Yosh Taguchi - The Prostate: Everything You Need to Know About the Man Gland

The Prostate
Everything You Need to Know About the Man Gland

Copyright 2014, Yosh Taguchi

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, for any reason, by any means, without the permission of the publisher.

Cover design: Debbie Geltner

Cover image: Getty Images: Hercules and Cacus (detail), Baccio Bandinelli.

Book design and typesetting: WildElement.ca

Author photo: Toru Kawasaki

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Taguchi, Yosh, author

The prostate : everything you need to know about the man gland / by Dr. Yosh Taguchi. -- Revised edition.

Revision of: The prostate : everything you need to know about
the man gland / Yosh Taguchi ; introduction by Adrian Waller. -- Toronto : Key Porter, c2001.

Issued in print and electronic formats.

ISBN 978-1-927535-35-6 (pbk.).-- ISBN 978-1-927535-36-3 (html).-
ISBN 978-1-927535-37-0 (html).--ISBN 978-1-927535-38-7 (pdf)

1. Prostate--Diseases--Popular works. I. Title.
RC899.T33 2014 616.65 C2013-907835-5 C2013-907836-3

Printed and bound in Canada by Marquis Book Printing.

Legal Deposit, National Library and Archives Canada et Dpt lgal, Bibliothque et archives nationales du Qubec.

Linda Leith Publishing acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and of SODEC.

.ll.

Linda Leith Publishing
P.O. Box 322, Station Victoria
Westmount, Quebec H3Z 2V8 Canada
www.lindaleith.com

The Prostate
Everything You Need to Know About the Man Gland

REVISED EDITION

DR. YOSH TAGUCHI

.ll.

To my family

CONTENTS

ENLARGED PROSTATE

PROSTATITIS

PROSTATE CANCER

ERECTILE DYSFUNCTION

Foreword

The overriding emotion is terror. The surgeon is kind. He is considerate. He is painfully aware of your distress. At the same time, the diagnosis of prostate cancer is a blow to the gut, light-years away from the diagnosis of benign prostatic hyperplasia, or simple enlargement, which you had so desperately hoped for.

What will happen to me? What can I do? Will I die? Will I become impotent? What is the five-year survival rate? What do I tell my wife? My kids? Why me? These are only a few of the questions that come to mind at this terrible moment.

Yosh Taguchi is no stranger to this scenario, nor to all of these fearful questions. For more than fifty years, he has skillfully and patiently responded, reassured, treated, and often cured the tens of thousands of men who have sought his help with their prostate problems. He has removed diseased prostates, reduced the size of enlarged ones, and rebuilt structures, where necessary. A respected teacher and a surgical innovator, he has developed new and more effective procedures in the operating room, the Taguchi Loop being one in particular. Most importantly, however, he has also been a stalwart emotional support to every man he sees.

A quiet, self-effacing man, he seeks no public praise, and in fact, was almost at a loss for words when McGill University named a Chair in Urology in his honour only two years ago; a gift from a grateful and cured patient.

Its a long way from the crowded and difficult quarters of an internment camp for Japanese-Canadians to the offices, examining rooms and operating rooms of one of Canadas foremost surgical urologists. Yosh Taguchi has made this journey with dignity and aplomb. It is not so much what he does, but who he is that distinguishes this physician from the pack. There are few doctors whose patients would be willing to wait for hours to see them, without complaint, but Dr. Taguchis waiting room is filled with patient men who know that the good doctor will take all the time he needs with them.

Yosh Taguchi treats the whole man and not just the symptoms. He is intimately acquainted with his patients histories, their families, their expectations, and their fears, and he addresses all of them with each visit. From an unassuming set of examining rooms and an office on the sixth floor of Montreals Royal Victoria Hospital, he hands out advice, prescriptions, humour, and hope, all the while performing gold-standard examinations and procedures.

Each man in his office feels that he is the only patient that morning. Each man firmly believes that this doctor, his doctor, will find the most effective way to treat his condition, and each man also knows for sure that, at some time after the examination, Yosh Taguchi will point to a huge stack of books sitting on the corner of his desk and casually ask Have you read my latest one yet?

Yosh is my urologist, my golfing partner, my model for humility, and my good friend. He is a power in the medical field, but my greatest tribute to him is that he is, simply, a good man. This book represents a lifetime of his work and study. Its a must read for every man who has, or used to have a prostate.

Howard M. Schwartz, B.A. M.Ed.
Editor

Howard M. Schwartz is a retired educational administrator who now consults in strategic planning and organizational success for school boards, administrators, and industries. He is also a professional speechwriter.

Authors Note

The first edition of The Prostate , which was published in 2001, was the brainchild of Anna Porter, publisher of Key Porter Books. She thought there should be a popular book on the prostate and that I should be the one to write it. She might have been influenced by the fact that I had written a book on seldom-mentioned medical problems called Private Parts , which became an international best seller.

The Prostate was well received in Canadian, American, and British editions. It was also translated into French, La Prostate published by Gurin diteur, and Spanish, La Prostata published by Amat.

Twelve years have passed and, sadly, Key Porter Books no longer exists. I felt there was enough material for a second edition, and when I approached Linda Leith she was enthusiastic and highly supportive of the project.

The Canadian author Adrian Waller helped me with the first edition. I spent many weekends at his home working on the book with Adrian, while his wife, Irene, served us snacks and tea. Adrian has since retired to Ontario. Howard Schwartz, who was my editor for Zen in Action , my third book, agreed to be my editor for this revised edition of The Prostate . His input has been invaluable, bringing life to often lifeless pages.

In recent years a number of Canadian and American experts have authored books on the prostate. I have examined them, found them current and comprehensive, but a chore to read. I hope my good friend Fred Lowy is right when he says mine is a page turner.

Yosh Taguchi, MD, PhD, FRCSC
Montreal

The Nature of the Beast

Of all the glands in the male body, none can be more aggravating than a small, inconspicuous mass that surrounds the urethra as it exits the bladder. This seemingly harmless collection of glandular cells, muscle tissue, and supporting structures has been at the core of male middle-aged angst from the beginnings of medicine as we know it.

This book will devote itself to the description, analysis, treatment and even the removal of the man gland the prostate. Sometimes praised, often maligned, universally feared, this tiny structure will dictate the course of old age in many, if not most men, worldwide.

Not long ago, one of the hundred or so patients I see each week at Montreals Royal Victoria Hospital, where I have been practising Urology for close to half a century, asked me, Why do I have a prostate, doc?

I was a little taken aback by his question. No one had ever asked it of me before. I mean, the patient went on, I know why Ive got an elbow, a thyroid, and a penis, and I know theyre all useful. But no doctor has yet been able to tell me why I have a prostate. Oh, they can all tell me the problems Im having with my prostate, but Im still waiting for one of them to explain why I have this gland in the first place. What does it do? What is it there for? Can I live without it?