What if your erection could tell you something deeper about your health—something even your doctor might miss?
In this exclusive episode, Dr. Arthur Burnett, one of the leading experts in urology and a key figure in the science behind Viagra, joins the conversation. Together, we explore the real connection between erectile dysfunction, prostate cancer, and overall prostate health. We dive into what’s fact, what’s fiction, and why ED might be your body’s first warning sign of something much bigger. Whether you're dealing with performance issues or concerned about your prostate, this episode is for you.
Hit play now. Your health, and your future, may depend on it.
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About Dr. Arthur Burnett
Dr. Arthur Burnett is a world-renowned urologist and professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, where he holds the prestigious Patrick C. Walsh Professorship in Urology. As Director of the Male Consultation Clinic and Vice Chair for faculty development at the James Buchanan Brady Urological Institute, he brings decades of groundbreaking expertise in erectile dysfunction, prostate cancer, and reconstructive urology.
A pioneer in the discovery of nitric oxide’s role in erections, Dr. Burnett’s research was instrumental in the development of Viagra. He has performed over 3,000 nerve-sparing radical prostatectomies and authored more than 500 peer-reviewed publications. With honors from the NIH, FDA, and the American Urological Association, Dr. Burnett continues to lead the field in advancing male sexual and prostate health.
Want to connect with Dr. Arthur Burnett? Visit the Johns Hopkins Urology website or find his books on Amazon to learn more about his work in men’s health.
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Resources mentioned:
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For all links and resources mentioned on the show and where to subscribe to the podcast, please visit https://truongrehab.com/viagra-erectile-dysfunction-prostate-health
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Want to regain control of your sex life? It’s time to reverse the effects of ED on your life. Join the Modern Man Club and embark on your journey to complete recovery and community.
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Reveal the FREE treatment most men ignore that solves thousands of erectile dysfunction cases every year, plus the 5 biggest mistakes you must avoid if you want to say goodbye to your ED. Uncover it all in my free eBook, available to download now.
This podcast is for you, the Modern Man. I'm Dr Anne
Anne Truong:Truong, your host. I'm an intimate health medical doctor
Anne Truong:and best selling author of the book, Erectile Dysfunction Fix.
Anne Truong:I'll do a deep dive into sexual health and performance and how
Anne Truong:it affects men of all ages and backgrounds. So let's get
Anne Truong:started, and be sure to visit my website at
Anne Truong:sexualhealthformenpodcast.com for more information and
Anne Truong:resources from the show. See you on the inside.
Anne Truong:Hello there, Modern Man. I am so excited in this episode. I have
Anne Truong:Dr Arthur Burnett. He is a Professor of Urology in Johns
Anne Truong:Hopkins for 40 years, and he actually has a unique experience
Anne Truong:with Viagra that we're going to talk about, because he has so
Anne Truong:much experience and knowledge on men's sexual health that we can
Anne Truong:probably talk about days on but we're going to dive into some
Anne Truong:important issues. So welcome. Dr Burnett.
Arthur Burnett:Well, thank you for having me, Anne. It's my
Arthur Burnett:delight to be with you, Dr Anne Truong. Dr Truong, thank you.
Anne Truong:Yes. Well, thank you. So let's dive into this.
Anne Truong:Now, before we started, you actually has helped pioneer
Anne Truong:research that led to the development of Viagra. So from
Anne Truong:your perspective, tell us the story of how this came about and
Anne Truong:how you contributed to the research on Viagra, and how
Anne Truong:Viagra became such a common ED medication.
Arthur Burnett:Yes, well, my interest in sexual medicine
Arthur Burnett:almost had a foundation with some of this, and to some extent
Arthur Burnett:serendipitous. But I think at the same time, as Seneca might
Arthur Burnett:say, the philosopher from 2000 years ago in Rome, Chance favors
Arthur Burnett:the prepared minded, and I certainly had the thought back
Arthur Burnett:in my training at Johns Hopkins in the 80s, believe it or not,
Arthur Burnett:that we just were not addressing men's health concerns very well.
Arthur Burnett:And back when I was a junior resident, I was a little
Arthur Burnett:dismayed that my chief residents would say, Oh, this patient's
Arthur Burnett:coming in with the complaint of having something wrong with the
Arthur Burnett:directions. And of course, back then, we weren't even that
Arthur Burnett:precise with terminology. We just say, just put everything
Arthur Burnett:together in terms of impotence and use that almost really
Arthur Burnett:negative term, but give them a prescription of an herbal
Arthur Burnett:supplement, you know, him being and if he comes back in a month
Arthur Burnett:or two, and it still says he's got erection problems, and we
Arthur Burnett:got to think about doing a surgical device called a penile
Arthur Burnett:prosthesis. And back then, that was the era that we were kind of
Arthur Burnett:on the heels of, of thinking about the kind of the ideas of a
Arthur Burnett:psychotherapy and behavioral problems and interpersonal
Arthur Burnett:problems. And it was it psychological and this and that,
Arthur Burnett:but I think we started to understand that really, there
Arthur Burnett:were really a science to erection disorders as a physical
Arthur Burnett:problem, in many instances, leading up to cardiovascular
Arthur Burnett:disease and other conditions, which we'll get into. But back
Arthur Burnett:then, I was scientifically interested in how to address the
Arthur Burnett:problem better. And we started really a journey back then, some
Arthur Burnett:scientific work, collaborating with the neuroscientists here at
Arthur Burnett:Johns Hopkins, and we figured out that the elusive chemical
Arthur Burnett:that drove the chemical process from nerves, the nerve endings
Arthur Burnett:that drive the blood vessel tissue and the penis to work, is
Arthur Burnett:this drug, or is this chemical called nitric oxide. Nitric
Arthur Burnett:oxide, which everybody kind of throws around these days. And of
Arthur Burnett:course, nobody believed it back then. It was a gaseous molecule.
Arthur Burnett:But it was really found out that really the science of many
Arthur Burnett:disorders in the body do have gaseous molecules that are made
Arthur Burnett:kind of on demand, not the traditional neurotransmitters.
Arthur Burnett:And actually I figured that out and wrote a science paper back
Arthur Burnett:in 1992 who'd have thought a urologic surgeon is writing a
Arthur Burnett:paper in the journal called Science, and that was the
Anne Truong:How did you learn that nitric oxide erection? I
Anne Truong:foundation for how we learned about how erections are driven
Anne Truong:by this chemical process.
Anne Truong:mean, how did that come about?
Arthur Burnett:So basically, what I had initially had
Arthur Burnett:thoughts about was there were disorders of erections that were
Arthur Burnett:uncontrolled, called priapism, and it's occurred commonly in
Arthur Burnett:certain patient populations, such as those with sickle cell
Arthur Burnett:disease. And believe it or not, in the cardiovascular
Arthur Burnett:literature, as well as the hematology literature, we're
Arthur Burnett:starting to understand that there was disorders of the
Arthur Burnett:hemoglobin metabolism, red blood cells and things of that sort.
Arthur Burnett:And we start to understand that there's a kind of a chemical
Arthur Burnett:process involving nitric oxide, involved in blood vessel
Arthur Burnett:functions. And so I said, Well, this may have something to do
Arthur Burnett:with penile erection. I knew that the neuroscience group at
Arthur Burnett:Hopkins was working on studying this new chemical in the brain.
Arthur Burnett:And I said, Well, let's kind of turn, turn our attention to
Arthur Burnett:maybe thinking about as a neurotransmitter or some sort of
Arthur Burnett:agent that ran the the functional process in the penis,
Arthur Burnett:and just seeing these different connections as science normally
Arthur Burnett:goes, somebody has an idea based on somebody else doing something
Arthur Burnett:else, and we kind of think about maybe new connections, new
Arthur Burnett:insights, new directions to take science. And I said, what I
Arthur Burnett:think this might be something we should be studying in terms of
Arthur Burnett:the the blood vessel function in the penis, and there may be
Arthur Burnett:something to it and and once we understood. That we had these
Arthur Burnett:chemicals that were released in the brain can be released, but
Arthur Burnett:based on certain chemical pathways that were being
Arthur Burnett:described, I started to study that in the penis. And lo and
Arthur Burnett:behold, that was indeed the mechanism that made the blood
Arthur Burnett:vessel tissue in the penis work and open up and create
Arthur Burnett:erections. And so it was kind of a connect matter of assembling
Arthur Burnett:different insights that I was taking from different
Arthur Burnett:disciplines, here and there. And then I kind of realized that
Arthur Burnett:this was this basis for how erections would work.
Anne Truong:Gotcha, so you did the research on it. So then, how
Anne Truong:did Pfizer got a hold of "Okay with this medication that we're
Anne Truong:using for the lung? I believe they were using a pulmonary
Anne Truong:edema, right? Or pulmonary hypertension.
Arthur Burnett:Well that also, where they started, is really
Arthur Burnett:studying the heart for angina, chest pain from poor
Arthur Burnett:circulation. And there's whole family of agents called
Arthur Burnett:phosphodiesterases. So super family at least 11 or maybe more
Arthur Burnett:now, and they actually have different localizations in the
Arthur Burnett:body, believe it or not, this is how our bodies work. But they
Arthur Burnett:had created this drug back then. It was called UK 92 480, just
Arthur Burnett:kind of these pharmaceutical companies just come up with,
Arthur Burnett:like, letters and numbers, and they were studying it in
Arthur Burnett:chemical trials back in the early 1990s for men having chest
Arthur Burnett:pain. The Amazing story back then was a lot of the men were
Arthur Burnett:saying, Hey, I don't know about my chest pain, but I wake up
Arthur Burnett:every boy with better erections. And in these phase one trials
Arthur Burnett:they were doing with several men, and then they're in their
Arthur Burnett:clinical center, and that's where they backed into thinking,
Arthur Burnett:Wait a second, I'm hearing about the science of erections that
Arthur Burnett:involves the pathway that controls this nitric oxide
Arthur Burnett:release called phosphodiesterase type five. And these agents then
Arthur Burnett:were realized that they were selective for that enzyme, and
Arthur Burnett:by inhibiting those that enzyme, that enzyme actually with the
Arthur Burnett:brakes on erection, and by blocking those breaks, it would
Arthur Burnett:facilitate the erection response. And so they said,
Arthur Burnett:moment, we don't need to be developing this drug for chest
Arthur Burnett:pain. It may actually be something that we might turn
Arthur Burnett:into a drug for erectile dysfunction management. And so
Arthur Burnett:it's kind of serendipity, a little bit on that side, but
Arthur Burnett:also kind of having Eureka, open moments to see that we were
Arthur Burnett:describing, and some other groups as well. Now we describe
Arthur Burnett:this as a as a physiologic mediator. I did some science to
Arthur Burnett:show that it works in the in a live animal model. I showed that
Arthur Burnett:it actually is released by nerve endings. That was a foundation
Arthur Burnett:for the science article. And so that, along with some other
Arthur Burnett:groups in the country, also doing some scientific work in
Arthur Burnett:various ways, led to this basic foundation from which Viagra
Arthur Burnett:came. And Viagra, even though his drug developed initially for
Arthur Burnett:for heart drug, it then turned and pivoted to an erectile
Arthur Burnett:dysfunction drug. And that's and that's kind of the story behind
Arthur Burnett:it. Now, yes, it has been used for pulmonary hypertension,
Arthur Burnett:because the enzyme PDE five, phosphodiesterase type five,
Arthur Burnett:also is highly expressed in the lung. It's highly expressed in
Arthur Burnett:the genitalia, believe it or not, that was, that was the
Arthur Burnett:sweet spot about how it worked, because you could take something
Arthur Burnett:orally, and then it can circulate in the body, and it
Arthur Burnett:would only blocking enzyme in certain parts of the body, and
Arthur Burnett:one part was in the genital region. And men and women,
Arthur Burnett:believe it or not, and therefore, anything that
Arthur Burnett:involved this nitric oxide chemical pathway with the right
Arthur Burnett:stimulation process causing blood vessels to react, the
Arthur Burnett:brakes on it were being inhibited by the drug. And
Arthur Burnett:that's so it was studied for that. It was studied for
Arthur Burnett:pulmonary hypertension because of the high expression in the
Arthur Burnett:lung tissue as well. And so that's how we make discovery
Arthur Burnett:with drugs. We understand the science, and then we kind of
Arthur Burnett:make some observations, and then redirect drug therapy sometimes.
Anne Truong:So you did the research on it, and then Pfizer
Anne Truong:got a whole of that and developed the medication
Anne Truong:sildenafil?
Arthur Burnett:Yes, yeah, it was called UK-92, 480,
Arthur Burnett:initially. And then once it was said, well, let's pivot from
Arthur Burnett:angina clinical trials, heart pain clinical trials, as angina
Arthur Burnett:is obviously but let's now go to erectile dysfunction clinical
Arthur Burnett:trials. And all through the 90s. Now everything was a lot of
Arthur Burnett:clinical trials related to erectile dysfunction. And then
Arthur Burnett:it can emerge, got a name called sildenafil, and then it got a
Arthur Burnett:brand name that we know now as Viagra.
Anne Truong:So, I mean, I think Viagra came out in 98 right?
Arthur Burnett:That's right. It was FDA approved in 98 and then,
Arthur Burnett:of course, there were some, some other close cousins that came
Arthur Burnett:out in the few years thereafter, also known as phosphodiesterase
Arthur Burnett:type five inhibitors.
Anne Truong:That's right, so let's just kind of talk a little
Anne Truong:bit about that. So that way, audience, men, and the majority
Anne Truong:of the people that watches our channel, men, over 55 and 99.9%
Anne Truong:men, let's talk about the different type of ED medication,
Anne Truong:the PDE-5 inhibitors, and for what indication? So we cover
Anne Truong:sildenafil, which is Viagra, and then the next one is tadalafil,
Anne Truong:which is Cialis. How did they differ? When to use what?
Arthur Burnett:Yeah, yeah. So a good point to make. And of
Arthur Burnett:course, there always is that question. When I see in my
Arthur Burnett:clinic, you're right. Patients say which, which is better if
Arthur Burnett:the different ones out there, why are they and why? The
Arthur Burnett:accused, one or the other. I kind of half jokingly say, Well,
Arthur Burnett:is there a difference between Coca Cola, Pepsi Cola, RC Cola?
Arthur Burnett:Well, the answer is, is they're all kind of colas, but maybe one
Arthur Burnett:has a different effect in one person's body, or a better taste
Arthur Burnett:or whatever. And that's why we have these different drugs out
Arthur Burnett:there. There is a true difference in some of the
Arthur Burnett:pharmacology these drugs, even though they work in a similar
Arthur Burnett:sort of way to promote the erection response. And one thing
Arthur Burnett:about Tadalafil, which is Cialis, is that it's formulated
Arthur Burnett:slightly differently by the manufacturer, such that it's
Arthur Burnett:degraded in the body somewhat more slowly. And therefore it
Arthur Burnett:says this is what we call a longer half life. And therefore,
Arthur Burnett:with all these pills taken about an hour before they reach a kind
Arthur Burnett:of a high level in the blood circulation, an hour later, that
Arthur Burnett:then finds its way to the penile tissue and so forth. But one
Arthur Burnett:thing about tadalafil is compared to sildenafil and
Arthur Burnett:vardinofil and some of the others that are currently
Arthur Burnett:available, is that it has a longer half life. And therefore
Arthur Burnett:you can try sexual activity, not just an hour later, but it may
Arthur Burnett:actually still be in your system half a day later, or maybe even
Arthur Burnett:a day day or so later before finally breaking down
Arthur Burnett:pharmacologically. And therefore it's been billed as a weekend
Arthur Burnett:drug. It may be billed as a drug that has a potential advantage,
Arthur Burnett:whereby just taking one pill, you can have multiple
Arthur Burnett:opportunities for sexual activity, whereas the others may
Arthur Burnett:get out your system somewhat more rapidly and perhaps less
Arthur Burnett:than a day.
Anne Truong:Why? Why they recommend it taken every day?
Anne Truong:Why is it some men take low dose tadalafil every day?
Arthur Burnett:So that's a different kind of storyline. And
Arthur Burnett:what's going on with that is that the FDA did approve the use
Arthur Burnett:of tidelife at a lower dose for those who have urinary issues,
Arthur Burnett:and it's kind of used as a drug that you take almost in a
Arthur Burnett:regular fashion, to treat a condition like a blood pressure
Arthur Burnett:pill or something like that, that keep the effect of the drug
Arthur Burnett:as it should be done. And so it's been shown that, yes, it
Arthur Burnett:does relax the blood vessel tissue of the penis, but also
Arthur Burnett:may have some sort of effect in the lower urinary tract to
Arthur Burnett:facilitate voiding, maybe having something to relax the tone of
Arthur Burnett:the urine outlet, or, who knows what. We don't fully understand
Arthur Burnett:exactly what it's doing, but it has been shown to have benefit
Arthur Burnett:in men having urinary symptoms. So this daily dosing for that
Arthur Burnett:purpose is what's being done also, and I consideration is
Arthur Burnett:taking it on a regular basis may allow a man to develop kind of a
Arthur Burnett:steady state effect in his system. For that man to say, I
Arthur Burnett:have sexual activity, maybe 1015, times a week, and I just
Arthur Burnett:want to have it kind of my system. And therefore it's there
Arthur Burnett:for that purpose. But the big question is this, is it taking
Arthur Burnett:it daily? Is it more potent? Does have a greater effect on
Arthur Burnett:creating an erection? The answer is, the evidence not very clear
Arthur Burnett:for that, I think most scientific work would say that's
Arthur Burnett:just not true. Rather, it's just a convenience for those who are
Arthur Burnett:sexually active a lot, and maybe they help those with lower
Arthur Burnett:urinary tract symptoms.
Anne Truong:When do you decide to prescribe Viagra and versus
Anne Truong:Cialis for ED?
Arthur Burnett:Well, I think that the discussion is to
Arthur Burnett:understand what that patient may sense is his goals with sexual
Arthur Burnett:activity. If he feels that I just want something that's very
Arthur Burnett:potent on something on some market a little bit longer, and
Arthur Burnett:maybe go with sildenafl, if, on the other hand, the patient's
Arthur Burnett:saying I want something that has a longer half life, that I have
Arthur Burnett:sexual activity with a weekend kind of escapade, and I want to
Arthur Burnett:have it in my system all weekend. And it's saying I don't
Arthur Burnett:mind having a drug in my system no longer, and understanding
Arthur Burnett:that do that some patients don't want it in their system that
Arthur Burnett:long, any kind of drug, and they just want something out of their
Arthur Burnett:system. And there may be a slight difference in the in the
Arthur Burnett:side effect profile, too. That should be mentioned. It's
Arthur Burnett:thought that dialysis or tadalafil may have a slightly
Arthur Burnett:less headache kind of effect, because about one in six guys
Arthur Burnett:will get headache sensations with sildenafil, there may be
Arthur Burnett:some other aspect of effects on facial flushing and indigestion,
Arthur Burnett:where there's some PDE five function elsewhere in the body
Arthur Burnett:that the drug can have some effect on, although now, since
Arthur Burnett:Cialis now todalafil, has had a greater effect on causing some
Arthur Burnett:lower extremity kind of aches or back spasms in some patients
Arthur Burnett:that we don't see what's so dangerous. So again, this makes
Arthur Burnett:the point that different people's bodies behave
Arthur Burnett:differently. There may be differences in just how
Arthur Burnett:different people's bodies metabolisms work, just like
Arthur Burnett:there's different responses to Coca Colas. And so some person
Arthur Burnett:may try one and say it's helping. But unlike some of the
Arthur Burnett:side effects you can, may come back try another, maybe more,
Arthur Burnett:more at least, attractive to that patient based on less side
Anne Truong:What's your approach to evaluating a man
Anne Truong:effects maybe.
Anne Truong:with ED?
Arthur Burnett:Well, my approach is to first reassure
Arthur Burnett:him and give him confidence that he's not alone, that he's not
Arthur Burnett:somehow singled out, that he's not less of a man because of the
Arthur Burnett:problem we're certainly nobody's trying to be judgmental by any
Arthur Burnett:of this, and we understand that in many cases, it's not really
Arthur Burnett:your personal fault. I try and tell them it's not your personal
Arthur Burnett:fault, but things are changing in your body, and let's try
Arthur Burnett:understand the causes behind it. See we can address. Things. And
Arthur Burnett:so I think from the outset, it's a matter of being non
Arthur Burnett:judgmental, giving us some confidence. Let him know he's
Arthur Burnett:not alone, that we can find a solution. Let's try to
Arthur Burnett:understand what the problem is. And then, very precisely, now,
Arthur Burnett:because you mentioned Ed erectile dysfunction, we are
Arthur Burnett:using a more euphemistic term than where we were back and when
Arthur Burnett:I trained in the 70s and 80s, where we use this term
Arthur Burnett:impotence, back then we just threw everything together. So
Arthur Burnett:this thing is not working, pointing between the legs, and
Arthur Burnett:just say that's the problem. And here we need to understand
Arthur Burnett:whether it's an erection problem. Is it an ejaculation
Arthur Burnett:problem? Is it a sexual desire problem? All of these things are
Arthur Burnett:on the spectrum of men's sexual health, and I think we're
Arthur Burnett:defining the condition more if it really the trouble with
Arthur Burnett:getting an erection now, we go down a certain path of what we
Arthur Burnett:can do to understand the causes there and what interventions
Arthur Burnett:make sense, and we very forthrightly and non
Arthur Burnett:judgmentally, go forward with what our options are and and try
Arthur Burnett:to get that man back on track. So what's the workup that's
Arthur Burnett:involved? Well, the workup, I think, largely, is having a good
Arthur Burnett:evaluation with a history and physical examination. Going back
Arthur Burnett:to the old time medicine, the William Osler and those Larian
Arthur Burnett:method here, not just throw patient in a CT machine that
Arthur Burnett:somehow pops out. What the answer is, let's just try
Arthur Burnett:understand the problem. Let's understand the clinical history
Arthur Burnett:of that patient. So the workup is getting a very thorough
Arthur Burnett:review of his current history that says, health presentation,
Arthur Burnett:what kind of sexual disorder we're talking about, and then
Arthur Burnett:understand his health history, his past clinical conditions,
Arthur Burnett:he's having, any medications he's on. Understand what are
Arthur Burnett:what we now have really well defined ways of thinking about
Arthur Burnett:what are factors that are causative for erectile
Arthur Burnett:dysfunction? If we do have to do an evaluation, sometimes we will
Arthur Burnett:do a penile ultrasound test, but usually that's for somebody who
Arthur Burnett:has a severe enough presentation that we're contemplating doing
Arthur Burnett:something surgical about the penis, or something that sort
Arthur Burnett:including a penile prosthesis. Nowadays, I think we're we have
Arthur Burnett:a list much more conservative approach. We have the pills, we
Arthur Burnett:have other options like vacuum pumps and penile injections, all
Arthur Burnett:of which are non surgical, all of which can be explored with
Arthur Burnett:with knowledge that they're not going to be irreversible
Arthur Burnett:options. And so sometimes it's a matter of just kind of figuring
Arthur Burnett:out what the patient wants to do with all the options on the
Arthur Burnett:table, and if they're certainly not irreversible options.
Arthur Burnett:Irreversible, would be a penile prosthesis or some sort of
Arthur Burnett:surgical fix. Then let's explore options that he may feel is
Arthur Burnett:right for him, and we go, go down the path that way.
Anne Truong:So how long do you have a man on medication for
Anne Truong:before you say, Okay, well, it's time to go to the next step?
Arthur Burnett:Well, it depends on each person's response to the
Arthur Burnett:to the therapy. Now some men indeed, because of maybe the
Arthur Burnett:severity of their presentation and maybe a severe history of
Arthur Burnett:cardiovascular disease or diabetes, and they're just not
Arthur Burnett:responding well to these medications. I'm not going to
Arthur Burnett:say here, try this for the next two or three years and come back
Arthur Burnett:and talk to me then. No, that patient may say, let me give a
Arthur Burnett:trial of it if it's not working, let's get you back in a few
Arthur Burnett:months, and let's kind of go over some other options. That
Arthur Burnett:may have to be a little bit more likely to be effective. So it
Arthur Burnett:comes down to what's going on with that patient and how he
Arthur Burnett:wants to proceed
Anne Truong:Right. Now, are you doing PRP for ED?
Arthur Burnett:Immediate answer is, is I'm not personally doing
Arthur Burnett:it. Do I feel that it's something that is a potential
Arthur Burnett:option? I think that it is. At the same time, I'm very
Arthur Burnett:forthright in talking with my patients to say, some of these
Arthur Burnett:complementary and alternative options, I think do have some
Arthur Burnett:interest. They do have some potential advantage in terms of
Arthur Burnett:having at least some rationale in their use. At the same time,
Arthur Burnett:we are still struggling to know how effective they really are,
Arthur Burnett:that they maybe they may be effective under certain health
Arthur Burnett:conditions, maybe certain circumstances. We're still
Arthur Burnett:trying to understand and define this. And from that perspective,
Arthur Burnett:I'm very just truthful with patients that these may be some
Arthur Burnett:things we're still studying in our clinical trials, that if
Arthur Burnett:we're offering it to you, from my perspective, there may be
Arthur Burnett:those who can present it to you and present it hopefully in a
Arthur Burnett:way that they can just forth widely say these things may or
Arthur Burnett:may not be successful, but don't get disappointed. They're not.
Arthur Burnett:Let's explore other options that are a little bit more
Arthur Burnett:traditional and coming from a traditional background at Johns
Arthur Burnett:Hopkins that we can explore, but these, I think these other
Arthur Burnett:options just have to go a little further to make sure they're
Arthur Burnett:within our our well defined, accepted guideline statements.
Anne Truong:Do you what your do that institution is that, do you
Anne Truong:add, like a lifestyle modification, like diet,
Anne Truong:exercise, stress reduction, in treatment regimen?
Arthur Burnett:Well, absolutely, absolutely. And I
Arthur Burnett:think that that's something that's pretty much automatic for
Arthur Burnett:men's health and women's health and everybody's health. I think
Arthur Burnett:we unfortunately live in a society that we've modernized
Arthur Burnett:ourselves to the point that we're actually doing damage to
Arthur Burnett:ourselves. We're not getting enough exercise. It's easy just
Arthur Burnett:to ride in a car then then go take a walk and half a block to
Arthur Burnett:get something done. We have processed foods that we know are
Arthur Burnett:don't have the nutrients in. There don't have the benefits in
Arthur Burnett:there and, but they're fast and and maybe just pull it out the
Arthur Burnett:refrigerator and eat it, or go to a fast food place. These
Arthur Burnett:things have low nutrient value. So I do coach patients about
Arthur Burnett:that. I think it's fundamental for your cardiovascular health,
Arthur Burnett:for your keeping the weight, keeping your weight down, keep
Arthur Burnett:your keep away from diabetes, keep your penile function where
Arthur Burnett:it needs to be. So I support all of that, not only just activity
Arthur Burnett:and diet, but even just good living, sleep hygiene, getting
Arthur Burnett:your rest, avoiding cigarette smoking, not excessive alcohol
Arthur Burnett:abuse. I won't advocate no alcohol, because I don't think
Arthur Burnett:that that's being fair to everybody, but yeah, but
Arthur Burnett:everybody can have a little bit of a occasion to have a toast,
Arthur Burnett:of a celebration, or something that sort but. But but I think
Arthur Burnett:that the reality is is all of these things that are life's
Arthur Burnett:pleasures in some some instances, we may need to be a
Arthur Burnett:little rigorous about what we're doing here.
Anne Truong:Okay, modern man. If you're struggling with weak
Anne Truong:erection, low energy, the food you eat could be the big part of
Anne Truong:the problem. One of the best research pathways to boost
Anne Truong:circulation, support healthy testosterone and improve sexual
Anne Truong:performance is the Mediterranean diet. It's packed with food that
Anne Truong:open up your blood vessel, lower inflammation, and fuel your
Anne Truong:hormone, naturally. I've seen men notice real improvement in
Anne Truong:both energy and erection within weeks when they shift to this
Anne Truong:style of eating. So check out the Mediterranean diet link
Anne Truong:right here below, and get that as soon as you can. Stronger
Anne Truong:testosterone and better erection.
Anne Truong:Absolutely, you know, like I said, Make it simple and
Anne Truong:realistic. So that's ED. Let's move on to something that's not
Anne Truong:as sexy. A subject prostate. Even urologist friend of mine
Anne Truong:are saying that's not sexy. Let's not talk about it. But is
Anne Truong:it a very important part of men's health, because it's
Anne Truong:located right next to the penis, and it affects a lot of men. I
Anne Truong:mean, the prevalence of prostate enlargement. It's the same as
Anne Truong:like, ED, because it affects, yeah, men as they get older. So
Anne Truong:let's just kind of like clear up, does enlarged prostate cause
Anne Truong:ED or vice versa?
Arthur Burnett:Well, you, to answer your question that they
Arthur Burnett:don't cause each other. There may be associations with that,
Arthur Burnett:and then we I can briefly just give you some background on my
Arthur Burnett:answer. But I guess the pre the point you're making is indeed
Arthur Burnett:the prostate is located in the pelvis. Various diseases related
Arthur Burnett:to prostate including prostate enlargement that is commonly
Arthur Burnett:associated with the ordinary symptoms prostate cancer, which
Arthur Burnett:is not usually associated with urinary symptoms, but has an
Arthur Burnett:association with regard to how it's treated, not just having
Arthur Burnett:prostate cancer, but it. But the connection between the prostate
Arthur Burnett:and men's sexual function is a topic worthy of discussion. And
Arthur Burnett:I think there needs to be really some discussion, not to keep it
Arthur Burnett:in the in the in the arena of a taboo subject, but bring it out
Arthur Burnett:in the open. Let's talk about it so men are informed and then
Arthur Burnett:know how to take action in the correct way understanding what
Arthur Burnett:what is the association of prostate health and sexual
Arthur Burnett:health? We need to make sure that's discussed.
Anne Truong:So what is the association between enlarged
Anne Truong:prostate and ED? Does it usually kind of go with one another? So
Anne Truong:if you have ED, let's check your prostate. Or if you have
Anne Truong:enlarged prostate, let's check to see if you have ED?
Arthur Burnett:Yeah. So just to be, to go right to the chase,
Arthur Burnett:the answer is, is the enlarged prostate is, I think, a bit of a
Arthur Burnett:imperfect way to think about prostate health. But many men
Arthur Burnett:have big prostates with no issues. A lot of men have small
Arthur Burnett:prostates that have a lot of issues. So prostate size, in and
Arthur Burnett:of itself, is not even really an issue. Prostate size is not
Arthur Burnett:cancerous. Cancer can happen whether your size is prostate is
Arthur Burnett:big or small, all right, so that's a whole different issue.
Arthur Burnett:So let's make sure it's clear about that. So really, just
Arthur Burnett:talking about having a big prostate, I think that is
Arthur Burnett:something that we've, maybe even in our medical arenas, have kind
Arthur Burnett:of communicated to the general public, is a big deal. The
Arthur Burnett:reality is, is the men's prostates do start to get
Arthur Burnett:somewhat more enlarged as they age. Because we all age, okay,
Arthur Burnett:we get a little more gray hair on our head, maybe a few
Arthur Burnett:wrinkles on our bodies. Well, the process get a little more
Arthur Burnett:enlarged. And we do know that as men get older, they do happen to
Arthur Burnett:have a greater instance incidence of lower urinary tract
Arthur Burnett:symptoms with aging. Women too. Women too. As they start to get
Arthur Burnett:older, I have it, have have some urinary symptoms too. So so just
Arthur Burnett:saying, it's all about a big prostate. That's not true,
Arthur Burnett:because we even have guys who who have smallest prostates and
Arthur Burnett:have urinary symptoms. And the opposite is true. Some guys with
Arthur Burnett:big prostates are doing great, but the association with sexual
Arthur Burnett:health is one that we think that there may be changes in the
Arthur Burnett:body, cardiovascular changes that have to do the blood vessel
Arthur Burnett:function in the in the lower urinary tract, the way the
Arthur Burnett:bladder functions in men and women, the urinary outlet and
Arthur Burnett:the urethra and the urinary channel where urine comes out
Arthur Burnett:that may have vascular changes as well in terms of the health
Arthur Burnett:of that tissue, as much as it can affect the health of the
Arthur Burnett:tissue in the penile area and in women, maybe another discussion
Arthur Burnett:you'll have with. But somebody's expert in female sexual as well.
Arthur Burnett:Say, Yeah, women, as they get older, they'll start to have
Arthur Burnett:tissue changes in that part of the body they have to do with
Arthur Burnett:their sexual responses. So it's really more a matter of of your
Arthur Burnett:overall metabolic and cardiovascular health in your
Arthur Burnett:vascular system, affecting tissues and area and various
Arthur Burnett:areas of the body, and having urinary symptoms and sexual
Arthur Burnett:dysfunction problems just kind of are hand in hand, but they
Arthur Burnett:don't cause each other. It's just maybe something upstream is
Arthur Burnett:changing these functions in the body simultaneously.
Anne Truong:Interesting. So you said something very interesting
Anne Truong:is that men that have small prostate can have urinary
Anne Truong:symptoms. And just for our listeners, what we're referring
Anne Truong:to is going to the bathroom many times at night, and then you go
Anne Truong:to the bathroom, you feel like you have to go again after 30
Anne Truong:minutes. And then when you go do number one, you urinate. It
Anne Truong:takes like 10 minutes instead of just a few minutes. So those are
Anne Truong:kind of the common urinary symptoms. Now, what is the
Anne Truong:pathology when you have a small prostate, but yet you have the
Anne Truong:urinary symptoms?
Arthur Burnett:Well, again, it comes down to, I think, a matter
Arthur Burnett:of, again, these urinary symptoms, which include, as
Arthur Burnett:you're saying, frequent urination, some some of the
Arthur Burnett:urges to go slow stream, maybe getting up at night a few times,
Arthur Burnett:all of these kind of urinary symptoms, again, may be just
Arthur Burnett:indicators of vascular changes and tissue changes in the lower
Arthur Burnett:urinary tract area, in the urinary outlet area, where the
Arthur Burnett:prostate sits at the base of the bladder. And these are just
Arthur Burnett:changes that don't have anything to do with prostate size,
Arthur Burnett:necessarily. And now, yes, some men, they get tighter prostates,
Arthur Burnett:not just in large but tighter prostates, and that means it's a
Arthur Burnett:little more of the bladder has to try and squeeze that urine
Arthur Burnett:out, and that leads a lot more bladder agitation and creating
Arthur Burnett:kind of the kind of a sensory awareness that your bladder is
Arthur Burnett:doing a lot of funky things as the months and years go by. So
Arthur Burnett:yes, men have more urinary symptoms along those lines, but
Arthur Burnett:both men and women, there are going to be just aging related
Arthur Burnett:changes, and those changes in the vascular functions of the
Arthur Burnett:urinary tract, whether the prostate is big or small, can be
Arthur Burnett:small, you can start to have these symptoms just because,
Arthur Burnett:guess what, you're having some blood vessel changes that make
Arthur Burnett:those tissues in that area start to kind of misbehave. And that's
Arthur Burnett:what the issue is.
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Anne Truong:Can you prevent urinary symptoms and or enlargement? Is there
Anne Truong:something that you can do in your lifestyle to prevent that?
Arthur Burnett:Well, that's always a thought here. What else
Arthur Burnett:can we do for your listeners that can say, well, what can I
Arthur Burnett:do aside from just getting older and then maybe having genetics
Arthur Burnett:in play, you could be see many times some of the different
Arthur Burnett:people's bodies are different on the inside as they are on the
Arthur Burnett:outside. Some guys just genetically have bigger
Arthur Burnett:prostates or more obstructive prostates as they get older. But
Arthur Burnett:the answer is that, again, good health in general, good balanced
Arthur Burnett:diet, good lifestyle adjustments. We think, in the
Arthur Burnett:long run, that probably is even beneficial for blood vessel
Arthur Burnett:system and and tissue functions that have to do with the
Arthur Burnett:urination as well. So is there anything you can drastically do?
Arthur Burnett:Probably not. I have by the same time, I tell people it's never
Arthur Burnett:too late to get healthy, never too late to do lifestyle
Arthur Burnett:adjustments, and so always consider that. But if a person
Arthur Burnett:starts to practice this early in their adulthood, even younger,
Arthur Burnett:maybe, and then just carry it through a lifetime of just
Arthur Burnett:healthful habits. I think that'll probably put you in good
Arthur Burnett:stead to have a better preservation of your sexual
Arthur Burnett:function, better preservation of your urinary function.
Anne Truong:Rght. Great. I'm glad to hear that. So let's talk
Anne Truong:about prostate cancer. Yeah, right. So is it a man? When do
Anne Truong:you recommend a man gets screened? Because let's not even
Anne Truong:go into the controversy of PSA level and all that. But like,
Anne Truong:what do you recommend a man to get screened for prostate cancer
Anne Truong:or and then when to get PSA level?
Arthur Burnett:Sure. Well, this is, again, a very important
Arthur Burnett:subject. Should not be a taboo subject, because it's important
Arthur Burnett:that we say you should get screened. And why is that so
Arthur Burnett:important? Because it's so prevalent and it can claim
Arthur Burnett:lives. I think that prostate cancer, debated by some out
Arthur Burnett:there, is the leading cancer men in the United States, maybe
Arthur Burnett:second to skin cancers. That may be a bit more. But among solid
Arthur Burnett:tumors, prostate cancer is prevalent, and we know about one
Arthur Burnett:in nine men. One in nine men will get prostate cancer, one in
Arthur Burnett:nine. So that's highly prevalent, and one in six black
Arthur Burnett:men, which we get into. It's a little further discussion on as
Arthur Burnett:well. So so really, your point about getting screened has
Arthur Burnett:relevance, because we want guys to know that this is something
Arthur Burnett:maybe they should be getting screened for. Given the high
Arthur Burnett:incidence of how it occurs, just but the fact that prostate
Arthur Burnett:cancer is out there in society to such a degree that screening
Arthur Burnett:is something to consider. Now, screening has had a great deal
Arthur Burnett:of debate over the years, and the debate just fundamentally
Arthur Burnett:is, is, does that mean that we're just putting people
Arthur Burnett:through some sort of some, some sort of screening mill, or some
Arthur Burnett:just trying to overdo and over diagnose prostate cancer,
Arthur Burnett:because there is such a thing now that prostate cancer is,
Arthur Burnett:I've always said to patients, is a broad spectrum disease. Not
Arthur Burnett:all prostate cancer necessarily is that lethal. And as we learn
Arthur Burnett:more about prostate cancer, we're starting to find some
Arthur Burnett:subtypes of it that may be better managed just for
Arthur Burnett:surveillance, but getting screened is key because it is
Arthur Burnett:common. It will take lives. There are more aggressive forms
Arthur Burnett:of it, and men should consider, particularly for your African
Arthur Burnett:American race, or if you have, if you have a strong family
Arthur Burnett:history, have a discussion with your doctor and perhaps get this
Arthur Burnett:blood test called the PSA prostate specific antigen. It's
Arthur Burnett:a blood test, and there's a normal range. As for many lab
Arthur Burnett:tests we get that there's normal lab values. If it's outside the
Arthur Burnett:normal range, that may raise a flag, then that may say, okay,
Arthur Burnett:my primary care doctor screened me, but now I should be going to
Arthur Burnett:see a urologic surgeon like myself to really further assess
Arthur Burnett:why that PSA is outside the normal range, and then we carry
Arthur Burnett:out further diagnostic tests to make a diagnosis. But screening,
Arthur Burnett:it typically is the PSA blood test, then men should at least
Arthur Burnett:be aware of the risk for prostate cancer, and if they're
Arthur Burnett:at least have a high risk factors, really make sure that
Arthur Burnett:you have at least a discussion. Now, the one last thing I'll say
Arthur Burnett:before your next question is, is, who should get screened, why
Arthur Burnett:and when? And the answer is, is there a variety of guidelines
Arthur Burnett:out there? There is the thought that men between a certain age
Arthur Burnett:range should be getting PSA checks. There has been the
Arthur Burnett:thought that men between the ages of 55, and 70, according to
Arthur Burnett:the US Preventative Services Task Force, a government agency,
Arthur Burnett:those are the ages that men should be getting annual PSAs,
Arthur Burnett:many other societies, even neurologic societies, make the
Arthur Burnett:point that that may be a little too tight when as a window. And
Arthur Burnett:many, many men, particularly African American men, may need
Arthur Burnett:to think about age 45 or age 40 at least getting a at least one
Arthur Burnett:speed, PSA, then just to at least know where you stand. And
Arthur Burnett:then on the opposite end of the scale, should we stop at age 70?
Arthur Burnett:Well, the answer is, is maybe not, if a man could still
Arthur Burnett:acquire prostate cancer at 75 and die when he's 80. And he's
Arthur Burnett:supposed to be living up to 9095, why did we stop so early
Arthur Burnett:and checking his PSA? So in general, maybe a rule of thumb
Arthur Burnett:is, if you still have at least have 10 years of longevity, get
Arthur Burnett:your PSA once a year. The reason why we kind of don't want guys
Arthur Burnett:getting it too old is because we're concerned that prostate
Arthur Burnett:cancer, in general, does take five to 10 years to progress,
Arthur Burnett:and we don't want older men it's still in maybe the best years of
Arthur Burnett:their life, their golden years, and want to have still a lot of
Arthur Burnett:fun out there. We don't them pursuing a treatment that may
Arthur Burnett:have some potential for side effects and may significantly
Arthur Burnett:impact their quality of life, whether it's surgery radiation,
Arthur Burnett:and you get too old age range where it may not have made a
Arthur Burnett:difference in that person's lifespan. And so we have to kind
Arthur Burnett:of proceed in an intelligent way. Screen guys appropriately
Arthur Burnett:discuss their risk, consider what interventions make sense
Arthur Burnett:and what ages understand there are, there are other health
Arthur Burnett:factors in their life, what the expected longevity, and then
Arthur Burnett:make some really intelligent decisions about who should get
Arthur Burnett:screened. And then even going further with decisions for
Arthur Burnett:treatment.
Anne Truong:So does a normal PSA, which is less than four, is
Anne Truong:a normal PSA mean no prostate cancer?
Arthur Burnett:Well the answer is, is even if you have a PSA in
Arthur Burnett:the less than zero to four range, okay, that's the normal
Arthur Burnett:you use as a cut off. We've used that customarily, based on some
Arthur Burnett:early population studies. We're going back a few decades, but
Arthur Burnett:the answer is, is yes. Can you have prostate cancer? Even if
Arthur Burnett:your PSA is in the normal range, it has been shown so just so
Arthur Burnett:sometimes, it's not just a matter of a PSA on any just one
Arthur Burnett:occasion being a 4.1 or higher. I mean, it's possible guys have
Arthur Burnett:had a PSA for a couple years around one or 1.5 and now it's
Arthur Burnett:3.5 and then rechecked is 3.6 that kind of gives us a clue,
Arthur Burnett:something's starting to change and and maybe that's an
Arthur Burnett:opportunity then to do a workup, then not wait till it now comes
Arthur Burnett:back a year or two after that, now it's 4.1 or 4.5 or whatever.
Arthur Burnett:We've made a big gotten a better jump start on addressing
Arthur Burnett:prostate cancer, picking up the signal that something start not
Arthur Burnett:staying where it was not staying at his baseline level. And
Arthur Burnett:therefore that might give us a clue that that man might need to
Arthur Burnett:go ahead and get checked out, even though his PSA is still
Arthur Burnett:less than four.
Anne Truong:What is your protocol for checking out an
Anne Truong:elevated PSA? Let's say, assume it's over four. And I guess what
Anne Truong:you were talking about before was the, I guess the
Anne Truong:progression, the speed of progression of higher PSA level.
Anne Truong:But there's always some confusion as to like, Okay,
Anne Truong:well, your PSA is a 4.2, 3 different levels before he
Anne Truong:should go to urology for further workup, or it does he need to go
Anne Truong:right away to get evaluated and possibly do a biopsy?
Arthur Burnett:Well, the quick answer is, sometimes it's worth
Arthur Burnett:getting at least another check before you just overreact,
Arthur Burnett:because sometimes we've seen the spurious numbers, a number that
Arthur Burnett:just with with that may have spiked for reasons that are not
Arthur Burnett:clear. It could be a lab mishap, or just man just having
Arthur Burnett:something else that triggered his PSA going up, maybe a little
Arthur Burnett:bit of a prostate infection, maybe prostate irritation, some
Arthur Burnett:other things that confound the PSA measurement make it
Arthur Burnett:erroneous. That is so it confounds it. We know that some
Arthur Burnett:men may have a PSA is a little more elevated because they did
Arthur Burnett:get a true prostate infection, prostatitis, or maybe their PSA
Arthur Burnett:is trending up because they just happen to have a larger prostate
Arthur Burnett:genetically, and that PSA is higher because there's more
Arthur Burnett:prostate bulk, making the PSA more prostate tissue there that
Arthur Burnett:is responsible for that. So some other things can throw the PSA
Arthur Burnett:to be elevated. Oftentimes, if you've had a steady PSA and now
Arthur Burnett:that suddenly looks different, particularly if it's only been
Arthur Burnett:like one value. I always tell patients, let's just repeat it
Arthur Burnett:first. Let's repeat it. And if it looks like it's it's
Arthur Burnett:elevated, well maybe we should proceed with further workup. And
Arthur Burnett:what's that workup consists of? Well, you asked me what that is
Arthur Burnett:and and typically that's a prostate biopsy that is to take
Arthur Burnett:a sample from the prostate tissue sample that these require
Arthur Burnett:urology Doctor clinic visit and discussion and then planning
Arthur Burnett:ahead for a quick outpatient procedure called a prostate
Arthur Burnett:biopsy. That's where we are here in 2025 now who knows where
Arthur Burnett:we'll be in 2030 or 2040 we might have something as easy as
Arthur Burnett:spitting in a jar and somehow get sent off to the lab, and we
Arthur Burnett:already know what signals are there on a molecular level that
Arthur Burnett:tells us what we can't do right now, but right now we need a
Arthur Burnett:tissue diagnosis, because you're hearing me say that PSA could be
Arthur Burnett:elevated for other reasons too. So that alone can't make the
Arthur Burnett:diagnosis, but it is enough of a smoke screen to tell us
Arthur Burnett:something might be out of out of kilter. And with that, let's
Arthur Burnett:proceed ahead with the next step to try and determine whether
Arthur Burnett:prostate cancer is the explanation.
Anne Truong:Well, thank you for going over that. So we talk
Anne Truong:about screening. So let's talk about prostate cancer. What's
Anne Truong:the incidence? You said it's one in nine and one in six black
Anne Truong:men. Why is it higher incidence than black men?
Arthur Burnett:Yeah, yeah. So I, figured i'd tweak you a
Arthur Burnett:little bit with that question on that. And the answer is, is that
Arthur Burnett:we don't fully understand, I think there may be a number of
Arthur Burnett:factors that have to do with with why that incidence is
Arthur Burnett:higher. The other thing that's remarkable to say is the
Arthur Burnett:mortality rate, the death rate from prostate cancer in black
Arthur Burnett:men, is two and a half fold higher, two and a half fold
Arthur Burnett:higher. And also, I think, other under resourced populations and
Arthur Burnett:situations also are associated with health maladies. So health
Arthur Burnett:access is a big deal. Big deal for certain populations that I
Arthur Burnett:think has to be put on the table and say that's a factor there,
Arthur Burnett:but it's also now. Are black men disproportionately affected by
Arthur Burnett:environmental factors. Are they, do they also have some genetics
Arthur Burnett:that play a role in all of this. Is a tumor biology that might
Arthur Burnett:the body is handling certain kind of lifestyle, things that
Arthur Burnett:men in black communities may have more than other
Arthur Burnett:communities. So there's you can see there's a whole host of
Arthur Burnett:things that may have to do with the adversity of prostate cancer
Arthur Burnett:and black men, and we're still studying this in our scientific
Arthur Burnett:communities. We're trying to understand why that is so, but
Arthur Burnett:at least to just say, okay, the population based studies
Arthur Burnett:epidemiology that we say has shown that there is this
Arthur Burnett:difference, and given the so called Ethnic Disparities with
Arthur Burnett:various factors in play, they may just be the disease state,
Arthur Burnett:but it may be some other aspects of healthcare and healthcare
Arthur Burnett:system and lifestyle, all these things, there's a lot within the
Arthur Burnett:equation here that accounts for the higher rate.
Anne Truong:Yeah, that's very, very interesting. So when do you
Anne Truong:determine that the prostate needs to come out, or the
Anne Truong:surgery called prostatectomy? Because we see a lot of men that
Anne Truong:get that. So when does that determination occur?
Arthur Burnett:Well, we carry out the biopsy, as I mentioned,
Arthur Burnett:and then that gives us some information. By the pathology
Arthur Burnett:review of that of the tissue specimens taken, and if prostate
Arthur Burnett:cancer is found, with pathology doctors confirming this by doing
Arthur Burnett:their complete evaluation, they'll come back and help us
Arthur Burnett:know as the front line people here urology doctors aware along
Arthur Burnett:the spectrum of risk profile the tissue is telling us is that
Arthur Burnett:high risk prostate cancer, low risk prostate cancer, or
Arthur Burnett:something in between. The pathology can inform us of this,
Arthur Burnett:and we use this terminology of grade, which refers to the
Arthur Burnett:aggressiveness level of the prostate cancer that can be
Arthur Burnett:informed by how the tissue looks under the microscope, fitting
Arthur Burnett:certain description profiles that then tell us whether it's
Arthur Burnett:high risk type, intermediate risk type, or low risk type. So
Arthur Burnett:we have to be so the bottom line is, define it first and then
Arthur Burnett:define the patient. Understand, again, as I talked about a
Arthur Burnett:little while ago, what other health conditions is that man
Arthur Burnett:facing? Why? Much longevity is that I might approach a man
Arthur Burnett:who's 50 years of age in completely great health, very
Arthur Burnett:different than a 78 year old gentleman who has heart disease,
Arthur Burnett:diabetes and now has prostate cancer, and then try to figure
Arthur Burnett:out, even if they same sort of prostate cancer, how aggressive
Arthur Burnett:I need to be to treat it in a young young man who's got three
Arthur Burnett:decades ahead of them versus somebody else who might say,
Arthur Burnett:Okay, you're somewhat older and we don't need to be putting you
Arthur Burnett:through a prostate surgery. Maybe radiation will be enough
Arthur Burnett:that we may have to go kind of a little bit more of a less
Arthur Burnett:invasive approach. But surgery is probably the right option for
Arthur Burnett:that man who's got still pretty good longevity, 10, 15, 20
Arthur Burnett:years, wants to be definitively treated also, if he has a more
Arthur Burnett:high risk prostate cancer, where radiation may or may not be as
Arthur Burnett:effective, then we have to kind of then understand the disease
Arthur Burnett:for that man and his health profile for that man, and then
Arthur Burnett:kind of decide where we go with with what options we would
Arthur Burnett:otherwise offer.
Anne Truong:That makes so much sense. So a lot of men that have
Anne Truong:the prostate remove have ED. How does that happen? Why is there
Anne Truong:such a high incidence of ED after prostate surgery?
Arthur Burnett:Well, it occurs with prostate surgery, but also
Arthur Burnett:occurs with radiation. And I'll make that point very clear for
Arthur Burnett:your listeners, because some there's so much, I think, myths
Arthur Burnett:out there and misinformation. Oh, get radiation. It's not
Arthur Burnett:going to affect your erections. That is not true. That is not
Arthur Burnett:true. The truth about radiation, and I'll get into surgery in a
Arthur Burnett:moment, is that after radiation, many men may have some radiation
Arthur Burnett:early side effects of being a little fatigued with radiation,
Arthur Burnett:having hormone shots that accompany radiation that fatigue
Arthur Burnett:you. But they may say, a few months later, I'm feeling pretty
Arthur Burnett:good, and I'm still having erections. Things are good. My
Arthur Burnett:sexual function is kind of good, blah, blah, blah. But ask that
Arthur Burnett:same man two or three years later, probably more than half
Arthur Burnett:the men who have radiation with a little time of radiation
Arthur Burnett:affecting the body, more than half will have erection
Arthur Burnett:problems. It happens with surgery too. And I think the
Arthur Burnett:bottom line is this, the nerves and blood vessels that run into
Arthur Burnett:the base of the penis, deep in the deep in the pelvis that make
Arthur Burnett:erections happen, can be affected by whatever treatment
Arthur Burnett:is brought to prostate cancer. That is, is more than just some
Arthur Burnett:of the simpler treatments for opening up the urinary outlet
Arthur Burnett:for benign enlargement or something like that. But whether
Arthur Burnett:it's surgery or radiation to treat prostate cancer, is deep
Arthur Burnett:in the pelvic area. The prostates in a very unforgiving
Arthur Burnett:part of the body, is a very precarious part of the body that
Arthur Burnett:is right at the base of the penis. And any intervention that
Arthur Burnett:affects the blood vessels and the nerves that regulate how the
Arthur Burnett:erection process occurs deep in the pelvis, are there going to
Arthur Burnett:be change? It's just a surgery. You see it more immediately,
Arthur Burnett:because we do the surgery, and then you're going home, and you
Arthur Burnett:feel like, as you're recovering next week or two, or three or
Arthur Burnett:four, where are my erections? And then may take as much as a
Arthur Burnett:year. And some men are maybe even longer, two years to get
Arthur Burnett:the erection recovery back, because those nerves and blood
Arthur Burnett:vessels have to heal, and they're kind of shocking, and
Arthur Burnett:they need this time to heal up. Okay, but guys don't have
Arthur Burnett:immediate erections, but they start to get it back, perhaps
Arthur Burnett:get erections back and well performed prostate surgeries,
Arthur Burnett:and men who are intact prior to surgery, that recovery could be
Arthur Burnett:as high as 70 80% in those kinds of situations there okay, as I
Arthur Burnett:said, radiation, you think you're fine, but then you lose
Arthur Burnett:it. And so it's kind of like a different natural history
Arthur Burnett:directions. You don't have it initially and but they come back
Arthur Burnett:with surgery. You feel they're okay, but then you lose the
Arthur Burnett:later with radiation. So any treatment for prostate cancer
Arthur Burnett:does have that risk, and I think men have to be prepared to
Arthur Burnett:understand that risk. They have to know that we do have some
Arthur Burnett:strategies in both the disciplines of surgery for our
Arthur Burnett:surgeons and the discipline of radiation therapy for the
Arthur Burnett:radiation oncologists, that we're trying to minimize the
Arthur Burnett:side effects. We're developing improvements in each of our
Arthur Burnett:specialties to try and target the prostate better and have
Arthur Burnett:less of the side effect issues. But the side effect issues may
Arthur Burnett:still be there with either way of going, and men need to just
Arthur Burnett:know the truth about that. Have the the really, the the honest
Arthur Burnett:expectations brought to them about there are going to be some
Arthur Burnett:changes at the same time. It's not doomsday. It's not doomsday
Arthur Burnett:because we got options, and we just need to kind of work with
Arthur Burnett:that man and say, Okay, let's just be forthright about it, and
Arthur Burnett:let's talk about what we can. Can offer. Some men, even with
Arthur Burnett:surgery, they'll respond to the pills, but there's also the
Arthur Burnett:vacuum pump. They're injections. And some men, it may be that
Arthur Burnett:their erectile dysfunction after surgery may actually be that
Arthur Burnett:impaired, and they may have to go forward with maybe a penile
Arthur Burnett:prosthesis surgery. But same thing for radiation, some men
Arthur Burnett:may respond as if you know alternative interventions, but
Arthur Burnett:some may find that as time goes on, the erections really are not
Arthur Burnett:that responsive to anything, and they want a penile prosthesis.
Arthur Burnett:And that will happen in that scenario as well.
Anne Truong:Okay, gotcha, I like the way how you explain
Anne Truong:that as well. So you post a surgery, do they enter some type
Anne Truong:of penile rehab program?
Arthur Burnett:Well, that's a good point, because that's kind
Arthur Burnett:of widely advertised out there. Get your penile rehab. Brings a
Arthur Burnett:lot of smiles, like, what rehab? What's that? I mean, I don't
Arthur Burnett:know if I get an orthopedic surgery or back surgery or leg
Arthur Burnett:surgery. I gotta go to the physical therapist and do work
Arthur Burnett:that, work that, that part of the body over and kind of. Have
Arthur Burnett:healed up better. Well, what kind of things do you do with a
Arthur Burnett:penis to make it rehabbed? And the answer is, is, well, yeah,
Arthur Burnett:we joke around a little bit about it, but the read The truth
Arthur Burnett:is, is we do want to bring attention to the importance of
Arthur Burnett:acknowledging having sexual dysfunctions after treatments
Arthur Burnett:for prostate cancer, that we should not deny the reality that
Arthur Burnett:can occur, that there are ways in which we should approach the
Arthur Burnett:issue, in terms of the biology, the psychology, the sociology
Arthur Burnett:and social issues with partners, in other words, giving attention
Arthur Burnett:to the survivorship and how we can work to try to improve
Arthur Burnett:quality of life. Work with various therapies that may have
Arthur Burnett:true physical effects on the penis, although we're still
Arthur Burnett:trying to work out what really can make the penis recover
Arthur Burnett:faster with surgery or prevent some deterioration over time
Arthur Burnett:with radiation. But rehab should have the connotation of a bio,
Arthur Burnett:psycho, social and cultural kind of multi dimensional approach,
Arthur Burnett:and that's what we kind of mean by penile rehab.
Anne Truong:Right. I like that, definitely. But like you said,
Anne Truong:how many percentage of men that have prostate cancer surgery or
Anne Truong:prostatectomy regain back erection again without the
Anne Truong:penile implant?
Arthur Burnett:Well, I think that the true statistics are
Arthur Burnett:probably going to be in order, about half the men. But again,
Arthur Burnett:let me make sure it's clear we're talking about men who have
Arthur Burnett:quality surgeries. We know that in the modern era of doing these
Arthur Burnett:surgeries, and I've done about 3000 of these in my 40 years
Arthur Burnett:here at Johns Hopkins, that we do these surgeries. Excuse me.
Arthur Burnett:Excuse me. Well, where we know that the soft tissue that
Arthur Burnett:surrounds the prostate, they carry a lot of the nerve tissue,
Arthur Burnett:we can gently dissect that away from the prostate, like taking
Arthur Burnett:the layers off the onion and then remove the onion, but not
Arthur Burnett:damage some of those tissues. They may get shocky for a while
Arthur Burnett:and but they'll recover. And we call that nerve sparing surgery.
Arthur Burnett:Nerve sparing radical prostatectomy. If those
Arthur Burnett:surgeries are done very well with good quality surgical
Arthur Burnett:dissection and technique, those men are favored to get their
Arthur Burnett:erections back, as long as he had good erections going into
Arthur Burnett:surgery too. So again, and that man, as long as he's good
Arthur Burnett:health, so if you have all the right attributes, good health,
Arthur Burnett:pre operative erections, quality surgery, at least 50% of those
Arthur Burnett:guys should be getting their erections back. And maybe even
Arthur Burnett:higher, according to some statistics. But it's kind of a
Arthur Burnett:little bit over the mat, all around the map, but, but again,
Arthur Burnett:if you don't have a good nerve spraying operation, if your
Arthur Burnett:erections were somewhat compromised before surgery, if
Arthur Burnett:you're already having some health issues from some pre
Arthur Burnett:diabetes, cardiovascular changes, blood vessel changes,
Arthur Burnett:high cholesterol changes. You smoke cigarettes a little bit,
Arthur Burnett:all these kind of things imply that you've already are
Arthur Burnett:changing, that the vascular blood vessel function to the
Arthur Burnett:penile tissue, and you're kind of the three legged stool. The
Arthur Burnett:second leg getting kicked out means that the stool is going to
Arthur Burnett:fall over. And so we want guys who had the best opportunity to
Arthur Burnett:get the recovery to be the four legged stool, maintain your best
Arthur Burnett:health and then have a good quality surgery. Those men, I
Arthur Burnett:think we can expect to have high likelihood of getting their
Arthur Burnett:function back.
Anne Truong:That is so true. So men, if you're listening to
Anne Truong:this, take care of yourself. Take care eat healthy. Do 30
Anne Truong:minutes of exercise four times a week, and don't smoke, and
Anne Truong:moderate your alcohol and sleep. And so if you get prostate
Anne Truong:cancer later, you may just do well, because if you have four
Anne Truong:legged stool there, you recover, instead of having a three legged
Anne Truong:stool like Dr Burnett say. So, wow. We certainly talk about a
Anne Truong:lot, but let's talk about something that we all need to
Anne Truong:talk about, which is, why is sexual health remains such a
Anne Truong:taboo subject for so many men and even doctors? it should be,
Anne Truong:if pain is considered the fifth vital sign, it should be the
Anne Truong:sixth vital sign, but yet it's still taboo. It's not talked
Anne Truong:about. Why is that? Why do you think that is?
Arthur Burnett:Well, I think that it's a taboo subject
Arthur Burnett:because it is a sensitive topic, and it has kind of associations
Arthur Burnett:with embarrassment, has associations with privacy,
Arthur Burnett:associations with the maybe subject matter that may be
Arthur Burnett:thought to be a youth potentially offensive or just
Arthur Burnett:inappropriate, first a certain kind of public dialog. I'd like
Arthur Burnett:to think that we can kind of move away from some of that
Arthur Burnett:realm and still be very professional, be very upstanding
Arthur Burnett:of in discussing these issues, because I think they impact our
Arthur Burnett:lives. They impact our lives in serious ways, the sexual
Arthur Burnett:function of men and women is certainly something that is part
Arthur Burnett:of their health, their general health, and again, and as you're
Arthur Burnett:hearing, could even be an indicator of your overall
Arthur Burnett:health. So we got to just kind of accept that reality. Have
Arthur Burnett:individuals like myself who have very authoritative, if you will,
Arthur Burnett:and knowledgeable and credible backgrounds in the field to help
Arthur Burnett:guide men and couples to move forward, to recapture aspects of
Arthur Burnett:their life that they may have kind of pushed aside. Then we
Arthur Burnett:need to just bring it, bring it forward as a subject matter that
Arthur Burnett:we can address. The other thing is, I think we are able to
Arthur Burnett:address it better than we did back, maybe back when I trained,
Arthur Burnett:when things were kind of dismissed a little bit, and. And
Arthur Burnett:then, as we bring things out in the open a little bit more and
Arthur Burnett:just talk about things being a true aspect of one's general
Arthur Burnett:health, hopefully we can over to overcome the taboo.
Anne Truong:Have you seen it being more and open since the
Anne Truong:80s? We're still somewhat behind here.
Arthur Burnett:Well, I think we are making progress, but I think
Arthur Burnett:the other thing that's a bit perverse that I will bring out
Arthur Burnett:first discussion, and maybe we'll just, and we'll kind of
Arthur Burnett:get into this a little bit more is just perhaps misdirection in
Arthur Burnett:terms of what it is with male function, or even female
Arthur Burnett:function. I mean, there's a lot of kind of myth surrounding men
Arthur Burnett:should be able to get erections instantaneously, of all ages,
Arthur Burnett:that all men should have a penis of a length that's a ruler or
Arthur Burnett:something. Men should be able to have sexual prowess and and
Arthur Burnett:carry on with a sexual act for hours. And in fact, I think our
Arthur Burnett:media and maybe even some of our industry is contributing to some
Arthur Burnett:of this, this misdirection, even, let's say guys who are
Arthur Burnett:have normal function at age 25 and young women on some of these
Arthur Burnett:ads are saying, I'm telling my man to use this pill. Because I
Arthur Burnett:think they're just kind of creating these kind of scenarios
Arthur Burnett:that then almost have a, I think, a tone in which it
Arthur Burnett:redirects and misdirects and undermines the confidence and
Arthur Burnett:that should be proper masculine understanding and behaviors. So
Arthur Burnett:I think that it's a bit of a taboo subject, but also a
Arthur Burnett:subject matter that's not correctly addressed in our
Arthur Burnett:current society. I'd like to think that we can address men's
Arthur Burnett:health in a more forthright way, in a more correct way than where
Arthur Burnett:we've been.
Anne Truong:Well, that's why we're having this conversation
Anne Truong:on YouTube. We work globally. Anyone in the world can listen
Anne Truong:to this and comment on this, because both you and I are
Anne Truong:passionate about, and we want to bring this to mainstream
Anne Truong:conversations and not something that is shameful, that is in the
Anne Truong:closet. And like you said, good sexual function is really good
Anne Truong:general health. And we know the research study shows that good
Anne Truong:sexual function correlate with longevity. You live longer,
Anne Truong:you're more happy, you're more healthy. And if you have good
Anne Truong:sexual function, more so that we should really be focusing on
Anne Truong:sexual function, and it's not just something that you talk
Anne Truong:about behind the scene. So having said that, I thought we
Anne Truong:had such good conversation. So where can our listener find out
Anne Truong:more about you? You said that Dr Burnette had written many books,
Anne Truong:and he has one that's about to come out, but he has some pretty
Anne Truong:good ones that he has there as well. Can you show us some of
Anne Truong:the books that you've written?
Arthur Burnett:Sure. Well, the most couple books you looked him
Arthur Burnett:up on amazon.com the one here having to do with just
Arthur Burnett:celebrating Black Urologists in America. But one I'd like to
Arthur Burnett:really focus on is the Manhood Prescription. And essentially
Arthur Burnett:that's one, but basically this is one here called Manhood
Arthur Burnett:Prescription. And what it is a book I wrote about two years ago
Arthur Burnett:now, a little bit kind of clinical, but yet, yet, it has
Arthur Burnett:information that the lay public can pick up and understand
Arthur Burnett:various disorders of the penile area and achieve some better
Arthur Burnett:understanding about how to manage these conditions, how to
Arthur Burnett:ask the right questions and how to take care of your own health
Arthur Burnett:better. At the same time, the next book that I'm coming out
Arthur Burnett:with here in 2026 it really focuses on manhood in a way that
Arthur Burnett:really helps men understand themselves better. Understands
Arthur Burnett:what it is to to, yes, be masculine. Let's get away from
Arthur Burnett:the Marlboro Man myth. Let's get a little bit more in terms of
Arthur Burnett:guys who are doing the right healthy thing. Understand what
Arthur Burnett:it is to have the proper maleness that get away from the
Arthur Burnett:masculine toxicity issues out there that I've kind of alluded
Arthur Burnett:to a little bit. Let's talk about what it is to build good
Arthur Burnett:relationships. And our society has so many negative role
Arthur Burnett:models, negative influences. Men and women are not having good
Arthur Burnett:relationships anymore. Everybody's into their their
Arthur Burnett:iPhone on their in their hip pocket. Too much pornography is
Arthur Burnett:going on. I'd like to kind of help guys understand what their
Arthur Burnett:best maleness is all about. And that's this is what this book is
Arthur Burnett:going to address here, where we're working to get this out
Arthur Burnett:the door. And again, being a urologic surgeon involved in
Arthur Burnett:male health, involved in the science of erections and science
Arthur Burnett:of maleness, and also having major roles that I have had over
Arthur Burnett:the years, not just being a surgeon and a scientist, but
Arthur Burnett:also a healthcare advocate, involved with policy and doing
Arthur Burnett:other sorts of things in terms of men's health, I'd like to
Arthur Burnett:bring kind of my background to help guys feel that they're
Arthur Burnett:understanding the the best ways in which they're going to be
Arthur Burnett:able to correct their concerns about their best health. So so
Arthur Burnett:find this book on amazon.com, I look for mine coming out.
Anne Truong:What's the name of it? What's the new book that's
Anne Truong:coming out?
Arthur Burnett:Well, we're tentatively saying Penis
Arthur Burnett:Confidential, which tentatively suggested, yes, it's a book on
Arthur Burnett:maleness and and women may want to read it too. But we're going
Arthur Burnett:to have discussions for young men, teenagers and young men,
Arthur Burnett:about what's important, about what they should be looking for,
Arthur Burnett:about how they need to live their lives better, all the way
Arthur Burnett:up to the older man with prostate cancer and
Arthur Burnett:understanding that he's still in the game too, and we want to
Arthur Burnett:make sure He preserves his best maleness and best men's health
Arthur Burnett:as well. So we're going to have a lot of discussion with this
Arthur Burnett:book. I hope it'll be exciting for population to want to pick
Arthur Burnett:it up and just look my name up. I'm on amazon.com or if you want
Arthur Burnett:to get a hold of me, just look up Johns Hopkins on websites.
Arthur Burnett:I'm glad to see many want to come my way and have a
Arthur Burnett:conversation as well.
Anne Truong:Okay, so what website should they go to to
Anne Truong:find out more about you? The
Arthur Burnett:Johns Hopkins website. Just Johns Hopkins
Arthur Burnett:Urology. Okay, you'll find it. Just make it easy, Johns Hopkins
Arthur Burnett:School of Medicine, and then Urology.
Anne Truong:Well, we'll put that link, and we'll put the
Anne Truong:link to your Amazon book as well. And I'm looking forward to
Anne Truong:hopefully have a signed book of your penis, confidential book,
Anne Truong:and we'll get you back again to the show to talk about that
Anne Truong:book, because I'm going to read it cover to cover. And then
Anne Truong:let's dive into that, because I really like what you said about
Anne Truong:you want to cover that aspect, so we have another interview,
Anne Truong:and maybe in 2026 to discuss about the book, okay.
Arthur Burnett:Oh, let's be my have spent some time with you.
Anne Truong:All right. Well, thank you so much. Dr Burnett,
Anne Truong:for being in the Sexual Health for Men Podcast and YouTube
Anne Truong:Okay, Modern Man, you are not alone and you don't have to
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Anne Truong:Thanks for listening to the Sexual Health for Men Podcast.
Anne Truong:If you love this episode, then please take a screenshot on your
Anne Truong:your general health and sexual health. Thank you, Dr Burnett.
Anne Truong:phone and post it on Facebook, Instagram, or wherever you post,
Anne Truong:and be sure to tag me and let me know why you like this episode
Anne Truong:and what you like to hear in the future. That will help me know
Anne Truong:what's great for you and I would love to give you the most
Anne Truong:incredible free gift designed to help you improve performance
Anne Truong:quickly. Go to my website at sexualhealthformenpodcast.com to
Anne Truong:And men, you are now broken. You are not alone, and we will see
Anne Truong:get the book, The Five Common Costly Mistakes Men Make When
Anne Truong:Facing ED. I would appreciate if you subscribe, leave a review on
Anne Truong:Apple podcasts or wherever you listen. And just know that you
Anne Truong:can have sexual vitality for life. I appreciate you until
Anne Truong:you next episode.
Anne Truong:next time.