has been found to inhibit prostate cell growth in animals, influence contractibility of bladder and urethral smooth muscle as well as the diaphragm in animals, and influence the metabolism of DHT-Reductase for example. Other studies have found influence on platelet aggregation in the blood, hypolipemic and hypocholesterolemic effects in animals and antioxidative effects.3

Why Extract Flower Pollen?
What makes Cernitin™ Swedish Flower Pollen Extract so unique is the fact that it has relatively few side effects and toxicity levels have not been reached even in as much as 10,000mg dosages in 24-hours. The husks that sheath the microscopic pollen grains are removed using a Swiss-developed technique; thus producing a pure, potent flower pollen grain. By removing the sheaths bacteria, fungi, toxins and pollutants are also removed. This additional process further reduced any allergic reactions to pollen extract in individuals who might be sensitive to some of the higher molecular weight substances. Unlike bee pollen, which bees treat with their saliva and which may contain pollutants or allergens, Cernitin™ Swedish Flower Pollen Extract is free of toxic substances.

Digestion and Absorption
The production of Cernitin™ Swedish Flower Pollen Extracts begins when the pollen is harvested directly from selected plants. In the final stages it is extracted to secure separation of the water-soluble and lipo-soluble fractions. The fractions are standardized to the content of alpha-amino acids and phytosterols respectively and recombined in the tablet form. The intestinal wall only minimally absorbs untreated pollen. The digestive process is able to extract to a certain extent the water-soluble substances from the pollen grain, however very little of the lipo-soluble substances. A guaranteed effect is therefore only possible by using the extracted fractions.4

Nutritional Values
Pollen is the life source for the entire plant world. It is the vital half of the reproductive cycle in the plant kingdom. To the expert in these matters or to the ordinary person it will be appreciated that there is a great deal of goodness in these minute grains. 

• It has been established that pollens contain extraordinary amounts of goodness including vitamins A, B-12, D, E, C (ascorbic acid), and K. Also present are inositol, biotin, thiamin, riboflavin, nicotinic acid, folic acid, and pantothenic acid. 
• Mineral and trace elements such as those found in pollen were at one time thought to be present in too small quantities to make an impact on the body, although vital for health; experts have more recently confirmed that we need only small amounts of these vital substances from our daily dietary intake. Important minerals include calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorous, potassium, silicon, sodium, sulfur and titanium. 
• The amino acids in whole dry pollen fluctuate between 10 and 13 percent and this equals from five to seven times the amino acids in equal weights of beef, eggs or cheese. Cernitin™ contains all twenty-three dietary and physiological essential amino acids. 
• Pollen compares very favorably to yeast as a complete food when it is revealed that a mixture of fresh pollen can contain up to 1,000 micrograms of cozymase per gram. Cernitin™ contains enzymes in six classes of enzymes: Oxidoreductases, Transferases, Hydrolases, Lyases, Isomerases, and Ligases. 
• There are quite a variety of sugars and carbohydrates in whole pollens in the form of cane sugar (sucrose), fruit sugar (cellulose), grape sugar (glucose). 
• Pollen also has gums, fats, and oils. The major lipids in flower pollen are polar lipids: lecithin, lysolecithin, phosphoinositol and phosphatidylcholine; and neutral lipids: monoglycerides, diglycerides, triglycerides, free fatty acids, sterols, and hydrocarbons.5 

Cernilton®, a nutriceutical product for the support of men’s prostate health, is now available in the United States and around the world. Cernilton® is made from Cernitin™ Swedish Flower Pollen Extract at AB Cernelle, Engelholm, Sweden for distribution by Graminex, Deshler, Ohio, USA. Cernilton® is scientifically supported by over 40 clinical trials and several journal publications from researchers all over the globe. Cernitin™ Swedish Flower Pollen Extract has been generously written about by Dr. Harry Preuss of Georgetown University in his book, The Prostate Cure, and by Dr. Jesse Stoff in his book, The Prostate Miracle. 

References:
1. Harry G. Preuss, M.D. and Brenda Adderly, M.H.A., The Prostate Cure, 1998
2. Harry G. Preuss, M.D., F.A.C.N., C.N.S., Use of Natural Products to Treat Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH) and Chronic Non-bacterial Prostatitis: Emphasis on Cernitin, The Original Internist, June 2000
3. Cernitin(tm) Flower Pollen Chemical Analysis, AB Cernelle, Engelholm, Sweden
4. Cernitin(tm) Flower Pollen, AB Cernelle, Engelholm, Sweden
5. Cernitin(tm) Pollen Extracts, AB Cernelle, Engelholm, Swede