Fix Your Circadian Rhythm, Fix Your Prostatitis or Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndrome?

This short article may very well be the missing piece of the puzzle you need to become pain free once and for all. It includes four specific strategies you have ignored or have zero clue on that have knocked almost all my prostatitis symptoms down to nothing. Pain, frequency, urgency all almost gone.  Read it and please share it.

INFLAMMATION is what is making all of your prostatitis  or chronic pelvic pain symptoms worse!

Reduce inflammation and over time you will feel much better.

BUT many of you try to do that with pills and potions instead of how Mother Nature designed your body over millions of years to naturally reduce inflammation 24/7.

How do you reduce inflammation according to mother nature?

Stop disrupting your circadian rhythm every single damn day of your life.

What is circadian rhythm?

A natural process of physical, mental and behavioral changes that follow a 24 hour cycle primarily guided by light and dark, the sun rising and setting.

How are you disrupting your circadian rhythm?

The biggest way you can disrupt your circadian rhythm is to expose yourself to light at night or no bright light during the day, especially sunlight. Let's face it, this is probably you.

You spend most of your day indoors under weaker artificial light instead of stronger sunlight and your nights are filled with artificial light from tech screens and LED lighting. 

What does this do to you?

It disrupts your biological body clocks. Essentially you have a clock in every cell in your body. The vast majority of these clocks are aligned directly or indirectly with night and day. Your clocks keep everything running smoothly! When they get out of sync due to some type of disruption like constantly turning night into day by having artificial light on at night, bad things happen.

One of those bad things is inflammation. 

So to keep your circadian rhythm and body clocks in synch, your days need to be filled with SUNLIGHT and your nights need to be filled with screenlight free darkness!

This study below shows that men with circadian rhythm disruption have worse chronic pelvic pain syndrome. 

Men with chronic pelvic pain syndrome scored exceedingly high on all psychosocial variables and showed evidence of dysfunctional hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis function reflected in augmented awakening cortisol responses.

And we also know that abnormal regulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and diurnal cortisol rhythms (circadian rhythm disruption) are associated with several pain and chronic inflammatory conditions and that abnormal regulation of the HPA axis and diurnal cortisol rhythms is a hallmark of a disrupted circadian rhythm. 

I can go on and on about how circadian rhythm disruption leads to chronic inflammation but I won't. Just go to pub med and do a search if you want to see for yourself.

So knowing this, what exactly did I do to crush my prostatitis symptoms?

1) RESET AND PROTECT YOUR CIRCADIAN RHYTHM. I made sure I was not disrupting my circadian rhythm. I started to get up early and go to bed early. When I got up, the first thing I made sure to see was the sun! Bright light early in the morning helps set your circadian rhythm and keep it strong. I spent as much time outside in the sun as possible. BRIGHT days are crucial for a strong circadian rhythm. Indoor lighting is not strong enough during the day. I watched the sunset. The sunset helps keep your circadian rhythm in synch by signaling your brain it is time to rest and regenerate.  After the sun went down, I tried not to turn on any lights or use any screens. Artificial light at night (especially blue light from lights and screens) disrupts your circadian rhythm so you have to avoid it or block it. Bonus points. If you want to really reboot your circadian rhythm, go camping for a weekend!  

2) WEAR BLUE LIGHT BLOCKING GLASSES. Ok so I know you probably think I'm crazy when I say no lights or tech screens after the sun goes down. Most people can't do that. The hack is to wear blue light blocking glasses at night if you are going to use tech screens or artificial light. Its mainly the blue light spectrum of light at night that confuses your brain into thinking it is day time and disrupting your circadian rhythm. Blue light blocking glasses remove/block the blue spectrum of light coming from artificial lights and tech screens so you can still use them at night without disrupting your circadian rhythm. How do you know which blue light blockers to buy? I wrote a post on my five favorite blue light blocking glasses here.


3) GROUND! Grounding (also called "earthing") means connecting your body directly to the earth. Bare feet in the grass or on the sand. The earth, from lightning strikes and its metal core etc, has a slightly negative charge to it. So when you come in contact with it you are receiving some energy in the form of electrons and these electrons help to do many things including keeping your circadian rhythm in synch and reducing inflammation.  How do you ground? Walk on the beach or go sit in the grass with your bare feet touching the ground for at least 20-30 minutes at a time. I did this twice a day plus I slept grounded. Yes, grounding was huge for me because you can even ground while you are sleeping. You can buy special grounding sheets for your bed that you connect to the ground and essentially the energy from the earth is transferred to your sheets. Since you are laying on your sheets that means you are receiving the energy from the earth! This was huge because it meant I could spend all the hours I was asleep grounded which meant that I was reducing inflammation big time. This might seem crazy to you but it is very well researched. Here's a great podcast on grounding that will give you all the basics. The exact bed sheet I used for my grounding can be found here.

4) DE-STRESS. Stress not only causes inflammation, but it also disrupts your circadian rhythm! One of the ways it does this is through the generation of cortisol which in the daytime is good but at night is disruptive. Besides taking a walk in the sun every day, the best thing I've found to reduce stress is a program called NuCalm. Nucalm is the secret weapon of professional sports teams like the Chicago Blackhawks. You put on a sleep mask and listen to their special app for 30-60 minutes. In a way it then restructures your brain to reduce stress and decrease inflammation. This is another no brainer. 

5) BONUS: Get Oxalates Under Control. Oxalates are like little shards of glass that burrow into your urinary tract and prostate area and cause inflammation and pain. In this study, you see oxalates associated with LUTS or lower urinary tract symptoms. 

 Ok. Thats enough for today. If you haven't tried any of the above 4 strategies yet, start now. Do them all. Give it one month. I will bet almost anything you will see a difference if not a huge difference in your prostatitis symptoms. And the good thing is that these strategies will also make you much healthier in other areas like metabolic and mental health!