Dear Dr. Roach: I’m a 73-year-old male in good health. I’m starting to show signs of prostate troubles. I have trouble starting to urinate, and the stream stops and starts, usually at night before bed and first thing in the morning for some reason. When do doctors prescribe an alpha blocker such as Flomax (tamsulosin)?
R.
That’s decided based on your doctor’s judgment, the severity of the symptoms, and how much a patient wants to avoid medications. I personally use the American Urological Association (AUA) symptom index as a guide for starting treatment and a way to measure the effectiveness of the treatment. This is a free, easily available and validated tool that can be found on medical sites and elsewhere on the internet. Once a man is in the high-moderate or severe range on the AUA index, treatment with an alpha blocker can really improve his quality of life.
Some men don’t do well with alpha blockers, so there are other medicines and many surgical procedures available as well, in the uncommon situation that the medicines are ineffective.
Dear Dr. Roach: A recent column had a question concerning cellphone radiation and whether it affects the brain. I have a different question/concern about this:
Is there any information that should make me concerned about keeping a cellphone in a shirt pocket near the heart? Is there any way a cellphone can affect the electrical signals that control beats and, therefore, arrhythmias?
A shirt pocket sits nearly on top of the sinus node. I developed an arrhythmia and never carry my cellphone in my shirt pockets any longer. Is my concern warranted or just silly?
R.B.
No, the power output of a cellphone is way too low to affect the electrical systems of the heart, so your concern is unwarranted. (But I wouldn’t say silly.)
Incidentally, the magnetic fields generated by a cellphone are potentially powerful enough to interfere with the functioning of a pacemaker and other implanted medical devices, so I wouldn’t keep your cellphone next to your heart if you had an electronic pacemaker. Strong magnets can disrupt a pacemaker.
Dear Dr. Roach: A while back, we had a person who came to our house to tell us about a process where you could easily bend a spoon. There were 12 of us, and we were each given a regular spoon. Then we were told to hold the spoon in front of us and close our eyes. We were told to keep one hand on the spoon and gently push down. After 5 minutes, we were told to open our eyes and look at our spoon, and everyone had a bent spoon except for one person.
We were told that this was a psychological experience on how people can put their thoughts toward one thing and make something happen. Apparently, there is a medical name for this process. If you know what this is, please let me know.
B.R.
This is sort of a psychological experience, but it appears to be more of a magic trick that was disguised to look like a real scientific process. The spoons may have looked regular, but they were probably specially made or modified to easily bend with gentle pressure. Or they may have been made from a shape-memory alloy that changes shape with body heat.
While I enjoy a magic trick as much as anyone else, don’t be fooled into thinking that psychic powers are real.
Dr. Roach regrets that he is unable to answer individual letters, but will incorporate them in the column whenever possible. Readers may email questions to [email protected]
