OBJECTIVE: To better elucidate the prevalence of perceived food sensitivity and characterize the sensitivity pattern in patients with clinically diagnosed chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome.
METHODS: A total of 286 men meeting the National Institutes of Health criteria for chronic prostatitis were mailed a validated questionnaire designed to detect the effect of foods, beverages, and/or supplements on pelvic pain symptoms. The questionnaire assessed the effect of 176 individual comestibles on each patient's symptoms. The responses were numerically scored on a scale of -2 to +2, and the mean values were generated for each comestible. In addition, the participants were asked to complete the O'Leary-Sant Symptom and Problem Index and Chronic Prostatitis Symptom Index questionnaires.
RESULTS: Of the 286 surveys, 95 were returned, yielding a response rate of 33.2%. Of those subjects who responded, 47.4% reported that the consumption of certain comestibles aggravated their symptoms, with the most aggravating being spicy foods, coffee, hot peppers, alcoholic beverages, tea, and chili. In contrast, the comestibles that alleviated the symptoms the most included docusate, pysllium, water, herbal teas, and polycarbophil.
CONCLUSION: Many patients with chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome have demonstrable food, beverage, and dietary supplement sensitivities. Dietary changes should be considered in the treatment of these patients.
PMID: 23978369
Notes:
The science has still not caught up with my conclusions about gluten, which I am 100% sure from personal experience is a CPPS trigger.
This study suggests laxatives and stool softeners alleviate symptoms, which is not a common conclusion on our forum
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I'm hesitant to believe anything that's just a survey. Tracking food logs versus self-rated symptoms would have been a much better research design.
Age: 26 | Onset Age: 23 | Symptoms: Neuropathic-like pain and hyperalgesia (lateral/anterior thighs mostly, but distributed throughout body); Pain (penis shaft, right side, when erect for long or excess masturbation) | Previous Symptoms: Pain (testicles; penis underside, mostly near base and running up urethra, sharp/burning; perennial region, dull; ejaculatory; post-ejaculatory); Urinary (moderate incomplete voiding; moderate frequency and pain on bladder filling); Sensations (cold in head of penis) | Helped By: Stretching (especially hip rotators and flexors); Yoga (especially lunges, warrior 2, and pigeon) Trigger point release (abdominals; iliopsoas; gluteus muscles and piriformis; bulbospongiosus & ischiocavernosus; thigh adductors); Meditation (mindfulness); Walking & Aerobic Exercise | Worsened By: Stress, anxiety, too much alcohol, lack of sleep, sitting at length | Current prescriptions: nortriptyline (10 mg, 1x at night; for CNS sensitization and IBS) Previous prescriptions: hydroxyzine (10 mg, 1x at night; for urinary symptoms/mast cell stabilization; useful), clonazepam (0.25-0.5 mg, 1x at night; for anxiety/CNS sensitization; useful for short time)
Funny... all those items absolutely with 100% certainty cause me issues, specifically the spicy food. I think that it somehow perpetuates the nerves, like it does in your mouth -- then the guarding, then the pain.
I have a pretty good personal baseline into this. With the intestinal infection I had I pretty much ate rice and chicken, and very basic foods for MONTHS and I felt pretty dang good. SO when I started to add spices in, more wheat, alcohol, etc, I really started to feel an impact. Mostly it felt like the colon was reacting which then perpetuated to elsewhere.
It's like somehow the nerves in the colon and the pelvis talk. There have been numerous times where I have eaten hot wings, or Mexican, and right after, almost like clockwork, that familiar burn starts. As if those chemicals are just finding there way directly to the pelvic floor.
This could also be that we are hypersensitive to pain from those organs because we are fixated on them. But still, this article really applies to me. As far as psyllium goes, I do take that here and there, it helps facilitate softer bowel movements which helps this disorder, hard movements really do perpetuate the pain.
