One perspective is that, especially with males, that with aging, the emptying of the bladder is incomplete. The bladder then becomes a reservoir of stale urine, a warm, wet place, which can incubate Candida albicans (“yeast”). Conceivably, other fungi might thrive in such an environment.
This overgrowth irritates and causes swelling in all the affected tissues, including that of the prostate, which swelling causes a choking off of the urethra.
For the intestinal swelling of candida, there are several candida cleanses and the simplest one from folk medicine is to just remember 4/3/2/8 as in 4 drop essential oil of oregano, 3 drops grapefruit seed extract, and 2 drops essential oil of clove, all in 6-8 ounces of water or juice (some say that tomato or V-8 juice somewhat mitigates the medicinal taste. People who use this do so for only a few weeks, not wanting to disrupt the but biome.
For this deeper layer of candida infection, another set of nutraceuticals may be in order.
Below, I shall furnish the name of the phytochemical or naturally occuring substance and a brief description of its action.
(These are just offered as a collection, not in any kind of order of importance. As with any potential formulation that you might want to make, remember that we lay persons are not qualified to make health care decisions for ourselves and need to pay a large share of our disposable income to consult with licensed healthcare professionals prior to attempting or taking such a formulation as you might want to make. Think of the below as just an exploration of folkish remedies, part of folklore.)
> Fisetin: “Significance: Diet-derived antioxidants are now being increasingly investigated for their health-promoting effects, including their role in the chemoprevention of cancer. In general, botanical antioxidants have received much attention,….”
“Summary of the Anticarcinogenic Effects of Fisetin in In-Vitro Studies”
AMPK, AMP-activated protein kinase; AR, androgen receptor; COX, cyclooxygenase; DR, death receptor; EGFR, epidermal growth factor receptor; eIF4B, eukaryotic initiation factor 4B; ERK1/2, extracellular signal-regulated kinase; MITF, microphthalmia-associated transcription factor; MMP, matrix metalloproteinase; NF-κB, nuclear factor-kappa B; PGE2, prostaglandin E2; PSA, prostate-specific antigen; PTEN, phosphatase and tensin homolog; TCF, transcription factor T-cell factor; TRAIL, TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand; uPA, urokinase plasminogen activator; WIF-1, Wnt inhibitory factor; XIAP, X-linked inhibitor of apoptosis.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3689181/
>Monolaurin: A Dr. Jon Kabara has apparently done extensive research on the benefits of consuming this derivative of cocoanuts. In the article quoted, there is an initial citation on its antibacterial effects. Below, the antifungal and anti-viral effects are explored. Even though FDA has not evaluated monolaurin as a medicinal nutraceutical, in the article cited, it did list monolaurin as one the GRAS (Generally Regarded As Safe) list.
“Antifungal effects
Several fungi, yeasts, and protozoa are reported to be inactivated or killed by monolaurin, including some species of ringworm and candida albicans. Candida albicans is a common fungal pathogen that lives in the gut, mouth, genitals, urinary tract, and skin. It can be life-threatening in immunocompromised people.
A recent study
Trusted Source
found that monolaurin has potential as an antifungal treatment for candida albicans —one that can also reduce a pro-inflammatory response.
Antiviral effects
It’s reported that some of the viruses that have been inactivated, at least partially, by monolaurin include:
HIV
measles
herpes simplex-1
vesicular stomatitis
visna virus
cytomegalovirus
A 2015 study
Trusted Source
published in PLOS ONE tested a monolaurin vaginal gel in female primates. Researchers found that daily doses of monolaurin gel could reduce primates’ risk of vaginally contracting SIV, the primate version of HIV. The researchers concluded that monolaurin has great potential as a prophylactic.”
https://www.healthline.com/health/monolaurin#health-benefits
> Graminex: This pollen extract is cited in the NCBI article below as useful in prostatitis. Amongst other benefits, it appears to limit prostate enlargement:
“Prostatitis, a general term describing prostate inflammation, is a common disease that could be sustained by bacterial or non-bacterial infectious agents. The efficacy of herbal extracts with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects for blunting the burden of inflammation and oxidative stress, with possible improvements in clinical symptoms, is under investigation. Pollen extracts have been previously reported as promising agents in managing clinical symptoms related to prostatitis. The aim of the present work was to evaluate the protective effects of Graminex pollen (GraminexTM, Deshler, OH, USA), a commercially available product based on standardized pollen extracts, in rat prostate specimens, ex vivo. In this context, we studied the putative mechanism of action of pollen on multiple inflammatory pathways, including the reduction of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NFκB), and malondialdehyde (MDA), whose activities were significantly increased by inflammatory stimuli. We characterized by means of chromatographic and colorimetric studies the composition of Graminex pollen to better correlate the activity of pollen on immortalized prostate cells (PC3), and in rat prostate specimens challenged with Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharide (LPS). We found that Graminex pollen was able to reduce radical oxygen species (ROS) production by PC3 cells and MDA, NFκB mRNA, and PGE2 levels, in rat prostate specimens. According to our experimental evidence, Graminex pollen appears to be a promising natural product for the management of the inflammatory components in the prostate.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6100541/
>Grape Seed Extract: “Researchers have pinpointed a compound in grape seed extract called B2G2, which they discovered can successfully induce human prostate cancer cell death.”
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/269775
“Prostate cancer is the most common malignancy in elderly American men and second only to lung cancer in deaths (1). According to the American Cancer Society, there would have been an estimated 234,460 new prostate cancer cases and 27,350 associated deaths in 2006 in the United States alone. Lifestyle and dietary habits have been identified as major risk factors in prostate cancer growth and progression (2, 3). Epidemiologic data indicate that vegetables and fruits with chemopreventive agents could have protective effect against cancer (4). Management of cancer by chemoprevention may not necessarily eliminate the lesions; however, it is expected to delay the neoplastic progression and that would certainly improve the morbidity and survival time in prostate cancer patients (5, 6). In the last few years, considerable progress has been made in this direction, which has led to the identification of novel cancer chemopreventive agents and their mode of action (7, 8). One such agent is grape seed extract (GSE), which has shown promising chemopreventive and anticancer effects in various cancer cells and animal tumor models (9–12).
GSE is a complex mixture of polyphenols containing dimers, trimers, and other oligomers (procyanidins) of catechin and epicatechin and their gallate derivatives together known as the proanthocyanidins (13–15). GSE is marketed as a dietary supplement in the United States, owing to several health benefits mainly attributed to its antioxidant property (16–18). In addition, studies conducted in our laboratory have shown that GSE inhibits in vitro growth of hormone-refractory advanced human prostate carcinoma DU145 cells by induction of apoptosis via caspase activation (19), inhibition of constitutive as well as tumor necrosis factor-α–induced nuclear factor-κB activation, and inhibition of epidermal growth factor–induced or constitutive activation of mitogenic signaling (20). Our studies have also shown that GSE inhibits in vivo growth of DU145 xenograft in nude mice via an inhibition of cell proliferation and an induction of apoptosis (21). Additionally, we have also shown that GSE induces anoikis and apoptosis in androgen-dependent human prostate carcinoma LNCaP cells in culture (22). In the present study, for the first time, we evaluated the chemopreventive efficacy of oral GSE against prostate cancer growth and progression in the transgenic adenocarcinoma of the mouse prostate (TRAMP) model.”
> Calendula: “Calendula is a plant used for wound healing and skin health. It has anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial benefits. ”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10142266/
https://www.verywellhealth.com/health-benefits-of-calendula-4582641
On Calendula’s use in treating prostatitis (here with circumin):
https://www.pagepressjournals.org/index.php/aiua/article/view/aiua.2017.2.110
Just to illustrate how varied and amazing the phytochemicals in some herbs are in our health, consider this chart from the article below:
> Essential Oil of Oregano: (titled) “Oregano Oil Helps to Ease the Symptoms of Prostate & Urinary Tract Infections”
“Carvacrol is an organic antimicrobial compound present in oil of oregano. It is able to kill or inhibit bacteria, parasites, virusesand fungi what makes it a great choice for treating prostatitis.”
How Carvacol from oregano kills prostate cancer cells: “TRPM7 is a potential therapeutic target for treatment of prostate cancer. In this study, we investigated the effects of nonselective TRPM7 inhibitor carvacrol on cell proliferation, migration, and invasion of prostate cancer PC-3 and DU145 cells”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5075627/
> Luteolin for Prostate Cancer and Covid: (title)“Luteolin Potentially Treating Prostate Cancer and COVID-19 Analyzed by the Bioinformatics Approach: Clinical Findings and Drug Targets”
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fendo.2021.802447/full
“Luteolin is a flavonoid compound derived from Lonicera japonica Thunb. Numerous reports have demonstrated that luteolin has anticancer effects on many kinds of tumors. This study investigated the effects of luteolin on prostate cancer..”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4888721/
While our article’s title mentions benign (non-cancer) prostate inflammation, there is likely a link between the two, implying that perhaps prostatitis is a prelude to prostate cancer. The reader and his healthcare professional can pick and choose which of these nutraceuticals might best be applied to lesser forms of prostate disorder prior to cancer. As to a link to fungal infection, note that many of these above also have anti-fungal applications.
Here is a discussion of the possible link:
“This is supported by the fact that both inflammatory cells were found in the prostate biopsy, or leukocytes found in semen analysis from patients without a history of prostatitis[13]. The high prevalence of prostatitis could contribute to prostate carcinogenesis, which is the most common malignancy among elderly men in the United States, and the second most common cause of cancer-related death in males[14].”from The Role of Prostatitis in Prostate Cancer: a Meta-Analysis PMC
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3877315/
On another note entirely, Dr. Nathan Bryan has a detailed discussion of the link between ED and BPH and the deficiency of nitric oxide. Interestingly, NO3, just as it is essential for normal erectile function in males, also serves the same purpose in females. This, and its role in avoiding hypertension and general cardiovascular health are all thoroughly explored by Dr. Bryan in the following video: