May be too early to list in the progress section but...

[ashtown]

I feel I'm starting to see some significant plaque softening over the last couple of weeks and the improvement seems to be accelerating, which is probably down to a number of factors but I wanted to share what changes I've made in case it helps others.

The first point is that I have really gone out of my way to avoid touching the plaque, so no prodding, squeezing or massaging that only seem to make it angry. Definitely no stretching, sex or masturbation. In other words I'm leaving it well alone so it can heal in peace.

Secondly I've kept going with my main course of medicines Pentox, CoQ10, ALC, Cialis and Citrulline Malate but weeded out the myriad of vitamin pills and other supplements, preferring to rely on a better diet. In addition I've made a big point of trying to get more regular sleep and that shouldn't be underestimated.

Finally I've stopped eating or drinking anything with sugar or sweetener along, while avoiding unrefined carbs, though I still eat some wholemeal brown pasta and bread, which I hope is OK. I'm eating a lot more fruit and raw vegetables as well as drinking lots of herbal tea. Only time will tell if this continues to improve but I intend to keep going this way as long as it continues along this path.

[George999]

Its always SO good to hear good news.  I do hope things keep going well for you.  You ARE doing all the right things.  - George

[ashtown]

Thanks George, I've also seen improvement where the denting underneath has all but disappeared along with a twist I had from before. Hourglass narrowing around the centre may be a little less apparent but still present and I'm just hoping the curvature will start to decrease soon. The plaque is more concentrated at the base of my penis and overall it all feels more natural but the best strategy appears to be checking as seldom as possible.

There was a period of a few days where I ran out of CoQ10 and started to experience quite a bit of pain, so after I spotted the correlation I ordered some more and within a few hours of starting again it stopped. That may be a coincidence but I was surprised because I had previously thought CoQ10 wasn't doing much. It's easy to feel that way about almost everything with Peyronies when it keeps getting worse and I've had several months of that before now.

[George999]

CoQ10 functions differently than Pentoxifylline and the two complement each other.  That was certainly my experience.  Neither can replace the other in terms of benefits they bestow.  They make a very good combination.  - George

[Norm]

Looks like you have made a lot of positive changes. Can you tell that the Cialis has helped with nocturnal erections? Erections are important to getting back to good penile health. It really helped me in that department. I awake with wood every morning now, something I had not seen in years. Good luck. I hope this all continues to help you.  

[George999]

There is some research evidence I believe that Ciallis also helps in dealing with the fibrosis as well.

[ashtown]

The Cialis definitely helped with the nocturnal erections and we know that is important. There is evidence to suggest it helps in other ways as well, though curiously I remember seeing a warning on the Cialis website relating to Peyronies Disease. Before taking Cialis my penis became painfully cold with the onset of Peyronies, which is a clear sign of poor circulation and I no longer get that with Cialis.

I don't want to give the impression that I've seen some miracle cure and I'm expecting to be back to normal by the middle of next week on the basis of eating a few raw carrots. The only reason I find this noteworthy is that it is the first time my condition has stopped getting worse and begun to show a little improvement.

The impressive part is that the mini turnaround has occurred in just two weeks and I'm still struggling to a large extent in explaining to my wife that I can't eat certain foods because just about everything that isn't completely natural is full of additives and sugar. My diet still requires improvement.

My gut feeling is that the primary medicines for Peyronies i.e the PAV formula can be effective if you stop putting roadblocks in the way with additive ladened food and constantly handling the scar. The curvature I have is still really bad but I'm hoping that will start to come down as the plaque continues to soften.

[ashtown]

Just to say that I've been encouraged enough by progress so far to tighten up on my diet even further so I thought I'd share some information on what I'm eating and also ask for feedback to see if there is anything that could be improved.

In the morning I'm eating porridge (oatmeal) with blueberries or raspberries. Later in the morning I'll have a small handful of almonds and it's all washed down with plain black coffee.

For lunch I'm generally preparing raw broccoli and carrots, perhaps with some tuna fish or grilled chicken but some days I'll do salad with organic apple cider vinegar. At some point I might eat some low fat yoghurt or cottage cheese.

The evening meal is generally something that was prepared with a slow cooker including chicken or turkey with a variety of vegetables. I might eat that with sweet potato or other lightly steamed vegetables.

The first thing I've noticed is that the episodes of pain while flaccid have completely disappeared and there have been no more times when my penis seems to go hard and unnatural for no obvious reason. The plaque now seems to be concentrated at the bottom right hand side of the base. The other thing I've noticed is that I'm sleeping much better since cutting out all the sugar and additives.

Some progress but still a long way to go.  

[MattFoley]

ashtown, that is great news. I pray for your continued success.

I also noticed that you are taking Citrulline Malate, which I personally love. The real test of the Citrulline was in using it before and during my weight lifting sessions. When I used it, I would get better pumps and the next day, either there was no soreness or very little. I could not gauge any such success with L-Arginine.

My diet and use of Cialis is similar to yours as well so I think we're both on the right track.

All the best to you.

[ashtown]

If you aren't doing so already Matt give almonds a try. They are strong anti-oxidants that help stabilise blood sugar levels and ward off spikes in insulin levels after eating.

Something I'm not clear about is pineapple. On one hand they are rich in vitamin E and contain bromelain but on the other the sweetness suggests they are quite high in sugar.  

[MattFoley]

Thanks, ashtown. I actually love almonds. I can't stand any other nut but I can't stop eating almonds when they're in front of me. It's the same thing with green grapes. If I start eating grapes, I won't stop until I get physically sick and then later, I'll start again. Just knowing there are grapes in the fridge, makes me hunger them. I try to pace myself to no avail. It's bizarre. I have the same problem with blondes.  

[George999]

Pineapple and certain other fruits are highly glycemic which means we really should be careful not to eat too much of it in one sitting.  But they ARE fruit and they ARE therefore loaded with nutrition.  They are not nearly as dangerous as the added sweeteners that pollute our food chain from one end to the other.

[ashtown]

I started deliberately eating quite a lot of fruit recently but as Mr Gnarly pointed out, some fruits have a lot of sugar in them so he concentrated on raw vegetables instead and kept his fruit intake to a minimum, which seemed to work very well because he was effectively Peyronies free in just a few short months, even without Pentox.

It's a tricky one, because as you point out George, fruit is still loaded with useful nutrients and I gather that berries are particularly useful as anti-oxidants. I need to do more research but I've noticed a major improvement since taking my diet more seriously and cutting out all sweeteners. NB I'm on 6 Pentox tablets a day now but I only started to see progress when I stopped with the unrefined carbs and sugar.

[George999]

Berries are absolutely the safest fruits in terms of blood sugar issues.  And they are among the most nutritionally dense as well.  Berries are always a good choice and I am not talking about grapes.  Regardless of what some might think grapes are not berries.  But vegetables hands down are absolutely number one.  Almost all of them are low glycemic, the exceptions being potatoes and such.  Lots and lots of vegies equals healing, no doubt about it.  - George

[ashtown]

I haven't been eating any grapes at all. It's all blueberries and raspberries but just a handful every day. I've also cut out bananas.

Something I've found practical is to use an electric slow cooker for the evening meal with the family and the taste is amazing. Just throw in a pile of mixed vegetables and chicken with a little seasoning to prepare a large number of meals in one go. Cooking at a very low temperature for 6-7 hours means more of the nutrition is safeguarded so it's probably the next best thing to raw vegetable diet.

[Hawk]

If you miss desserts at all you can make great smoothies with the coconut milk you like, vanilla flavored whey protein, frozen triple berries (blueberries, blackberries, raspberries).

This may be more fruit than you like but I also put in an organic apple, and orange.  The orange is important to me for flavor but id you just grate a bit of organic orange peel into it it gives it a great great taste.  The colder the ingredients are the better.

I love smoothies because you can incorporate all kinds of things from ground flax seed, to avocado, or most veggies you would put in a salad.  

[ashtown]

I've been eating low fat yoghurts with blueberries or raspberries but the fruit smoothies are a great idea. On a side note I've just read an article on sugar that isn't related to Peyronies but I think it all ties in Sugar, not fat, exposed as deadly villain in obesity epidemic | Society | The Guardian

[funnyfarm]

Just to point out a few things to steer you in the right direction,  you said you stopped eating meat, but as the article points out grass fed beef is quite good for you.  Tuna is fine, but almost all commercial chicken has been raised exclusively on corn feed which means the fat has an unnaturally high level of omega 6 (pro inflammatory).   Try to find chicken from local farm that is pasture raised (ie eats grass and bugs) and therefore naturally high in omega 3 (anti inflamatory).  The same goes for eggs.

Also low fat yogurt in most cases is junk food marketed as a health food.   It is essentially sugar and commercial (ie highly adulterated) milk, which is high glycemic and inflammatory.    Keep in mind the US food industry has gone to great lengths to confuse about what is healthy so they can market low cost products that may lead to disease.  A few phrases are often used to conceal bad foods as good are:  "low fat", "natural", "home made", "gourmet", "farm fresh", "cholesterol free" "sugar free" ect

Finally remember food is medicine.  You become what you eat.  Avoiding processed foods, or anything that comes in a package with a bar code by only shopping around the perimeter of the grocery store, is always a good general rule.  

[George999]

A good rule of thumb for ANY processed food is if fat is low BE SURE that sugar (carbs) will be high.  Those little low fat fruity yogurt containers are indeed junk food in disguise.  But even in the case of plain yogurt, the non-fat version has TWICE the sugar as the regular version.  Of course you can always opt for artificial sweeteners instead, but processed food always use artificial sweeteners that carry their own risks.  So there is no easy solution.

[ashtown]

I've haven't completely stopped eating meat but following recent events highlighted in the news it has become very clear that most of the time we have absolutely no idea where meat was sourced and in Europe we can't even be sure what type of meat it is because you sure can't trust the label. To that end I feel safer eating a carrot only because I can be relatively sure it is a vegetable at least.

I'm not sure how chickens are raised in Europe but at a guess it's probably very similar to the US because they'll have found the way to do it most cheaply and I wasn't aware about the high levels of omega 6 causing inflammation. Tuna is starting to look like the safest option.

Out of curiosity I just looked at the yoghurt and it's a plain yoghurt with 0.1% fat, however it cunningly showed 8% carbs of which all 8% was sugar, so it looks like that is coming off my list as well. At the moment I can live without sweetness in food. I just want to beat this Peyronies and my guess is that diet is the biggest roadblock.  

[funnyfarm]

I am not sure about England but I believe the EU does not permit GMO's and overall quality of meat and dairy is better than the US.  They also do not allow mosanto's BST in diary which is pretty nasty stuff given to the cows to maximize milk production.

I am confused by the yogurt label though, .1% fat 8% carbs could not be correct as it would imply 92% protein ?

[Hawk]

Just interested in UK labeling.  Doesn't it actually show the number of grams of sugar, fat, and protein rather than just % or calories?

[George999]

I am confused by the yogurt label though, .1% fat 8% carbs could not be correct as it would imply 92% protein ?

Well, you would have know the percentage of inert ingredients to know those numbers.  Inert ingredients would be minerals, water, fiber, etc.  They are neither carb, protein, or fat.  - George

[ashtown]

I wasn't sure if I'd be confusing you guys with our metric system but the actual content of sugar was 8 grams per 100 grams of yoghurt, so in a half litre container, which is a little less than a pint you are looking at 1.4 ounces of sugar according to my little calculator on the computer, which strikes me as far too much for comfort and basically negates all my efforts to stop taking sugar in coffee etc.

Overall I think Europe is probably better than the US in terms of food standards as long as everything is done properly. The problem we've seen recently is that politics mean we have to accept goods from other countries inside the EU, so by the time you sit down to eat a beef lasagna chances are you eating half a dozen different meat types from as many countries and it's a big mess. In some cases you could be eating a race horse that had been drugged to the eyeballs with steroids.

I've found a wikipedia link detailing what is happening http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_meat_adulteration_scandal

[Hawk]

Strange you should say that about the horse meat.  My guess is that the people that got the horse meat were far less likely to have hormone contaminated meat than those that got the beef.  Most horses are not race horses and any races with substantial purses do extensive drug testing.

We should all probably protest for more horse meat.

[ashtown]

I think the real concern is that criminal gangs have been involved in this deception and if they are prepared to pass off horse meat as beef for the sake of profits it's a reasonable assumption that they weren't too worried about hygiene or damage to human health through all sorts of contamination.  

[Hawk]

I wasn't sure if I'd be confusing you guys with our metric system but the actual content of sugar was 8 grams per 100 grams of yoghurt, so in a half litre container, which is a little less than a pint you are looking at 1.4 ounces of sugar according to my little calculator on the computer, which strikes me as far too much for comfort and basically negates all my efforts to stop taking sugar in coffee etc.

We are pretty screwed up on this side of the pond.  We think of fats, sugars, protein etc in terms of grams. On the other hand we want to know how many grams of these macro nutrients there are per cup (8 ounces).  Now how screwed up is that  

Anyway, I would agree.  That figures out to 8 grams of sugar for less than a 1/2 cup of yogurt.  That is high.

PS: I also agree on the criminal element involved in the food chain is probably a worse threat than horse meat by itself.

[MattFoley]

I've never had horse meat but I'm willing to try it as long as the protein content is high, the fat content is low, and it tastes good.

[ashtown]

I've just found quite a good web source on the discussion of inflammation and diet that covers some 8 pages. What Causes Inflammation? | Foods That Cause and Prevent Inflammation | How To Reduce Inflammation Naturally

If you want to skip the science part skip to page 7 where it lists good ways to stop inflammation What Causes Inflammation? | Foods That Cause and Prevent Inflammation | How To Reduce Inflammation Naturally