This is a copy of the webpage this site featured on the PF:
The Prostatitis Foundation: The Inside Story
There are only two major patient-driven CP/CPPS websites on the internet: this site and the Prostatitis Foundation (PF) site (prostatitis.org). For a long time during the 1990s, theirs was the only site. I started my site because of its shortcomings, but more about that later. Their website still exists as of 2019, but largely as a hobby for the ~90 year old original owner, I suspect.
The players
Who is behind the PF? It was started by a CPPS patient, Michael R. Hennenfent, an Illinois dairy farmer, born in 1929. Also part of the PF as treasurer and medical adviser was his son, Bradley Richard Hennenfent, born 1958, who had a short history as a MD, and their webmaster, Kenneth Jon Smith, an agribusiness journalist who has never had CPPS. These were the main players, although the PF had other shadowy members who stayed in the background.
Bradley Hennenfent, who now describes himself as an “entrepreneur, economist, inventor, physician”, in fact only practised medicine for a short while before embarking on a chequered career as a website mogul (with websites like “BragAboutSex.com”), to human cloning advocate (he created “The Human Cloning Foundation”), to vociferous Tea Party agitator, Ayn Rand devotee, and anti-Obama campaigner. While he worked for the PF, he managed to get over $100,000 worth of donations and grants allotted to the PF, a large chunk of which was funnelled to their favored “researcher”, an ex-navy doctor called John Polacheck, who ran a “prostatitis clinic” in Tuscon in the 1990s and early 2000s. The money was supposedly for a study that Polacheck was going to produce to prove that bacteria are the cause of the mysterious CPPS. Needless to say, the study was never forthcoming, and so the money was wasted on a wild goose chase trying to prove a pet theory.
Bradley Hennenfent hasn’t been a MD since 1996, yet still wears a doctor’s white coat
Brad Hennenfent's website dynasty
Just some of the domains that belong/ed to the Hennenfent gang
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http://www.acousticneuromafoundation.org/
http://www.amlfoundation.org/
http://www.appendicitisfoundation.org/
http://www.bacteriophagefoundation.org
http://www.bettersexfoundation.org
http://www.bigseats.org
http://www.blastotalk.com
http://www.bragaboutsex.com
http://www.carpaltunnelfoundation.org
http://www.chlamydiafoundation.org
http://www.constipationfoundation.org
http://www.drbradleysadvice.com
http://www.drbradsadvice.com
http://www.eggdonorfoundation.org
http://www.ejaculatory.org
http://www.ejaculatoryduct.com
http://www.ejaculatoryduct.org
http://www.ejaculatoryductobstruction.com
http://www.ejaculatoryductobstruction.org
http://www.epididymitisfoundation.org
http://www.epididymitistalk.com
http://www.fecaltransfusionfoundation.org
http://www.flufoundation.org
http://www.germproject.com
http://www.herbalfda.org
http://www.hghblogs.com
http://www.hghtalk.com
http://www.humancloning.org
http://www.humangermproject.com
http://www.humangrowthhormonefoundation.org
http://www.humanprobiotics.com
http://www.influenzafoundation.org
http://www.kneetreatmentfoundation.org
http://www.mrplasticsurgery.org
http://www.mrsplasticsurgery.org
http://www.nanobacteria.org
http://www.orchitis.org
http://www.pcatalk.com
http://www.prostateblogs.com
http://www.prostatecancertalk.com
http://www.prostatetalk.com/
http://www.prostatitisandbph.org
http://www.prostatitisresearch.org
http://www.religiouscenter.org
http://www.survivingpcawithoutsurgery.org
http://www.survivingprostatecancerwithoutsurgery.com
http://www.survivingprostatecancerwithoutsurgery.org
http://www.urethral.org
http://www.urethritis.org
http://www.urticariafoundation.org
http://www.varicocelefoundation.org
http://www.vasectomyfoundation.org
http://www.vestibularschwannoma.com
http://www.5filipinas.com
http://www.alwaysdancing.com/
http://www.alwayswriting.com/
http://www.ashliearnaiz.com
http://www.bballtalk.com
http://www.blogsnboards.com
http://www.cebu4foreigners.com
http://www.complainaboutsex.com
http://www.hennenfent.com/
http://www.linuxrevolt.org
http://www.maryannorginger.com
http://www.newwebmasters.com
http://www.philippinedepartmentoftourism.com
http://www.poorbastardsmensclub.com
http://www.presidentialbeauty.com
http://www.presidentialbeautycontest.com
http://www.presidentialcontender.com
http://www.presidents1210.com
http://www.pressbeauty.com
http://www.prezbeauty.com
http://www.rachelormonica.com
http://www.religiousleft.org
http://www.ringtonetalk.com
http://www.rosevillebooks.com/
http://www.sarstalk.com
The "good"
One of the PF’s chief claims to fame was the lobbying for federal funds to be allotted for research into prostatitis, where they did have some success to give them credit where it is due. But when the research started to show results they weren’t expecting, such as that normal men had more bacteria in their prostates than men with CP/CPPS, the wheels came off. I wrote to them several times and offered to help them update their website to reflect the new findings and directions, but received no response. One of my moderators got into an instant message conversation with Mike Hennenfent, and casually asked him why he would not communicate with me, and Hennenfent immediately logged off and blocked further exchanges with him. I found their attitude a little odd, and could only surmise that they were miffed about criticisms I’d levelled at them in the past. Either that, or the cosy relationship they had with the NIDDK and the grant money flowing their way was enough reason to shun outsiders like me.
Around $100k was received by the PF itself. In the end, these funds were squandered on their friends and did not help men with CP/CPPS at all
The bad
Another PF claim to fame was the organising of conferences to discuss prostatitis. Unfortunately, invitees to the PF-arranged conferences included people like the late Paul Fugazzotto, then in his late 80s, a retired microbiologist from South Dakota, who charged people $25 a pop to test their mailed-in urine in his backyard lab. Fugazzotto’s theory was that modern medicine is on the wrong track, that internationally accepted laboratory microbiological techniques to test for UTIs are wrong, that most if not all cases of CPPS and IC are as a result of active bacterial infection, and that very long courses of antibiotics, sometimes lasting into the years, are required to maintain good health in IC and CPPS patients. Mailed-in urine samples, which allowed small numbers of bacteria to multiply to astronomical numbers during mailing, were then further cultured in broth for long periods so that even a single contaminant or innocuous bacterium would eventually show up as an “infection”. Fugazzotto’s theory held that just one bacterium in the urine is abnormal, whereas modern pathologists know that colony counts must be performed to decide at what level infection is present. As any pathologist will verify, a small number of bacteria may be found in the urine of many healthy people, and the presence of a small number of bacteria in the urine is usually considered harmless (if the number of bacteria reaches a certain level, however, it may then mean infection). So why was a maverick like Fugazzotto invited by the PF to the conference? Because he was a believer in infection theory, is the only logical answer.
In mitigation, we must acknowledge that these conferences were taking place in the aftermath of Dr Barry Marshall’s discovery that gastric ulcers were caused by bacteria. The hope that many mysterious diseases had infectious causes gripped the imaginations of people. There was also much chatter on the PF’s website about “biofilms” and resistant bacteria forming impenetrable layers inside the ducts of the prostate. So that’s an extenuating circumstance, but what cannot be so easily forgiven is the refusal to change course when facts emerged to challenge their beliefs. They should have remembered what economist Keynes said: “When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?”
The ugly
The PF and their website had enormous influence on public opinion during the 1990s. All of the members of the PF had one thing in common — they all had the conviction that CP/CPPS was caused by an active infection of the prostate gland, and they used their website to promote this idea at every opportunity. While loudly proclaiming that “we won’t tell you what to think”, their site was chock-full of propaganda and very little science.
Ken Smith was the PF’s Minister of Propaganda, putting up page after page of infection fantasy, devoid of any scientific facts. Here’s a typical Smith statement: “Your prostatitis, most likely, is caused by a bacterial infection in your prostate gland.” Smith even proudly claimed on one page that we do not check for “scientific accuracy”. Notice the quotes around scientific accuracy, as if it’s a quaint notion to be scorned. There is an antiscience theme that runs throughout:
Smith was the originator of the “pus-filled, blocked acini” hypothesis that still pops up on my forum to this day, perhaps because it’s still on the PF’s antiquated website:
By spreading misinformation like this, extensive damage is done to patients, who expend blood and treasure seeking a bogus cure from charlatans. The best thing that could happen now is for Mike Hennenfent to close down the site, because it’s like one of those rice paddies in Vietnam, full of unexploded landmines. Best cordon it off and put up a “Danger: Keep Out” sign.
The Philippines connection
The story of the PF would be incomplete without including the involvement of the PF with two Filipino doctors, a father and son called Dr AN Feliciano (now dead) and Dr AE Feliciano (who scraped through his MD exams on the third attempt). The PF thought they’d stumbled on the Messiah when they heard about Dr AN Feliciano, who ran a prostatitis clinic in Manila, treating men with a combination of
prostate massage and lots of different antibiotics. Miraculous cures were rumoured, someone knew somebody who claimed he’d come back cured, and soon there was a cult-like devotion to the “Manila Protocol”, especially by the PF, who tried to steer as many men there as they could:
Note that aforementioned Dr Polacheck was an acolyte of Dr AE Feliciano back in the late 1990s, so his Tucson clinic was promoted too.
Bradley Hennenfent even went so far as to author a paper in conjunction with AE Feliciano and John Polacheck that purported to show how the Manila Protocol treatment cured men. It was rejected by peer-reviewed journals and eventually got published on a
vanity press-style open access journal, which, for a fee, will publish anything. The “journal” folded after a few years. The paper on the Manila Protocol has now faded into the obscurity it so richly deserves. They authored yet another paper attempting to show that the Manila Protocol can treat Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH) as well, and this one is extant, sadly, and available on PubMed, which goes to show that one needs to treat PubMed with a degree of caution (I tend to look at the quality of the journal for pointers to credibility). Hennenfent went on to write a book about prostate cancer called “Surviving Prostate Cancer without Surgery”, in which he blames prostate cancer on the same imaginary cause he identifies for CPPS and BPH — blocked ducts in the prostate:
When your prostate is plugged up …. polluted sacs of cancer causing ingredients may be festering inside your prostate for decades. (Page 32, Surviving Prostate Cancer Without Surgery by Bradley Hennenfent)
A comment I made a while ago is still valid:
The PF is one of the last holdouts of the bacterial theory of CPPS. Bradley Hennenfent in particular believes we all have hidden bacteria lurking in our prostates, and to hell with the many studies that show this to be nonsense. Whereas most urologists and doctors have moved with the times, this ex-physician has decided that he is quite a lot smarter than researching urologists, and that he and Dr Feliciano of Manila (who reportedly only passed his MD exams on the 4th attempt) have discovered what truly ails us: bacteria! And not only CPPS patients, but men with Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH) and Prostate Cancer too! What’s that they say? … “when the only tool you have is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail.”
Hennenfent Jnr was not taken seriously by the urological community and his “breakthroughs” with the Manila Protocol were politely ignored.
The shameful Song episode
In 2006/7, the PF started their own online forum, mostly because the Usenet newsgroup had died and they needed to counteract my forum. They used the forum largely to push sales of the pro-infection monograph by Brad Hennenfent called “The Prostatitis Syndromes” for $25. The book bombed, and no wonder considering that it’s a dog’s breakfast, mixing up prostatitis, BPH and prostate cancer, and suggesting they are all more or less the same thing.
Nobody at the PF had enthusiasm for running the forum, where the blind lead the blind, and when a doctor from China called Xinping Song suggested he pay them to let his people run the forum, they gladly agreed. Big, big mistake! Predictably, Song’s agents used the forum as a recruiting ground for new patients. Song was running a flea-bitten clinic in Changsha, China, that injected prostates with unknown concoctions, using dirty needles. Numerous patients found they had contracted Hepatitis C when they got back to the West. Panicked by the legal implications, the PF shut down their forum for several years. Unfortunately, they’ve since re-opened it and once again the misinformation is spreading. I get the refugees from their forum at my forum regularly, and they need extensive rehabilitation and re-orientation.
Conclusion
So there you have it, part of the messy history of CP/CPPS in the US, now finally up here in a blog post. I wanted to put it all down before it disappeared in the mists of time. If you have any information you feel is missing from this post, please email me via the Contact page.