Verapamil is used in Peyronie’s disease treatment by injection directly into the Peyronie’s plaque or a topical Verapamil cream is applied to the skin over the Peyronie’s plaque.

Verapamil is a calcium channel blocker of the phenylalkylamine L-type.  It works by relaxing the muscles of the heart and blood vessels. Verapamil is an anti-arrhythmic drug approved by the FDA in 1981 to treat hypertension, angina, cardiac arrhythmia, and recently, cluster headaches.  No oral or transdermal Verapamil is approved for Peyronie’s disease treatment.  Most used for Peyronie’s treatment is in the form of a topical Verapamil cream that is applied twice daily for many months.

There are many different companies that compete against each other with their own unique patented Verapamil formula, creating difficulty to know what to believe about the use of Verapamil for Peyronie’s disease treatment.

With so much competition among companies and unsafe practices of illegal companies, some even resort to making inferior and dangerous topical Verapamil cream products.  As a result, Peyronie’s patients who use counterfeit Verapamil have reported:

• Changes in blood pressure, causing dizziness, fainting, heart beat irregularities, often requiring changes in other medications to become stabilized
• Severe skin irritation
• Skin burns and blistering

Peyronie’s Verapamil connection

As with many popular medications, the exact way Verapamil is supposed to benefit Peyronie’s disease is not entirely known.  Keep this in mind when someone says they do not know how vitamin E or acetyl-L-carnitine or PABA helps Peyronie’s disease.

It is proposed that long term use of Verapamil blocks calcium from entering into the Peyronie’s plaque or scar.  Another theory s that Verapamil increases fibroblast activity to make more collagenase that breaks down the Peyronie’s plaque or scar. However, calcium is an essential mineral that must have free access and movement in all tissues and hundreds of different normal and healthy chemical, enzyme and hormone functions of the body.  The body needs calcium to function normally and healthfully, and it does not do well when it is blocked by a drug like Verapamil.

Peyronie’s disease and Verapamil side effects

When taken topically or orally for Peyronie’s, Verapamil can cause side effects that may impair thinking or abnormal organ function because of calcium metabolism interference.   Care should be used when driving a car, operating dangerous equipment, or any skill in which mental alertness or memory is needed.

Verapamil and Peyronie’s disease warning

Men treating Peyronie’s disease with Verapamil must deal with extreme fatigue, loss of energy, blood pressure problems and skin reactions that often occur.  Also, if Verapamil is stopped suddenly any side effect or problem for which it is being taken (like Peyronies) may become worse.

You should not use Verapamil if you are allergic to it, or if you have:

• Serious heart conditions, especially “sick sinus syndrome” or “AV block” (unless you have a pacemaker)
• Low blood pressure
• Recent heart attack

Personal experience with Verapamil and Peyronie’s disease

After attempting to treat my own Peyronie’s disease with topical Verapamil cream for eight months, my overall health suffered from weakness, fatigue, memory failure and low blood pressure caused by the Verapamil in my blood stream.  However, worst of all, while using Verapamil my Peyronie’s disease worsened.   The size of each Peyronie’s plaque increased and my Peyronie’s curve doubled.

Shortly after using Alternative Medicine to eliminate my Peyronie’s problem, I started the Peyronie’s Disease Institute with my MD colleagues I was working with at the time.  With this organization I communicate with dozens of men daily about their problems with PD.  Considering the information outlined above, it seems fewer and fewer medical doctors use Verapamil for Peyronie’s disease management.

Only you can determine what therapy to use or the exact dosage in your Peyronie’s disease treatment plan. Using the information found on the PDI website and “Peyronie’s Disease Handbook” as guides, each man must determine the specifics of his therapy plan for himself.  To help you further, for your specific questions, I am always pleased to offer ideas and information about what I have learned since successfully treating my own PD in 2002 and the many hundreds of men I work with each year since then.

I can give you basic ideas and general suggestions.  However, for the exact way to treat Peyronie’s disease it is important to remember that each case is different and must be worked out by each individual.  There are no short cuts to this process.

Oh, I can hear you telling yourself right now, “But, I am not a doctor.  I do not know about these things.  This is too complicated.  What do I do?  How do I get started?  I will never be able to do this!”

You can use any small or large group of therapies as a starting point.  From this starting point you simply monitor and observe the response of your Peyronie’s scar to your treatment plan.  The small, medium or large plan can all be modified to suit your thinking.  Generally, the larger and more broad-based the plan, the better and faster it works to assist the healing process that you are attempting to promote.

Very often the starting point is based on personal finances and how determined a man is to be successful in his Peyronie’s treatment.   Many men think, “I really would like to use all the different elements of the Large Plan.  It makes sense to approach my problem from so many different directions, but I just can’t afford it right now.  But, I can manage the expense of the Medium Plan.”    Well, there is your answer.

You get the Medium Plan, you use it faithfully, you use it aggressively, and you monitor your scar for changes in the size, shape, density and surface qualities.  If you notice changes in your Peyronie’s disease you simply stay with that plan.  If you do not notice changes in your Peyronie’s disease problem after a few weeks of treatment you begin to make small changes in your plan until the size, shape, density and surface qualities of your scar(s) change. All of this is explained in great detail in the “Peyronie’s Disease Handbook.”   Knowing the exact size, shape, density and surface quality of each scar is absolutely essential to your success in Peyronie’s treatment.   If you do not have this book, get it so that you will know what you are doing as you advance in treating yourself – otherwise you are just guessing.

You must understand, I have absolutely no idea what is required for you to be successful in eliminating your Peyronie’s plaque.  How could I?   I do not know you. I have not examined you.  You are not a patient of mine.  But I can offer suggestions and ideas for you to use to guide your own therapy plan for the greatest success you can achieve.

What I think is not important in regard to selecting a therapy or dosage. For that matter, what you think is not important in regard to dosage.

What you determine by trial and error – and hard work – to create your successful plan using the dosage level necessary to make positive changes in your PD is what is important.

Every medical doctor alive practices medicine using the trial-and-error method in this way.  If you are prescribed a drug for insomnia, the starting dose is just a good guess what might work for you.  The doctor might tell you to take one pill two hours before bedtime.  He or she will have you come back to the office after a few weeks to see how you are doing.  If the drug is not working you will be given a different dosage, perhaps two pills three hours before bedtime.  If that does not work, your prescription might be changed to include a second drug or further increases in dosage.  This trial-and-error method of medical practice has been used for thousands of years and is time-tested.  It is how you will also treat yourself to achieve the best success you can against your Peyronie’s disease.

Peyronie’s disease treatment dosage

Dosage is determined by the daily level of all therapies needed to cause favorable change in your scar(s).  Of course if you are taking five different internal therapies (vitamin E, vitamin C, Neprinol, Acetyl-L-carnitine and PABA), and two or three external therapies (DMSO, manual penis stretching video, Genesen pens), each one must be individually determined.   While you use all internal and external therapies in your total therapy plan you must monitor the size, shape, density and surface quality of your scar(s) to note at what dosage level changes begin in the scar material.  It is as simple – and difficult – as that.  That is why no clear dosage numbers are offered to you since everyone seems to use different internal and external therapies, in addition to doing them in different ways.  In this sense, since each man is different, and each man follows a different plan, each man must determine what he must do to improve his scar behavior.  Again, the procedure to determine scar size, shape, density and surface quality is explained in great detail in “Peyronie’s Disease Handbook.”

The correct dosage of any therapy product is not determined from a chart.  The chart that you receive with your first order only tells you the average range of how most men take the therapies.  Your dosage should be what you need to take daily to cause changes in your PD scar.  The dosage for you is what you learn works for you.  No one can tell you what you need to take.  You have to determine that by your observation what makes the scar size, shape, density, and surface quality change.

If you run into a problem, you can always send an email with your question and I will do my best to guide you through it.

Using this system of self-guided treatment you stand your best chance to use Alternative Medicine to increase your ability to heal and repair the damage to the delicate tunica albuginea known as Peyronie’s disease.

When you think about going to a “Peyronie’s specialist,” you should understand a few things that could make all the difference in the world to you.  You should also know that Alternative Medicine is your safest and most logical approach to Peyronie’s treatment – more about that at the end of this article.

Each month I am asked for the name of a few Peyronie’s doctors; someone who specializes in the treatment of Peyronie’s disease, in a particular part of the country or a specific city. My answer that I do not know of any such doctor always seems to be a surprise.   Often a follow up question is posed in which I am then asked for the names of penis doctors, and again I give the same answer.

For anyone interested in finding a Peyronie’s doctor, first consider that Peyronie’s disease is known as “the doctor’s nightmare.”   Notice, the name is not “a man’s nightmare,’ or “a curved penis nightmare,” or “a patient nightmare,” but “doctor’s nightmare.”   This suggests how much doctors in general do not like dealing with Peyronie’s disease.  The average doctor does not like to deal with the diagnosis and treatment of Peyronie’s disease, as well as the many valid complaints and exaggerated demands of both the men and women who must live with this problem.  Frankly, we men with Peyronie’s disease are often a royal pain in the butt for an MD to deal with.

Peyronie’s specialists

Most often it is the urologists who come closest to the idea of being penis doctors or Peyronie’s doctors.  But even they often want to avoid the many frustrations and long explanations that are a part of working with men who have Peyronie’s disease.  I guess that 99.4% of men who are given a diagnosis of Peyronie’s disease have not once ever heard of it before it is dumped on them.  That this condition exists is a total shock to the man who first learns he has the problem. And just like the denial phase of someone who learns of the death of someone, there is a denial phase when first being told that the reason for the penile curvature, pain, or strange lump is an interesting thing called Peyronie’s disease that has no known cause and no known medical cure – other than Peyronie’s surgery.   This news creates a lot of denial issues in the patient that the doctor must take the time to explain away.

It is said that no one is happy while dealing with Peyronie’s disease.  Another reason the doctor is not happy is because he or she has no standardized or accepted form of medical treatment to rely upon.  Generally, there are four three basic approaches for managing this problem medically:

1. Offer no treatment, but simply monitor the progression of the problem. Suggest the patient come back in six months to determine if the problem has deteriorated enough to warrant the risks of surgery.
2. Offer the patient to either “try verapamil or cholchicine or POTABA for a while, although I have not had much luck with any of them, or you can always use some vitamin E if you would like.”   This kind of low key and unenthusiastic recommendation is based on the fact that none of these approaches work, and the doctor knows it.  The MD is put in a tough position because he or she cannot help PD, and this is a known fact from the start.  Talk about a negative situation that only gets worse as the penis shrinks or sex becomes difficult as a curved penis develops.
3. Suggest surgery right away.
4. Go home, ignore it, and try to learn to live with it.

These four options all seem wrong to the thinking patient. Yet, the doctor feels obligated to offer some kind of treatment when none actually exists, and he knows ahead of time that the patient will be upset when nothing helps.  Long explanations, distrust, and complaints will follow over a few office visits until the patient figures out the doctor really has no Peyronie’s disease treatment. The doctor knows ahead of time he will look incompetent and non-caring no matter what he does.  Hence the term, “doctor’s nightmare.’

For all these reasons only a few medical doctors have focused on Peyronie’s disease treatment.  Some of those who work in this area of urology are:

Thomas Lue, MD – Los Angeles, CA
Culley Carson, MD – Chapel Hill, NC
Lawrence Levine, MD – Chicago, IL
Martin K. Gelbard, MD, Los Angeles, CA
Sudhakar Krishnamurti, MD – Hyderabad, India

These doctors are essentially using the same drugs as any general practitioner or urologist, with perhaps maybe the surgery they perform being different in some cases.   You need to understand that while these doctors can be called Peyronie’s specialists because they hold themselves out to being more interested in or spending more time in the area of Peyronie’s disease treatment and diagnosis, there is not that much different they can offer than the doctor down the street in your town.  The great difference with these doctors is the number of people they see who have PD, so they will have more experience in this area.

For this reason when some calls to ask about a Peyronie’s doctor, I suggest they just contact a local urologist they have confidence in and stick with him.

Since there is no accepted standard medical treatment for Peyronie’s disease, and so many doctors suggest not doing anything for the first 6-18 months, I strongly suggest that a person consider building up his own ability to heal and repair the Peyronie’s plaque or scar.  Information can be found at natural Peyronie’s disease treatment.

PABA, or para-aminobenzoic acid, with a formula of H₂NC₆H₄CO₂H, is a white crystalline substance that is slightly water soluble.  POTABA is simply PABA with a molecule of potassium added to it.

PABA has been referred to as Vitamin B_x because it is an intermediate step in the bacterial manufacturing of folate or folic acid in the intestinal tract.  Some bacteria in the human intestinal tract, such as E. coli, require PABA for proper metabolism. Humans require folate since we lack the enzymes to convert PABA to folate, hence it is made available via the bacterial flora.  Sulfonamide drugs are similar to PABA in their chemical structure, and their antibacterial activity is due to their ability to interfere with the conversion of PABA to folate by the enzyme dihydropteroate synthetase.  In this way bacterial growth is restricted through folate deficiency without effect on human cells.

Medical use of Potaba (potassium para-aminobenzoate)

Potaba inhibits abnormal fibroblast proliferation, thus it can reduce formation of scar material early after injury.  It is speculated that this POTABA anti-inflammatory activity is dependent on initial biotransformation that starts with granulocytes that are stimulated through the initial injury.  It also inhibits abnormal fibroblast proliferation, acid mucopolysaccharide and glycosaminoglycan secretion that occur during the normal inflammatory process.

POTABA has been used to treat a variety of conditions characterized by chronic inflammation and fibrosis; this list includes scleroderma, dermatomyositis, morphea, pulmonary fibrosis and Peyronie’s disease.

A POTABA research study was conducted by Carson who retrospectively reviewed 32 patients who were treated with 4,000 Mg of Potaba three times daily, for at least three months and later were followed for an average of 14.4 months.   Carson reported reduction of penile pain in 44% of those studied,  plaque or scar size reduction in 56%, and improvement of penile angulation in 58%. Complete reversal of penile distortion and angulation occurred in 26% of those studied. The average interval to improvement was 4.2 months, and younger patients with a shorter duration of disease were more likely to respond to therapy.  Even thought Carson’s study did not have controls, it suggests a possible role for POTABA in the medical therapy of Peyronie’s disease.

Unfortunately, the results of Carson’s retrospective and uncontrolled research were not reported as an intent-to-treat study.  Further, the number of research subjects who started therapy but stopped because of severe abdominal symptoms prior to three months has never been disclosed.

Because of the expense of POTABA, the need to take POTABA three or more times daily, and frequent occurrence of severe gastrointestinal side-effects (burning pain, abdominal cramping, and bowel irritability0, make it very difficult for the average man with Peyronie’s disease to follow the treatment guidelines for even a short time.  Yet in order to be effective, the length of POTABA therapy is variable, but sometimes lasting 12-24 months of active care.

Medical use of PABA

When a single potassium molecule is added to PABA, it results in what is called a potassium salt; this combination of potassium and PABA is called POTABA.  It is used as a drug against fibrotic skin disorders, and as such it can be used in Peyronie’s disease treatment.  PABA is also occasionally used to treat Irritable bowel syndrome to and related gastrointestinal symptoms, and in nutritional epidemiological studies to assess the completeness of 24-hour urine collection for the determination of urinary sodium, potassium, or nitrogen levels.

Despite the absence of any recognized syndromes of PABA deficiency in humans, many benefits are claimed for PABA as a nutritional supplement.  PABA is said to improve fatigue, irritability, depression, weeping eczema (moist eczema), scleroderma (premature hardening of skin), a patchy pigment loss in skin called vitiligo, and premature grey hair.

Peyronie’s disease:  POTABA or PABA?

The first Peyronie’s treatment work involved PABA, the vitamin.  When this was shown to be successful, work was then done to show that POTABA, the drug, could be more successful.  The interest is working with POTABA – the drug – was greater than with PABA – the vitamin – because the drug is more profitable and is easier to control use and distribution through the medical profession.

The reason PDI promotes the use of PABA for Peyronie’s disease treatment is because it has almost no side effects, is much less expensive to use, does not require a prescription and it combines well with other Alternative Medicine therapies.

For more information about the many ways to use Alternative Medicine to promote tissue repair and reversal of penile curvature, go to Peyronie’s Disease Institute.

There are many important nutrients – vitamin, mineral and amino acids – that should be used to improve and support the ability of the body to heal and repair the Peyronie’s plaque and help reverse the curved penis it causes.  However, since starting this work in 2002, I have never heard of a medical doctor prescribe any supplement other than vitamin E.  I think this says a lot about what MDs know about Peyronie’s disease vitamin therapy; their knowledge is limited, focused only to the obvious, and tends to not go beyond what everyone else is prescribing.

Vitamin E and Peyronie’s disease

The standard Peyronie’s disease vitamin E recommendation of the medical profession is to “get some vitamin E, and take no more than 400 IU a day.”  Occasionally the dosage will be doubled to 800 IU daily of vitamin E by some doctors who think outside the box a bit.  This is important to remember because vitamin E is essentially the only non-drug Peyronie’s disease vitamin treatment that is suggested to a man with Peyronie’s disease.

Vitamin E is available in both a synthetic form and a naturally occurring organic form.  Which form you decide to use ultimately determines how much can be taken safely.  There are eight different members of the vitamin E family.  Four are known as tocopherols and the other four are tocotrienols.  The most widely found vitamin E member is gamma tocopherol, which assists the elimination of nitrogen free radicals, as well as being an effective anti-inflammatory agent.  Tocotrienols are primarily found in the skin and subdermis where they protect against UV and free radical damage. Tocopherols are found in the major organs.  A balanced diet – very difficult to achieve these days – contains all eight members of the vitamin E family.

Because of costs and chemical stability,  and because early research proposed it was the only member of the family to have biologic benefit to man, most vitamin E supplements contain only alpha tocopherol.  This means most men on Peyronie’s disease vitamin therapy as prescribed by their medical doctor will receive only one of the eight members of the vitamin E family.  Since the early days of vitamin E research (not so long ago in the 1950s) it has been proven repeatedly that the complete vitamin E family, stressing gamma tocopherol and tocotrienols in their natural and unesterified form, accelerate wound healing and minimize scar formation.   For this reason I am most insistent that men using Peyronie’s disease vitamin E treatment use a high quality vitamin E product that is heavily slanted toward gamma tocopherol and all the tocotrienols, like Yasoo Health’s Factor 400/400.

If you are concerned about vitamin E safety issues, please read Peyronie’s Disease Treatment and Vitamin E that answers all dosage and safety questions.

The body is like a house

In order to build a solid house and have it operate well, it is necessary to have a wide variety of components available during the construction phase and during the long maintenance phase when the house begins to need help in the form of repairs.

During the construction phase, many problems would develop if all the builder had to work with were roof shingles, or just windows, or just doors.  A wide variety of components are needed to make a good house – lumber of various widths, thicknesses and lengths, concrete, plywood, along with nails, dry wall, electric wire, and so many other hundreds of different things.

During the maintenance phase, many replacements and repair items are needed.  If the home owner only had nails, or furnace filters, or pale yellow paint to work with, it would not help a bit if the problem was a leaky roof, a squeaky door, or a leaky faucet.

It makes sense that a wide variety of replacement and repair parts are needed for all the parts of a house.  It also makes sense that a Peyronie’s disease vitamin therapy program has to also be broad and diverse.   How does it make sense that all the problems of Peyronie’s disease are solved with just vitamin E?

Peyronie’s disease vitamin, mineral, and amino acid treatment

Peyronie’s Disease Institute uses a variety of different nutrients to satisfy the many needs of the body to have all the needed supplies to heal and repair the scar tissue in the best way possible.

Look at the list of different products that are suggested for use in the large Peyronie’s treatment plan.  The list is long because the process is complicated.   Of course, even the large plan does not contain all the nutrients that could be recommended to heal and repair the Peyronie’s plaque; PABA, acetyl-L-carnitine, quercetin, bromelain and herbs to stimulate the process are just some of the additional therapies that can be used.

Your house is large and complicated, but it is nothing compared to the body. When the body develops Peyronie’s disease it just does not make sense to attempt to fix it with vitamin E only.  That would be like trying to fix a broken window with a screw driver.   The screw driver might be a useful to remove some glass from the window frame, but other tools – and glass – will be needed for the repair to be done correctly.

For more information about successful Peyronie’s disease treatment.

Peyronie’s disease treatment using drug injection into the delicate tunica of the penis is a medical therapy that is fast loosing favor.  One of the reasons is the lack of good results, the other is that it has been shown that injections can cause or aggravate Peyronie’s disease in many cases.

I have personally communicated with hundreds of men whose Peyronies started after a series of penile injections that were undertaken for a variety of reasons.  It appears the drug is not so much the issue that causes injury to the tunica membrane, but the repeated penetration and trauma that causes the scar material that eventually starts a Peyronies problem.   However, it has also been shown that the presence of certain drugs can cause a chemical irritation to the tunica albuginea.  So in this regard, drug injections could easily represent a double threat of injury to the tunica that results in Peyronie’s disease.

Peyronie’s treatment – “First, do no harm”

This blog post about Peyronie’s disease treatment using direct drug injections (Verapamil, cortisone, etc.) should hit home for a large number of you.  Many men have undergone painful drug injections into the penis because their medical doctor thought it was worth the effort, and only found themselves with a new problem or a worsening of their original Peyronie’s disease.

First I will simply copy an article, “Extracorporeal shock-wave therapy in the treatment of Peyronie’s disease.”  This research discussion is essentially about Extracorporeal Shock Wave Therapy, ESWT (or ESWL as they call it here).  This article comes from www.pubmed.gov under the reference number PMID: 15114750 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE].

What is important to note in our particular discussion is the area I have highlighted for emphasis.  You will note from an earlier post about ESWT in Peyronie’s Disease Treatment Forum blog, this form of therapy has been fairly well abandoned by a large percent of doctors who used it for many years since these injections seem to cause more problems than it helps. The reason this information about ESWT (or ESWL) is included in this article about penile injections is that these Russian physicians make a very interesting comment while discussing ESWT that underscores the damage created by injections (of any kind) into the tunica albuginea.

[Article in Russian]

Neĭmark AI, Astakhov IuI, Sidor MV.

The authors analyse the results of treatment of 28 patients with Peyronie’s disease using extracorporeal shock-wave lithotripsy (ESWL) performed on Dornier U15 lithotriptor. A total of 2-6 sessions were made, maximal number–12. The efficacy was controlled by clinical indices and ultrasonic investigation (Doppler mapping of the blood flow). ESWL proved to be efficient in the treatment of Peyronie’s disease (PD), primarily, in patients with early disease before appearance of severe fibroplastic alterations. Less plaque vascularization by energetic Doppler mapping due to ESWL is an important diagnostic criterion of PD treatment efficacy. Conservative treatment is not indicated in marked deformities and plaque calcification, erectile dysfunction. Moreover, any injection into the tunica albuginea, especially complicated by hematomas (deep tissue bruising) may be a damaging factor which triggers fibrous inflammation. Such patients should be treated surgically. If the patient is interested in immediate results or is not interested in continuation of sexual life, the treatment is ineffective. Thus, ESWL is an effective, safe method of PD treatment but requires further study and accumulation of clinical experience.

It seems that the problems penile injections can cause is not that necessarily about the drug that is injected into the tunica, but the needle itself that is used to deliver the drug. An injection to deliver any drug, or sterile water, can cause injury to this delicate membrane.  This sets off an inflammatory response that can result in significant Peyronie’s disease plaque or scar tissue formation for men who as so predisposed.   Doing this once can be risky.  Doing this up to a dozen times over a few months, as is often the recommended course of therapy, just multiples the opportunity for injury to mount on top of injury.

This Russian research team offers the opinion that the effects of such injection into the penile shaft causes such significant plaque development, that surgery is the best treatment option for the damage that it can cause.   Obviously, I do not agree with that, since surgery can also cause more scar development. Their conclusion is that they find men who receive these injections often eventually are rewarded with a disturbed and discontinued sexual life.

Growing concern about injections for Peyronie’s disease treatment

This idea is brought to your attention to demonstrate there are many in the medical community who agree with the same position that I have taken for many years now.  These doctors and I contend it is inherently risky, in fact, dangerous, to stick needles repeatedly into the penis for Peyronie’s disease treatment. Their  logic concludes that any treatment that can start or aggravate the very problem it is attempting to treat, is not much of a treatment.

It is unfortunate that the medical community turns a blind eye to the direct observation of poor results, serious irritation of the tunica, and the solid logic that reputes injections as a form of Peyronie’s disease treatment.  Those who continue to inject their Peyronie’s disease patients, and bring these men farther down the road toward greater plaque development, must be desperate to look useful or just ignorant of how Peyronie’s disease often develops.  It is so common for medical doctors to think only in terms of medicine and surgery, notwithstanding the tragedy that can often result from their limited thinking.

The PDI concept of using non-invasive methods to increase the healing response of the body is a safer and more trustworthy Peyronie’s disease treatment than some of the aggressive medial schemes being promoted today.

Every now and then someone emails a question to me about Thacker’s formula.  This legendary Peyronie’s treatment – called Thacker’s formula because of the Dr. Thacker who is said to have created it – uses Castor oil, DMSO and apple cider vinegar.  Although I know the exact proportions to make this Peyronie’s treatment I will now give this information here because I cannot promote its use.

Along a similar line, I am sometimes asked if I know anything about an herbal Peyronie’s disease treatment (ginkgo biloba, echinacea), a micronutrient (Coenzyme Q, EPA), or an old home remedy (garlic, Castor oil, olive oil) that might be used as a Peyronie’s disease cure.   They want to know what I would think about using the Thacker’s formula or other treatment, and why does this treatment not appear in the PDI lineup of therapies?

In order for any therapy or procedure to be included in the PDI lineup of 14 potential Peyronie’s treatments, it has to have either been applied specifically in treatment of PD in a series of scientific studies and proven at least 50% effective in several trials (even though it might have done poorly in others), or it must have demonstrated good success and acceptance within the scientific community for treatment of other unrelated health problems (acupuncture and homeopathy).  With this simple criterion we establish some level of scientific credibility for those therapies in our PDI lineup, and further increase the possible effectiveness of therapy when several of these are united in a synergistic program of care.

There are probably some really good Peyronie’s disease treatment ideas that that could be actually very effective.  But who among us wants to waste his time, effort, energy, money, and most importantly, his opportunity to get over his Peyronie’s disease by experimenting with theories that have absolutely no proven ability to influence the body to promote healing? I did not want to waste my time on theories of questionable merit, when I knew there were many available that had already achieved some level of success.  This last group seemed to be a better place to look for answers, than chasing unproven ideas.

Edgar Cayce’s castor oil pack might indeed be an effective Peyronies’ disease treatment, but for one reason or another it has not been subjected to even minimal scrutiny for PD.  The goal of recovering from Peyronies is too great to use an untried treatment, when there are so many others of higher credibility and logic to work with.

Thacker’s formula does not meet Peyronie’s treatment guidelines

PDI was started on the basis of using treatments of some level of known and proven merit, and uses this standard today to determine what additions will be recommended and used in future therapy plans.  Rumors, stories, and speculation you read about on a Peyronie’s forum are not enough.  Alternative Medicine employs early science to see through the maze of superstition and learn the truth of what may or may not work to regain health.  These are the principles used to formulate the current Peyronie’s disease treatment strategies you have learned about.  We are already working on the outer rim of established medical practice, but we must be careful to not go too far away from common sense and valuable scientific information that will help us achieve our health goals.

Usually, my suggestion for someone who wants to use such a new Peyronie’s treatment is to do it in combination with several other known and better proven therapies already in the PDI lineup.  This way there is back-up treatment, and the total effort will create a therapeutic synergy.  Never is it suggested to use only the one therapy of any type, proven or unproven.

So, if you are just adding in an extra type of therapy because you read about it on a Peyronie’s forum, I say, all the more power to your curiosity and sense of adventure, but please do not have that constitute the majority of what you do for yourself.

Try not to become so desperate that you grab at straws, and although I cannot be certain, I think that Thacker’s formula falls into that category.   While there might not be any harm in using it, and in fact it might have some therapeutic value, I cannot endorse the use of Thacker’s formula because it is essentially untested and unproven in any meaningful way.  There is a lot of good information about sensible Peyronie’s disease treatment, that have had good results in research testing, that  I can offer if you need help with your rehabilitation program.

Every day I talk to men who are have taken control of their Peyronies disease situation and are helping their PD when nothing else has helped them. They do it all of this with the information found only on this site.

What we propose at PDI is not so earth shattering or extreme in concept. We simply try to help you figure out why your Peyronie’s plaque did not heal or self-correct like the 50% of men whose Peyronie’s disease goes away on its own. If half of the men naturally “cured” their own Peyronie’s desease, why not you?  That is all we are attempting to accomplish with our therapy concept. It is really not so far out as some of the other things you find on the Internet.

Three simple things to get Peyronie’s help:

1. Learn about your Peyronies problem. You were told nothing, or next to nothing, about Peyronies disease by the doctor who gave you the diagnosis. You are on the internet right now looking for answers, so get them in a special book I wrote, called “Peyronie’s Disease Handbook.” This book gives you all the information about day-to-day treating and living with Peyronie’s disease you will need. The information found in this book is different in many ways than the information on our website; there is no duplication of information between the book and the website. Another book that will help you tremendously is “Peyronie’s Disease & Sex” that covers all aspects of this complex subject. Get help through education.

2. Start the most aggressive therapy plan you are comfortable following so that you will get your best results. If you are interested in doing all that you can to help yourself, then perhaps you could consider using what is called the “Large (Best) Plan” for personal treatment. The “Medium (Better) Plan” is perhaps the most popular of the three plans. There is a “Small (Good) Plan” that is also well designed. It is very common for men to substitute Neprinol in place of the two smaller products, Nattokinase and Serrapeptase in any of the plans. These products and plans are found at http://peyronies-disease-help.com/buy.html All can be modified, by subtracting or adding, to suit your personal thinking about Peyronie’s disease treatment.

Or, you can design your own therapy plan using the information found on this website. You do not have to use any of these model plans, they are only examples – but they make sense and they have helped hundreds of men improve their Peyronies plaque and reduce the bent penis of Peyronie’s disease.

3. Stop being discouraged.  Sign up for the Peyronie’s Disease Treatment Forum blog and get motivated, inspired, educated and reminded that everyday men around the world are actually beating their Peyronies problem using the Alternative Medicine methods of the Peyronie’s Disease Institute.

As you will soon see, the PDI website is full of exciting and helpful research information about Peyronie’s disease treatment you have never seen before. You will also see this site is different because it gives you the answers you have been looking for. But you must work along with the PDI guidelines in order to get the kind of results you will read about.

We strongly suggest you get all of your therapy products and supplements from PDI. The products we use have been selected after years of experimentation because they are special, and a prime reason for the results our customers receive. The PDI therapy concept and strategy are built around the therapy products available from PDI, and no others. Peyronie’s Disease Institute only uses what are called “pharmaceutical grade” products, which are of a higher quality and purity level, and pass rigorous tests to guarantee that what is on the label is contained in each capsule. Time and again we see that when men switch over to PDI products and follow our instructions, good things start to happen. Our therapy products have been used successfully in hundreds of treatment programs. Most people understand that it is a poor time to experiment and sample bargain products while they are attempting to repair a serious health problem like Peyronie’s disease.

With over 31,000 nutritional products available on the worldwide market, this subject is confusing. Many of them – more than you would believe – do not contain what they are supposed to contain. They have far fewer – or none – of the nutrients you need to do the big job in front of you.

PDI cannot answer your questions or help you with your therapy plan if we do not have knowledge, experience or confidence with “foreign” therapies. On the PDI website we clearly state, “Sorry, but due to the volume of emails PDI receives and with limited hours available in a day, we can only answer questions from PDI customers. Purchase your therapy products only from PDI so you have full access to the vast experience and careful assistance available to our customers. If you purchase inferior grade or questionable bargain products elsewhere, you will have to rely upon that source for whatever help you might need later.”

Please email me any questions you might have about treatment of PD with Alternative Medicine, I will be happy to help you in any way that I can.   info@peyronies-diseae-help.com.

Every now and then someone emails a question to me about an herbal Peyronie’s disease treatment (ginkgo biloba, echinacea), a micronutrient (coenzyme Q, EPA), or an old home remedy (garlic, castor oil, olive oil) that might be used as a Peyronie’s disease cure.  Along a similar line, I am sometimes asked if I know anything about a legendary Peyronie’s treatment known as Thacker’s formula, what I would think about using the treatment, and why does this treatment not appear in the PDI lineup of therapies?

In order for any therapy or procedure to be included in the PDI lineup of 14 potential Peyronie’s treatments, it has to have either been applied specifically in treatment of PD in a series of scientific studies and proven at least 50% effective in several trials (even though it might have done poorly in others), or it must have demonstrated good success and acceptance within the scientific community for treatment of other unrelated health problems (acupuncture and homeopathy).  With this simple criterion we establish some level of scientific credibility for those therapies in our PDI lineup, and further increase the possible effectiveness of therapy when several of these are united in a synergistic program of care.

There are probably some really good Peyronie’s disease treatment ideas that that could be actually very effective.  But who among us wants to waste his time, effort, energy, money, and most importantly, his opportunity to get over his Peyronie’s disease by experimenting with theories that have absolutely no proven ability to influence the body to promote healing? I did not want to waste my time on theories of questionable merit, when I knew there were many available that had already achieved some level of success.  This last group seemed to be a better place to look for answers, than chasing unproven ideas.

Edgar Cayce’s castor oil pack might indeed be an effective Peyronies’ disease treatment, but for one reason or another it has not been subjected to even minimal scrutiny for PD.  The goal of recovering from Peyronies is too great to use an untried treatment, when there are so many others of higher credibility and logic to work with.

PDI was started on the basis of using treatments of some level of known and proven merit, and uses this standard today to determine what additions will be recommended and used in future therapy plans.  Rumors, stories, and speculation you read about on a Peyronie’s forum is not enough.  Alternative Medicine employs early science to see through the maze of superstition and learn the truth of what may or may not work to regain health.  These are the principles used to formulate the current Peyronie’s disease treatment strategies you have learned about.  We are already working on the outer rim of established medical practice, but we must be careful to not go too far away from common sense and valuable scientific information that will help us achieve our health goals.

Usually, my suggestion for someone who wants to use such a new Peyronie’s treatment is to do it in combination with several other known and better proven therapies already in the PDI lineup.  This way there is back-up treatment, and the total effort will create a therapeutic synergy.  Never is it suggested to use only the one therapy of any type, proven or unproven.

So, if you are just adding in an extra type of therapy because you read about it on a Peyronie’s forum, I say, all the more power to your curiosity and sense of adventure, but please do not have that constitute the majority of what you do for yourself.

Try not to become so desperate that you grab at straws. There is a lot of good information about sensible Peyronie’s disease treatment I can offer if you need help with your rehabilitation program.

While it is generally agreed there is no such thing as a Peyronie’s cure, PDI has shown since 2002 that it is certainly possible to reverse Peyronie’s disease and penile curvature with Alternative Medicine when it is done in the correct way.

Peyronie’s disease is primarily concerned with the dreaded fibrous Peyronie’s plaque or internal scar material that can cause a variable degree of penile curvature, pain, sex problems, and reduced penis size.  Any true Peyronie’s treatment must address the issue of the fibrous scar.  Yet, when men are first diagnosed by a medical doctor they are told there is no known cause of Peyronies disease and no Peyronie’s cure.

Just because the medical profession does not have a drug as a standard Peyronie’s disease treatment, they have assumed the position there is no such thing as a Peyronie’s cure.  For this reason MDs do not like to treat Peyronie’s disease.  The average medical doctor, even a urologist, has few options for anyone with PD, other than Peyronie’s surgery – which often has poor results.

Peyronie’s disease treatment

The current accepted Peyronie’s disease treatment in a medical office is to do nothing for the first one or two years, while waiting for the Peyronie’s problem to either get better or worse on its own.  This is the wait-and-see approach to Peyronie’s treatment is frustrating and irritating to any man who wakes up one morning with the curved penis of Peyronies.

While the medical establishment maintains there is no effective Peyronie’s disease treatment, the Peyronie’s Disease Institute has worked since 2002 using Alternative Medicine in a unique way that proves this is not true.  There is a simple and direct method to for Peyronie’s disease treatment that is either misunderstood or overlooked by the medical profession.  Those who follow the Peyronie’s Disease Institute treatment concepts sometimes even call it a Peyronie’s cure.

Daily I communicate with angry and defeated men who get no help from the medical profession, who are neglected and given no hope or information to help themselves with their Peyronie’s problem.   Men speak of feeling like Peyronie’s orphans.

One of the basic questions of Peyronie’s disease treatment is this:  “If my medical doctor says there is nothing that can be done for me, other than surgery, what does that really mean to me?  For those who are comfortable with thinking independently, they must decide if there are options outside of medicine that the neighborhood MD does not know about, or even care about.

Natural treatment for Peyronie’s disease

The Peyronie’s Disease Institute was started in 2002 by Dr. Theodore Herazy after he successfully cured his own severe PD with Alternative Medicine.  His early experiments with herbs, vitamins, minerals, enzymes and other safe natural remedies showed exciting promise for Peyronies help.  Over the years he has guided and counseled hundreds of men each year through the treatment maze toward elimination of the scar and distortion of Peyronie’s disease.  It is not always an easy assignment, and when it is done incorrectly or without needed gusto it falls short of the desired outcome.   But when a man uses all of the tools available to him in a faithful and aggressive manner, the results can be dramatic and prompt.   It is estimated that about 80% of men with Peyronie’s disease who follow a large plan according to the outline provided on the PDI website, see from moderate to great success in reduction of penile curvature and elimination of the Peyronie’s plaque material.

Even though the medical profession says it can’t be done – it happens anyway because the body knows how to heal itself.  Using the PDI concepts, you will be able to assist and stimulate that natural healing response that some people call a Peyronie’s cure.