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 Vitamin E Dosage

The usual Peyronie’s disease vitamin E dosage advice from a medical doctor will be to “take no more than 400 IU of vitamin E a day.”   Sometimes this number will be doubled to 800 IU daily by some doctors who are more aggressive with their recommendation.  All of this is of valuable interest because vitamin E is the most commonly recommended non-drug Peyronie’s disease treatment, and very often it is the only non-drug Peyronie’s disease treatment that will be discussed.

Since vitamin E is available in both a synthetic form and a naturally occurring organic form, which form you use determines how much you can safely take.  Eight different members of the vitamin E family, four known as tocopherols and four known as tocotrienols, make up the vitamin E family.  A balanced diet – very difficult to achieve these days – contains all eight members of the vitamin E group.  The most widely found member is known as gamma tocopherol, which works to eliminate nitrogen free radicals and is a very effective anti-inflammatory agent.  Tocotrienols are primarily found in the skin and subdermis where they protect against UV and free radical damage.

Most vitamin E supplements contain only alpha tocopherol because it was thought that only this single part of the family of eight is the most important for Peyronies disease treatment. In fact, most vitamin E skin products contain a small amount of synthetic dl-alpha-tocopheryl acetate.  This means that they contain only one of the eight members of the vitamin E family in the less effective synthetic form. Only products which supply the complete vitamin E family and are particularly rich in gamma tocopherol and tocotrienols in their natural and unesterified form contribute to accelerated wound healing and minimized scarring.  This is why PDI is most insistent on men using a vitamin E therapy that is heavily slanted toward gamma tocopherol and all the tocotrienols.

Peyronie’s and vitamin E controversy

Concern about vitamin E safety during the past decade or so has been due solely to bad publicity in this area, which is based on perpetuation of questionable research and misunderstanding about vitamins.   Faulty research reporting and misinterpretation of findings are the same two reasons for the condemnation of vitamin E supplementation.

First, vitamin E confusion arises from a medical reporting that ignores details of a particular vitamin E study reported in the Annals of Internal Medicine.  The problem is gross generalization or not understanding the vitamin E research study.

The Annals of Internal Medicine vitamin E report is presented in  http://www.annals.org/cgi/content/full/0000605-200501040-00110v1 Review this information to verify what I report is accurate:

• Those who took part in this vitamin E research often combined vitamin E with various drugs while they were being studied.  All potential and actual adverse drug reactions to these different drug combinations were not factored in or considered anywhere in the study results.
• All study participants were elderly people, already being treated for a variety of chronic diseases. The researchers report this as a strong complicating issue, and puts suspicion on all conclusions because these elderly and sick people are far more likely to be taking high doses of vitamin E. They readily admit it is inaccurate to generalize these findings of this group to a healthy, normal, average or younger age group population.
• This study contained too many variables.  It evaluated many different research studies, all of them used different procedures and protocols such as different vitamin E dosages administered for a widely variable amount of time. They admit they evaluated and combined data from sources that originated and were collected in different ways; they went beyond comparing apples and oranges, they compared grapes and bowling balls.
• None of the studies reported took the time to report or differentiate chemical immense differences of natural and synthetic vitamin E.
• Within the scientific community the findings of the original research has been questioned and criticized.

Vitamin E safety

The Annals of Internal Medicine report states vitamin E has a relative risk of 1.05. A relative risk of 1.0 is actually a neutral finding.   This 1.05 risk level is not clinically significant to establish an association between a fatal dose or use high dose vitamin like vitamin E.  Consider that water might have a relative risk of 1.05 in certain situations.

Before taking higher doses of vitamin E for therapeutic benefit, consult a health professional first.  Discuss your health concerns, possible vitamin E side effects, and what dosage of vitamin E might be best for you.  Vitamin E may be deficient in some diets, especially very low fat diets. Most nutrition experts agree that taking vitamin E supplements is safe.

Vitamin E study limitations and problems

Here is a summary of this study presented by those who conducted this study:

The evaluation of high-dosage vitamin E trials in which more than 400 IU of vitamin E was used was often too small to establish accuracy of findings.  This study should not have included elderly patients with one or more chronic diseases, yet they were the primary participants.  It is not clear how to generalize the findings of this study conducted on ill and elderly people to a population of healthy adults.  It is also not clear how to determine the exact dosage at which someone might be at risk of taking too much vitamin E based on this study using ill and elderly people.

In spite of these large obvious flaws and limitations, the conclusion of this study is that any dosage at or above 400 IU daily of vitamin E may increase mortality and should be avoided.

Secondly, misunderstanding and confusion exists over the many subtle differences between natural and synthetic vitamin E.  The ultimate error is that natural and synthetic vitamin E will chemically react the same, and that is not true.

Problem #2 – Natural or Synthetic Vitamin E

Natural vitamin E is d-alpha-tocopherol, and synthetic vitamin E is dl-alpha-tocopheryl. Since the names of the chemicals are different you know the chemicals are different.  As the chemicals are different, their reaction is also different in the body.

The Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients reports, “Natural vitamin E supplements outperform synthetic forms, according to a VERIS Research Summary. Results of recent studies suggest that natural vitamin E is more bioavailable and is retained in body tissues significantly longer than synthetic vitamin E. These studies show that previously accepted differences were underestimated and that the bioavailability of natural vitamin E is about twice that of synthetic vitamin E compounds.”

Vegetable oil, specifically soybean oil, is the primary source of naturally occurring vitamin E.  However, synthetic vitamin E is manufactured from petroleum chemicals (yes, the same oil that comes out of the ground, used to make tar, motor oil and gasoline, often linked with cancer).

Doctors are very comfortable and familiar with prescribing synthetic chemicals.  For this reason they are not hesitant to prescribe a synthetic vitamin.  But, the primary difference scientists use to determine toxicity and function within the body is the molecular structure of a compound.

When taking levels of “vitamin E” above 400IU is found to be unsafe, it is because the vitamin E is synthetic and not tolerated well. All biomedical testing proves that within the human structure there is a strong chemical discrimination or preference between natural and synthetic vitamin E.

“Our studies suggest without question that natural vitamin E delivers at least twice the impact as synthetic E,” said Robert Acuff, PhD, Professor and Director, Center for Nutrition Research at East Tennessee State University.  He concludes it is the natural form of vitamin E is obviously the one human tissue was designed to use.  Margaret Traber, Associate Professor at the Linus Pauling Institute, Oregon State University, seems to discriminate between the two forms of vitamin E, reporting that the human body will retain the natural organic form of vitamin E, while rapidly eliminating the synthetic form in the urine and bowel.

It is my opinion that the human organism will tolerate much higher doses of natural vitamin E – provided by Peyronie’s Disease Institute and the Natural Complementary Medicine LLC website – and can tolerate much less synthetic vitamin E available found in lower cost and lower quality products.  For this reason PDI only uses organic and natural vitamin E for use in Peyronie’s disease treatment plans.  Using the kind of vitamin E we have available, many men use levels in the 800IU-1,200IU range while attempting to reduce their Peyronies plaque or scar.

For additional information go to the PDI website at vitamin E.

Here is interesting vitamin E, PABA and Peyronie’s treatment information from the National Kidney and Urologic Diseases Information Clearinghouse, an important arm of the prestigious National Institute of Health, found at http://kidney.niddk.nih.gov /Kudiseases/pubs/peyronie/index.htm

This information about  Peyronie’s treatment and vitamin E is not exactly new, because frankly, there is not much that is  new in the search for a Peyronies cure.  Even so, what makes this section worth reading is that it is interesting and immensely informative in a different way.  What is important to know about Peyronies treatment from a medical standpoint is not what is revealed, but what is not  mentioned about Peyronie’s treatment – in this case concerning the use of vitamin E.

This following paragraph is copied under the NIH’s discussion of “Experimental Peyronie’s Treatments”:

“Some researchers have given vitamin E orally to men with Peyronie’s disease in small-scale studies and have reported improvements. Yet, no controlled studies have established the effectiveness of vitamin E therapy. Similar inconclusive success has been attributed to oral application of para-aminobenzoate [PABA], a substance belonging to the family of B-complex molecules.”

It is important to know that this is as far as the discussion concerning the use of vitamin E and PABA goes in this government article.  It reports that “small-scale studies…have reported improvements. Yet, no controlled studies have established the effectiveness of vitamin E therapy.”   So, if there was some improvement noted when vitamin E and PABA were used in Peyronie’s treatment, exactly why have there been no additional controlled studies conducted to prove or disprove that these early initial positive reports were factual?  If it looked like these two experimental, but natural, non-drug Peyronie’s treatments were helpful, how can it be that no further testing has been done in this direction?

Isn’t the drug industry, or the AMA, or the government, or some private research group out there supposed to be interested in finding a Peyronie’s cure?   If some natural Peyronie’s therapy like PABA or vitamin E showed some initial promise, why has no one looked into it further?   If something comes along that is naturally occurring, easy and inexpensive to produce, safe to take compared to drugs, and readily available in the marketplace, and happens to look like it could help men with Peyronie’s disease, why has it not been investigated further?  Why, indeed!

Vitamin E as a Peyronie’s treatment, or not

The answer to this natural question is found in the second sentence, in which it is mentioned, “no controlled studies have established the effectiveness of vitamin E therapy.”  This means that without these additional higher-level controlled studies, the effectiveness of vitamin E and PABA remain conveniently unproven. Therefore, vitamin E and PABA remain only at the experimental forever.  Exactly where the drug industry wants them to remain.  So long as they continue to ignore vitamin E – to not give it a legitimate opportunity to prove or disprove it’s value to assist in Peyronie’s treatment – the medical community and the drug industry can correctly say it is “unproven.”   This keeps vitamin E, and PABA, and other Alternative Medicine therapies out in the cold, where they would like them to remain.

It appears that the drug industry does not want to know if Peyronie’s disease can be treated with vitamin E.  If it were known that vitamin E, or PABA, or the PDI treatment concept of synergistic use of multiple Alternative Medicine therapies, are actually effective Peyronie’s treatments, then the entire argument against their use would crumble.  No one has stepped forward to conduct controlled studies because of fear that vitamin E, or PABA, might actually help the body heal the Peyronies plaque.

So long as the necessary tests are withheld, it is perfectly honest and legitimate to say that these natural therapies are “not proven” by controlled research.  This is a great discussion stopper, isn’t it?  Yet, no one goes the next step to ask, “And, exactly why have these necessary controlled studies not been performed in view of the small-scale studies that indicated these simple measures were effective?  Why the delay?  Why the lack of interest?”

Well, I guess we all know, and it should not surprise anyone, that the answer is the importance of profit over humanitarian interests.  It is unfortunate but apparently true, since I have found no reasonable answer to explain why this testing has not been conducted.   You can assure that if small-scale testing of a new drug showed the same improvement, that vast sums of additional funding would be forthcoming for controlled studies.  In this way, once that new drug could be proved or disproved, its march to the marketplace and profitability would be hastened.

Lastly, if you think the use of vitamin E or PABA might not be a reasonable kind of therapy to use because they are “unproven,” now you understand that this state of being unproven is a convenient strategy of those who help themselves more than they want to help you.

Perhaps this will help you to understand, and feel differently about, the use of vitamin E, PABA, and the rest of the Peyronie’s Disease Institute program to treat this male scourge.   For more information about the use of vitamin E in the treatment of Peyronie’s disease, go to Vitamin E, and to learn about the use of PABA in the treatment of Peyronie’s disease, go to PABA.

This is why it is necessary for each man to look out for himself and become the master of his own Peyronie’s treatment, since there is no one as interested in your welfare as you – and the Peyronie’s Disease Institute.

Some men at the start of care get confused about taking their Peyronie’s disease treatment supplements.  If it is true that timing is everything, as they say, it is critical to the success of your Peyronie’s disease program.  If you do not take your supplements at the right time, you are not going to get the kind of results that you should.

Double check to make sure you take each one of your Peyronies therapies at the right time.  I just had a fellow the other day – after three months of treatment – finally figure out that he got confused on the first day, and was taking his Neprinol WITH meals.  What a mistake!  He wasted precious time, opportunity and money. Do not make that kind of error.

Take these with meals (immediately before eating or during a meal):

1. Vitamin E 400/400

2. Maxi-Gamma E

3. Omega Q

4. Natural C 1000

5. Fundamental Sulfur with C (MSM) – if you are having digestive complaints when taking it    between meals on an empty stomach, otherwise take between meals

6. PABA

7. Acetyl-L-Carnitine

8. Prosta-Support

9. NanoGreens – our new green drink

Take these between meals (1 hour or more before eating or 2 hours after eating):

1. Neprinol

2. Fibrozym

3. Nattokinase

4. MSM (Fundamental Sulfur) – only if it bothers your digestive tract when taken on an empty stomach

5. Quercetin/Bromelain

7. Scar-X – be careful you do not even chew gum or eat candy during this time; your mouth must not even have the taste of food in it when you take homeopathy

At the beginning of the day, separate all the supplements you will need for that day.  It is more work to handle the bottles twice a day.  If you are going to eat every meal away from home, put what you need in each for each meal in one of the small plastic cases for easy and clean transport.

Put an “X” on the bottle top of all products you take between meals.  Finding them will be easier when you are putting your supplements in the case.

We encourage you to talk to your personal physician about any digestive problem or concern you may have.  It is critical that you keep your family doctor informed about your progress and your current condition, especially when there is a problem.

If you have ideas about other topics you would like to have addressed, or questions about Peyronie’s disease treatment or plaque, please let me know.  TRH

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