Peyronie’s Disease Treatment and Heat
Hot packs are a good Peyronie’s treatment
Even though you follow a good Peyronie’s disease treatment program based current scientific knowledge of biochemistry and physiology, many men overlook a very effective therapy that is essentially free.
Heat – moist heat – can be incorporated in every Alternative Medicine Peyronies plan, especially those that use external therapies. I am currently coaching a few MDs about treatment of their Peyronie’s disease plaque and fibrin that it contains; I can see a few of them roll their eyes when they read this. Imagine, using moist heat for Peyronie’s disease – isn’t that cute. Many people would probably not even consider using because it seems too low-tech, too simple, too basic, too dumb, to be of any value. Yet, I used it and so do a lot of the men I work with about their treatment plans. Moist heat should be an important part of your Peyronie’s disease treatment plan.
Applying moist heat before and after using the combination of DMSO, topical vitamin E, and the copper peptide serum makes a lot of sense. The heat dilates the blood vessels of the area and causes greater absorption of these three therapies into the tissue of the Peyronies plaque. Use moist heat on you penis if you are going to be doing any kind of external therapy. For that matter, even if all you are doing are internal therapies of vitamins, minerals and enzymes, moist heat is still a good inexpensive therapy to do every day, all by itself.
Moist heat applied before other therapies (DMSO, copper peptides, vitamin E oil) will give them an extra advantage. If you precede most any external therapy (or sexual activity) with moist heat you will bring extra blood to the genital area. The additional blood flow and increased lymphatic drainage that occurs will allow other therapies to penetrate deeper and expand the tissue more fully. In addition, you can also apply more moist heat after any or all of your therapies. Moist heat will assure a better therapeutic response.
An element of potential danger is present when you apply heat to the delicate tissue of the genital area. You must be very careful the heat is not too great and that you do not fall asleep with the heat being applied. If you have a fair complexion, or have a history of burning easily, take extra steps to protect yourself from injury. It is important that you check your skin frequently to assure you are not burning yourself. If you use common sense and care with the process, there should be little problem.
Here is an excerpt from my book, “Peyronie’s Disease Handbook”:
“A hot shower is generally not effective because the heat is applied in such a broad area that much additional blood cannot be sent over the entire body surface. You will not experience the degree of increased blood flow and lymphatic drainage as when the heat is focused to a smaller and more specific area.
To do this properly, prepare three towels:
The first is used to cover the surface you will be sitting or laying on.
The second should be a large clean towel. Soak it water as hot as you can stand to handle. Wring the towel out as completely as you can, so that it is not dripping excess water. Lie down in a comfortable position on top of the dry towel. Apply the large hot moist towel to the genital area for 5-15 minutes, with special attention to covering and wrapping specifically around the penis, being careful not to burn yourself.
The third is a towel to cover and insulate the moist towel to keep it as hot as you can stand, for as long as possible.
The first time you do this, PLEASE check yourself after the first few minutes and check yourself again five minutes after the first check, to assure that you are not burning your tender genital tissue. If it should happen, because that is the nature of accidents, use:
1. Ice pack to the area for 20 minutes only, no more. After 20 minutes the response of the body to the ice changes, and the tissue begins to swell and favor retention of inflammatory by-products. Do this twice the first day and then daily until you are no longer in pain.
2. Neosporin topical ointment applied to the area of injury according to package instructions. Keep the area clean and covered with sterile gauze.
3. Aloe vera gel applied to the area will speed healing.
4. Determine what you did wrong with the heat; don’t do it again, because you will be using moist heat again in a slightly different manner, as it is still a good thing to do. Adjust and modify your technique so you will not burn yourself again.
At the conclusion of the moist heat application you should be nicely red – only. You should not feel like you are sore to the touch after using the hot towel. If possible, keep the hot moist towel in place while doing other therapy; apply moist heat while doing DMSO, copper peptide, and vitamin E Peyronie’s treatment, or soft tissue massage to the lower pelvis.
“As a very nice option, you can also simply use a hot water bottle wrapped with a moist towel to the genital when you go to bed, or simply put it in place if you are going to be sitting for a long time in front of the TV, your computer or even your car. Or, you can even put a half or full cup of rice in an old sock, tie off the open end, and heat it in the microwave for a few minutes. This is an easy and inexpensive way to make a handy reusable heating method for your problem area. Every little bit helps.”
Do not underestimate the value of moist heat applied to the penis to speed up healing – it might seem old-fashioned, but it works wonders. Do it!
Any questions about this post? Ask your questions under the main heading of “Ask Dr. Herazy…” TRH
Peyronie’s Disease Treatment with DMSO
DMSO is a wide based Peyronie’s treatment
Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) was first synthesized in Germany in 1866. Since then it has been available as a pulp-industry by-product for many years. Its principle use is currently that of an industrial solvent. While it is in use in medical and surgical treatment, it can be used in DMSO Peyronie’s therapy.
In 1964 Dr. Stanley W. Jacob and others at the University of Oregon Medical School were the first to describe the remarkable medicinal properties of DMSO. In this first work with DMSO they applied it to intact human skin, and discovered it penetrates rapidly and produces a wide range of pharmacologic actions. Some of these are anti-inflammation properties, local analgesia, stopping bacterial growth in it presence, increased renal function to reduce edema, a carrier action with drugs it is coupled with, softening of collagen (the primary component of the Peyronie’s disease plaque), nonspecific enhancement of immunity, dilatation of blood vessels, and reduction of blood platelet adhesion. As a result, DMSO has been used widely to treat various conditions (arthritis and bursitis, acute and chronic musculoskeletal trauma, scleroderma, chronic urogenital disorders, and unresponsive postoperative pain syndromes). To date, little to no local or systemic toxicity or tissue destruction has been noted in humans when DMSO is administered.
Of special interest in Peyronie’s disease treatment, when normal tissue is injured or deteriorates for any reason, the damaged tissue naturally produces chemicals called “free radicals.” It just so happens that DMSO is a potent scavenger of these radicals, maintaining the normal integrity of cells and tissues. These free radicals exert further harm to the damaged or aging cells, and thus prevent or slow the healing process. Using DMSO in the treatment of Peyronie’s disease seems to make sense because it can be applied locally over the superficial surface of the plaque region. Not only that, but it can be used to bring in other therapies directly into that same area – a double benefit. DMSO has been called “the most controversial therapeutic advance of modern times.” However, the 40 year controversy since it first made medical headlines seems to be bureaucratic and economic, rather than scientific. More than 10,000 articles on the biologic actions of DMSO have been reported in the scientific literature, along with 30,000 articles on the chemistry of DMSO. These reports and studies strongly support the contention that DMSO is a truly significant new therapeutic principle.
Currently, DMSO is a respected and approved pharmaceutical agent in more than 125 countries, but not the U.S. In 1970, the FDA approved DMSO for the treatment of musculoskeletal disorders in dogs and horses. Many veterinarians consider DMSO to be the most valuable therapeutic substance in their armamentarium. Later, in 1978, DMSO was given FDA approval as a therapy for interstitial cystitis, a painful and disabling urinary bladder inflammation.
In many ways, DMSO is the “aspirin” of our time. If aspirin had been introduced in 1963, as was DMSO, with its multiple beneficial therapeutic properties, aspirin surely would have been similarly restricted.
DMSO became prescriptive for humans in the USSR in 1971, in therapy of various musculoskeletal problems. Dr. V. Balabanova of the Moscow Institute of Rheumatology estimates that approximately 50 percent of the Russian population who have arthritis will receive DMSO as part of their therapy. There are more than one hundred articles in the world’s literature relating to DMSO and arthritis. This widespread and common use is based on the well-established pharmacologic actions of DMSO to reduce pain, reduce inflammation, soften scar tissue and contracted fibrous tissue elements, remove free radicals, increase circulation and stimulate healing. No one with Peyronie’s disease can deny the value of these functions in the repair of the Peyronies plaque.
Based on research from around the world, DMSO has proven to be an effective treatment for many illnesses that otherwise have no known therapy. DMSO is safer, far less expensive, and at least as effective for a variety of problems for which the medical community is presently using other, less effective, and more costly treatments. In 1972 the National Academy of Sciences evaluated the scientific data on DMSO and determined it was a least as effective as other currently approved treatments for three musculoskeletal inflammatory human conditions. Yet, it has not been given FDA approval for these same conditions. Certainly, one of the most important questions about any new medicinal therapy is safety. The only potentially serious side effect is the occasional patient who is allergic. In Peyronie’s disease treatment, this is reduced simply by the small area to which DMSO is applied and the administration of topical vitamin E and urea with the PMD-DOMSO formulation created by PDI.
A careful review of the published literature on DMSO shows there is not a single death which can be definitely attributed to this agent. Since it first appeared in the mid-1960s, hundreds of millions of treatments have been applied worldwide, showing that DMSO is a substance of extraordinary low tissue toxicity. At that time the FDA had received data submitted by approximately 1,500 U.S. physicians concerning over 100,000 DMSO applications, all showing safety and effectiveness. The pharmaceutical companies submitting this positive data were Squibb, Merck, and Syntex, all who would have suffered economic harm if this inexpensive therapy was made more popular and readily available. With the withdrawal of their support, all further U.S. DMSO research and documentation of effectiveness has stopped. Thus, the large drug companies blocked further interest or use in a safe, easy, effective and inexpensive substance that could help stop the progression of Peyronie’s disease, so they could develop drugs in which their profit potential was much greater.
Much of the resistance to the use of DMSO in Peyronie’s disease can be thought to be more political and economic, than scientific. For these reasons, the Peyronie’s Disease Institute has used DMSO in its therapy program from the onset. TRH