ACCORDING to the orthodox text books there is no cure for enlarged prostates except operation. These prostate operations are extremely risky and a very considerable number result in death. If a patient is inoperable or refuses the operation for some reason or other, the specialists generally tell him that nothing further can be done for him. Prostate operations are becoming more and more numerous.
Some are successful, at least temporarily. In other cases the operation is followed earlier or later by very undesirable developments and in a very large percentage of cases death ensues. The operation is not an easy one.
Every good homoeopathic doctor should endeavor to treat prostate cases by diet and medicine. After all, the enlarged prostate is very frequently the local manifestation of a constitutional fault. It may be compared to the gouty toe of those who indulge to excess in alcohol. The obvious cure for an inflamed and exquisitely painful gouty toe is not to cut it off but to cut off the port wine, stout, beef, game, etc., which may be responsible for the gouty condition.
In order to illustrate the way in which an enlarged prostate can be cured, I would give an example.
On June 23rd, 1933, Mr. L. G., of D., wrote:.
“I have an enlarged prostate gland. I am 71 years old and I do not want to be operated upon. My general health is very good. I am troubled with my water. I have to wait before it will start and run at all, especially when I wake after being asleep about two hours. If I over-sleep and go for four hours when emptying my bladder I am generally troubled. I cannot very well travel by train or motor for hours and therefore cannot visit you because I should then have little chance of emptying my bladder.”.
In a subsequent letter Mr. L. G. wrote:.
“I have had the enlarged prostate for ten years. My doctor says that he could take it away by operation but, as two of my friends did not survive that operation, I do not feel like taking the risk, especially as the greater part of my income is a pension which my wife would lose if I should die first.”.
On June 28th, 1933, I wrote to him asking him for full details regarding his diet, condition of bowel, whether he had had gonorrhoea, etc., and concluding my letter with the words: “I would advise you to keep your bowels open by taking one or two tablespoonfuls of liquid paraffin three times a day before meals, and to live on a diet from which flesh, fish, fowl and everything made of them, condiments, including salt, alcohol and tobacco, are strictly eliminated.
You can take any quantity of the weakest of weak China tea, half milk if you like, and parsley tea, which is excellent for the bladder, made as follows: Get one or two handfuls of parsley, cut fine, fill with it a thoroughly heated teapot, pour boiling water on it, let it draw for ten minutes, and drink all day long. These measures will give you vast relief.”.
I gave him Sulphur 6x, a dose to be taken night and morning.
On June 27th Mr. L. G. told me that he had never had gonorrhoea, had never been laid up and had no idea of the cause of the enlargement of the gland. He took much meat, had been constipated all his life and took considerable quantities of Cascara. Cascara, while clearing the bowel, produces considerable irritation, which, conceivably, may affect the prostate. I have no doubt that heating foods like meat, fish, fowl, condiments, strong coffee and strong tea are very unfavourable to the prostate.
On July 8th, after only about a weeks treatment, Mr. L. G. wrote:.
“Your advice has done me good and I am much better.”.
After some considerable time I had all the information I required. On July 17th I had all the necessary facts and i sent him my directions in which I told him:.
“Your diet should be cooling, and you will do well to take plenty of liquid because otherwise concentrated strong urine will irritate the gland, and keep it large or make it larger.” I recommended him to have three motions a day, with the help of liquid paraffin, to take an abundance of bran and to live on a diet of wholemeal bread and milk, extremely weak China tea with plenty of milk, an abundance of raw juicy fruit, salads, dressed with oil and lemon juice, vegetables boiled without salt or soda, potatoes boiled or baked in their skins, meagre egg or egg and cheese dishes, etc.
He was to take Sulphur 6x, first and last thing, in alternation with Silica 12x. As the gland was hard Silica was obviously indicated.
On July 18th Mr. L. G. wrote: “I am pleased to say that I am already a lot better for following your advice. In fact I have only had one bad bout during the last fortnight, and that was probably my own fault. I am decidedly better.” On July 23rd he wrote: “I am keeping wonderfully better, have no more trouble whatever and I have a distinct feeling that the gland is reduced.” On August 1st he wrote: “I am better than I have been for years.
I have no stoppage of urine at all and very little pain. However, I cannot yet sit through a full church service, but have to go out to empty my bladder or suffer and take the risk of being unable to empty it. I think I am cured.”.
I informed Mr. L. G. that he was by no means cured and that an enlarged prostate does not shrink as quickly as he imagined, that he would have to continue the treatment for some time. I then sent him Aurum iodatum 6x, a tablet to be taken three times a day. On February 23rd 1934, he wrote: “I am sure you will be pleased to hear I have kept on the whole well.” On February 26th he wrote: “I am no doubt a lot better than when I wrote to you first, and I have followed your advice as regards diet. I now have but little trouble.”
I sent Aurum iodatum 6x, and he wrote on March 8th, 1934: “You will be pleased to hear that I am much better, I have had very little occasion to wait for the flow to start at night time. Formerly I had to get up every two hours but a few nights ago I slept over five hours and was agreeably surprised to find that notwithstanding this the urine came easily.” On March 22nd my patient wrote: “The other night I slept for six hours at a stretch without having to get up. I have carefully followed your diet and take plenty of milk, wholemeal bread, eggs and drink on an average three glasses of water between meals, besides the parsley tea.”.
As he was progressing rather slowly while taking Aurum iodatum 6x, I sent him on April 4th, 1934, Aurum iodatum 4x, and he reacted favourably. In letter after letter he assured me that, instead of waking up every two hours at night in order to empty his bladder, he was able to sleep five hours at a stretch and that the urine flowed easily without any waiting. On May 3rd, 1934, he wrote: “I am better now than I have been for years.” On June 7th he wrote: “I am thankful to be able to report good progress.
I feel younger than I have felt for years. I feel so grateful to you for getting my health better for I seemed to have little to look forward to when I wrote to you first. When my doctor said there was no treatment for my trouble except operation, I felt that that would end my life. Yesterday I met an old friend who said that I was getting younger and younger.”.
On July 30th, 1934, I recommended nettle tea for his bladder irritation and he took it steadily with good results. Shortly afterwards our correspondence came to an end.
More than a year after, on November 28th, 1935, he wrote: “I feel I must write and tell you how very grateful I feel to you for your advice and medicine. I wrote to you first when I was so troubled with an enlarged prostate gland. I seem to have little or no trouble now, but I still adhere to the diet you advised me to take. I am delighted to let you know that I have had no stoppage of urine since I finished with you and I still have untouched the last box of the small white tablets.
What makes me feel I must write to you is this. I have lost only this week another old friend of mine. He was suddenly afflicted by stoppage of the urine and the doctor said that nothing could be done except an operation. He was operated upon and next morning he was dead. He had been a strong healthy man and was 65 years old.”.
James Ellis Barker wrote a very large number of books, both under the name James Ellis Barker and under his real German name Otto Julius Eltzbacher, The Truth about Homœopathy; Rough Notes on Remedies with William Murray; Chronic Constipation; The Story of My Eyes; Miracles Of Healing and How They are Done; Good Health and Happiness; New Lives for Old: How to Cure the Incurable; My Testament of Healing; Cancer, the Surgeon and the Researcher; Cancer, how it is Caused, how it Can be Prevented with a foreward by William Arbuthnot Lane; Cancer and the Black Man etc.