I’ve scoured the seven seas (and dozens of Web pages and two physical therapists and one urologist and several DVDs) for knowledge about how to beat CPPS.
Not a surprise: a LOT of information on the internet was absolutely useless. But most of the best information was found in books, from my physical therapist’s experience, and from my own trial and error.
Further, I have tested all but the most expensive methods of rehab (as in, the Weston Price Foundation), and if they didn’t yield a result in 1`-2 weeks, I abandoned them. So in this course you will find only things that worked.
Why can’t I just visit the doctor?
Many of you already have visited the doctor. But for those of you who haven’t, here’s what a typical doctor visit looks like:
- You tell the doctor about your symptoms
- Doctor prescribes antibiotics
- Problem continues
- Return to doctor
- Doctor refers you to urologist
- Urologist prescribes cancer tests – and more antibiotics
- Tests come out negative.
- A good urologist will determine it’s CPPS, and refer you to physical therapy – which provides about half of the solution to CPPS
Is it worthwhile to even go to the doctor? Well, if you’re already sure it’s CPPS – then no. But if you want to play it safe, you can have a doctor screen out cancer and antibiotics.
I didn’t. I did one course of antibiotics. I got x-rays that found some inflamed ducts in my plumbing. When the doctor sent me to the urologist, the urologist started the same set of tests as the previous doctor.
Then I learned what CPPS was, and I obsessed about why I had it until I understood its triggers.
A trigger is part of a pattern. And I knew from my experience rehabilitating other injuries that behavior patterns can be changed to yield recovery.
If you know what triggers CPPS, you can stop it.
PARTIAL SOLUTIONS
Because CPPS is caused by a combination of anxiety and poor movement patterns, there are no currently existing programs that provide all of the information necessary to cure CPPS.
But there are great resources on addressing part of the problem. Below is a table of resources that partially work to cure CPPS.
Katy Bowman’s Nutritious Movement program
GOOD: Understands the human body like nothing else. Frequent movement and natural movement are a formula for whole body health.
LACKS: Treatment for anxiety. Some of the stretches are hard to do without equipment or significant space, so be ready to improvise.
Heal Pelvic Pain by Amy Stein
GOOD: A nearly complete solution for CPPS unto itself. Stretching, rolling, massage, exercises, and the right philosophy.
LACKS: Extensive understanding of anxiety – particularly anxiety in men. Also, a few key stretches are missing, such as the calf stretch (not the one where you stretch a baby cow, either).
Physical Therapy
GOOD: Targeted stretches with a professional coach are excellent. Targeted massage is even better, and hard to substitute.
LACKS: Does not address mental component of CPPS. At best, a PT can suggest you take more personal time.
The Gokhale Method
GOOD: Very helpful sleeping postures keep your spine aligned as you slumber.
LACKS: Gokhale’s method assumes good posture will fix all of your problems. But circulation happens best through movement, and that muscles are what give us our shape. Therefore, treating the muscles as they move and not as they sit still is a better physical solution.
Weston A. Price foundation
GOOD: Course that targets pelvic pain for men. Results untested by me, but it includes physical therapy and meditation.
LACKS: Feasible price point. Costs over $2,500 and requires you to attend in California.
Meditation
GOOD: Meditation teaches you to control your mind, to focus, and provides a refreshing sense of peace of quiet.
LACKS: Does not resolve core issues that create anxiety. It does help you focus on what to do to resolve them. Does not treat hypertonic muscles.
Self-Massage
GOOD: Necessary to work out knots. Gets rapid results.
LACKS: Does not treat the reason the injury happened in the first place.
Massage Wands
GOOD: I am told they can work wonders. It’s a horrifying prospect, but when you have CPPS-level pain, it’s not so horrifying – and I would be willing to try it to get relief. However, I have no personal experience with them.
LACKS: As far as treating knots, this is limited to internal tissue only. The rest should be treated with hand massage, a tennis ball, or similar equipment.
The Bad and the Ugly:
CPPS Treatments that don’t work
| Treatment | Why it fails |
| Traditional medicine | Urologists default to treating CPPS as prostatitis, which is an umbrella term that encompasses CPPS (although CPPS makes up 95% of prostatitis!). Urologists treat prostatitis through pills, antibiotics, surgery, or cancer treatment. None of those is the problem, and so none of those answers will affect it. |
| Alpha blockers | Do not alleviate physical problem. Instead dull symptoms and allow them to return with a vengeance when removed. Side effects include headaches, nausea, drops in blood pressure, tiredness, bad sleep, tremors, rashes, an male impotence. |
| NSAIDs and anti-inflammatories | I tried several – maybe a 10% reduction of incredible pain. The problem is not actually inflammation – it’s hypertonicity – your muscle is exhausted and gets worse under duress |
| Surgery | Unproven results – in fact, almost no data of effectiveness. Also, do you really want people cutting your penis apart unless it’s absolutely necessary? |
| Keeping a pee journal | What’s the point? You know you’re peeing more than you used to. |
| Pain drugs | Does not treat root cause of CPPS. Can be addictive. Can dramatically lower alertness, pleasure, and general quality of life. |
| Kegel exercises (“Kegels”) | While kegels have an application for atrophied pelvic muscles, this is most common in women following childbirth. If you have a hypertonicity – or overtight, weak, tired pelvic muscles – the LAST thing you want to do is exercise them MORE. |
| Supplements like quercetin, pumpkinseed oil, superdosing vitamin C, etc. | Completely ineffective; placebo effect. |
| Dietary changes like broccoli soup | CPPS is caused by tension, not a dietary inadequacy. And no dietary change will reduce inflammation enough to alleviate CPPS. I should know: I’ve been eating paleo and keto since several years before I got CPPS. |
| Pumpkin seeds, walnuts, and other nuts | Same as “CURE CANCER WITH THIS ONE WEIRD TRICK!” Nuts are not some lost panacea, but they can create a temporary placebo effect. |
| Dietary changes like broccoli soup | CPPS is caused by tension, not a dietary inadequacy. And no dietary change will reduce inflammation enough to alleviate CPPS. I should know: I’ve been eating paleo and keto since several years before I got CPPS. |
| Avoiding spicy food and caffeine | May help in the short term, but is treating a symptom and not the cause. |
| Frequent masturbation and sex | The muscles used to ejaculate are already overstressed, and the presence of semen in the testicles is not the cause of the pain. Muscular hypertonicity is. Treat the muscles. Plus if you have CPPS, orgasms hurt, and having them frequently delivers increasing levels of pain. |
| “Milking the prostate” | This is masturbation while applying pressure to the prostate gland to “clean it out.” The human body is equipped to clean out this gland by itself, and masturbation is likely to aggravate CPPS symptoms. |
| Antibiotics | CPPS is not the same as bacterial prostatitis. The latter should be ruled out, but if you and your spouse are monogamous, odds are you don’t have a bacterial STD. Plus you can use the stress test to determine if it’s really CPPS. |
| Depression meds, anxiety meds | Depression and anxiety are definitely correlated to CPPS. But pills do not cure them; they temporarily dull them. I had depression for over ten years, including insomnia, anxiety, and even a suicide attempt. I know it well. There’s only one way out: to fight back in your thoughts and your actions. To take ownership. |
| Online forums | Forums and social media sites contain four sources of information:A few well-meaning people with incomplete information. Forum moderator tyrants who control all the information to what suits them. Some folks with really weird solutions, like milking your prostate (link here if you don’t believe me). Lots of professional victims on there, too. |
| Searching for a miracle drug | YOU are the miracle drug. If I can cure CPPS, then you absolutely can – and faster. |
YOUR MISSION:
Write everything you’ve tried in your journal, with your results. What if I was wrong? What if something I found ineffective really helped? You’ll want to note it. You may even want to keep doing it.