Jim:

It's late out here in SoCal, so I'll make this post short, with a
later follow up tomorrow.  

Thank you for the recommendations; I intend making a listing of what
you've described, then maybe ask a few questions of you regarding what
notable effects you may have experienced with them...

And yeah, Q-UROL is a type of quercetin, along with other ingredients.
It's touted by the moderators of chronicprostatitis.com.  It's
expensive stuff, but I tried it anyway....

Hoping to discuss with you later.....

Jim:

Can you ascribe any noticeable benefits to the Rooibos Tea, as well as
the cherry Juce, and the amount of time it took to notice any
benefits?  Would you have any recommendations regarding what brand of
cherry juice?  There is a Trader Joe's near me; I intend stopping by
there this evening...

My condition still seems to be lessening, but still there, as I write
this.  I had a consutation with a Trigger Point physical therapist
this week and it was decided I should wait 'till any flares ocurr
before starting out with any therapy.  Hopefully I won't have to start
that kind of thing....

Then I'll start re-posting the words of your patients. Here's the first one:

Polacheck ex-patient wrote:

"No I didn't get cured, and the massage irritated the prostate. I did the
massage both ways every day, Polacheck said to do this every day...I
personally don't think Dr. Polacheck can cure a person that's had
prostatitis for a while, although he can help the symptoms quite a bit with
Pmassage and ab's, but this in my book is not a cure. Not to bad mouth
Polacheck but I am a little upset because he keeps giving high doses of ab's
as long as it takes for the symptoms to go away. I've asked him a lot of
times how long will this be for the symptoms to go away? He always evades
the question and says everybody is different, and then I will ask what's the
average time in all the patients for the symptoms to go away? Polacheck goes
on to say there is no average and everybody's different. Now come on,
everything that has volume has average to this area....He told me he has a
85 % cure rate. How does he get that if there's no average? And I know for a
fact that Polacheck has volume, I was there. If he can't cure you in 3
months I don't think he can. I met a guy there from the UK and he's had it
for I think for 10 years he just emailed me and said Polacheck did not make
any difference and in despair of what he should do. To sum it up, Dr.
Polacheck is offering hope for desperate people by keeping them on high
doses of ab's for long periods of time in hope of a cure. Rob was on them
for 2 years with Dr. Polacheck. And I asked Dr. Polacheck can I be on ab's
for five years and he said highly unlikely but not unheard of. All I can say
is be careful.

My stomach still has problems from all the ab's. Dr. Polacheck hasn't given
me any names of people he's cured has he giving you any Boston?

Polacheck's business side the way I see it- Always putting a carrot in front
of your face:
Let me try and put the Polacheck protocol into perspective. If he told every
desperate patient in the beginning that it would be at least 2 years of high
dose AB's (doses that a pharmacist shakes his head at) and then tell the
patient that a small percentage of people are healed by it, do you think
people would go to him? Do you think he would have a business? I think
absolutely not!

Now, in order to build his business he would need to tell his patient he
needs you to commit to 21 days of therapy and testing but if you aren't
cured in the 21 days, he feeds you the carrot and gets you to stay another 7
days. He tells you there is good progress and the 7 days will put you on the
right track. He sends you home with the hope that the AB's will heal you in
60-90 days. When your symptoms are still present after the 60 days, you call
him and he feeds you another carrot and tells you he needs to change your
AB's to fight the infection with another AB. He reminds you that you need to
continue prostate/machine massage because this is going to push out the
infection. He feeds you another carrot and tells you it sounds like you're
doing better but the change in AB's will fight the bacteria from a different
direction. You go another 60 days and you still have symptoms so you call
and he gives you another 60 days of high dose AB's and feeds you another
carrot and tells you that you're about there and keep up the massages. Your
symptoms will be better because AB's act like an anti-inflammatory as long
as you're on them. You're getting more frustrated because now when you call
him he is too busy to talk with you or he forgets your chart when asked to
bring it home. Is this because he needs to avoid phone conversation because
there's not much more he can offer you but high doses of AB's for a long
period of time? Am I painting a picture yet?

Remember, this is from my experience only. Maybe he has healed people, but I
have not talked to anyone that has been healed by him, I have not read
anywhere on his website that a patient has been healed nor has anyone on
this forum told me they have been healed by him. I think my biggest
frustration is the damage the high dose of AB's could have caused (or has
caused) me. He feeds this to you like candy and never calls to see how
you're doing. .... I have probably spent close to $10,000 when you consider
the Polacheck treatment costs, lab tests, lodging, gas, monthly spending on
AB's, massage supplies, Polacheck follow-up, etc. If I continue with this
protocol, how much money do I have invested after 12 months? After 24
months?

I don't want to discourage anyone to go (or not go) to Polacheck. This is
just my own story from my own observations. Though, I would advise you to
write down on a piece of paper when "enough is enough" so you don't get
sucked into the AB nightmare for years down the road."

One or two anonymous guys perhaps, one of whom seems to live very near to
you, so I guess he could be your buddy. But if you are indeed curing 80-85%,
as you have claimed for years now, this and other prostatitis groups and
forums would be chock-full of success stories. Where are they? Where are
they?

Emperor John has no clothes.

I did not find those patient testimonies "vitriolic", John, just honest, if
a little bitter.

Let's not ask silly questions like that. It really is absurd when we start
asking patients what they believe made them ill, and ignoring the science
because we don't like what the science is telling us.

Human beings have sexual relations frequently. It is not difficult to think
back a few days from any event at all in anyone's life and find a sexual
encounter on which to hang blame. We could equally blame it on diet, because
we are sure to have eaten something the day we had our first symptoms.

In those few men who did get symptoms for the first time after sex with a
prostitute, for instance, infection could possibly be a trigger. But when
the infection (if there is one) gets cured - and that can be tested - the
symptoms typically remain, due to things like allodynia and neural wind-up.
These are foreign concepts to you, John.

But treated how? If infection can be a trigger, and supposedly it can be in
a minority, what is the way to abort the development of intransigent
symptoms? We know that killing the bugs does not help. So we need strategies
to combat the underling muscle and nerve problems that the infection brought
to the surface.

I'm afraid is IS unreasonable to postulate this, since existing high powered
PCR and culture studies from major centers do not support it.

From: jpolacheck@earthlink.net (John W. Polacheck, M.D.)

Steve, if I may call you that:
As you well know very well, there have been several reports from men who
have been to our Prostatitis Center posted on this Newsgroup who have
indeed been helped or cured. Also, every time a former patient of mine
attempts to post anything favorable on your "commercial"
Newsgroup/Website (http://www.chronicprostatitis.com/forum/), he is
immediately baned from further postings and all his previous postings
are expunged.
The truly vitriolic attacks which you have reposted is the reason why I
personally do not participate in this Newsgroup.
But, perhaps I can put forth a challenge to you and your readers
regarding the cause of Chronic Prostatitis. How many of you believe that
you "contracted" it sexually (vaginally, orally, or rectally) ? I
believe that an appreciable number of men, but certainly not all, have
done so. That means trying to remember what occurred a few days or a few
weeks prior to your very first symptom.
Furthermore, I believe that this has great implications for prevention.
  If the very first episode can be adequately treated, that will
prevent the disease from becoming a chronic "syndrome".
Finally, it is not known how many men who are treated for STDs go onto
develop Chronic Prostatitis. Perhaps the standard treatment protocols,
promulgated the the CDC, are not adequate to prevent Chronic Prostatitis
in some men. And, it is not unreasonable to postulate that in some men
there may be multiple bacterial (and "bacterial-like") organisms
present. A few good epidemiological studies could easily answer these
questions. Etc., etc., etc.......
Yours,
John W. Polacheck, M.D.
Medical Director
Prostatitis Center
Tucson, Arizona

===> hi dr. polacheck - my hat's off to you in trying to put forth the
effort of breathing life back into a somewhat, dead newsgroup.

i've just dropped by to see what was going on and read some of the
posts.  as a long time viewer of this newsgroup which dates back into
the 1990's,  i have seen this newsgroup go from where people cared and
would share their experiences and findings, to where it was controlled
by one person who made some pretty out languish claims.

i say the word, 'viewer' for a reason.

you see, i have no prostate.  it became cancerous and was removed, so i
don't "qualify" for prostatitis, so to speak.  the good news is that my
psa's are coming back 'undetectable', so i am quite happy.

but i have talked with many men who have prostate problems and know that
most can be cured.

i think that a good start would be to explain that the prostate is one
of the hardest organs to treat because of trying to get medicine to the
location of the problem.

i will add this to the mix.  if one were to look at the prostate, not as
a unit, but as a bunch of grapes,  each inputting into the whole..  if
one grape goes bad,  you don't throw out the whole bunch.  but,  how do
you treat the one grape?  that is the question...

again,  all the best,

~ curtis

knowledge is power - growing old is mandatory - growing wise is optional    
"Many more men die with prostate cancer than of it. Growing old is
invariably fatal. Prostate cancer is only sometimes so."
http://community.webtv.net/PALMER_ENT/doc