A few tips on how to Prevent Prostate Cancer
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Originally published in September 2003 icon -updated March 2007
Prostate will shortly become the number one cancer of the Western world.
Yet over 90 per cent of prostate cancers are very slow growing and can be left safely for ten years or more.
So says the top American Charity.
In November 2004 the Royal Marsden added that as many as 50 per cent of medical interventions were unnecessary and called for a system of Active Surveillance. We had been advocating this already for two years.
But if you are being carefully watched over, what things do you need to consider? Are there things you might be doing that could help you keep this cancer in a controlled, reduced state. Here we put together twenty things you might like to know.
1: When you reach the age of 50 your doctor will offer to give you Digital Rectal Examinations. All these can do is tell you if you (like the majority of men in the West) have a swollen prostate.
2: The symptoms of a swollen or enlarged prostate are identical to those of prostate cancer and are all concerned with difficulty of urination, failure to clear the bladder, night-time visits to the loo and so on. Blood in your urine is a symptom of a completely different disease.
3: Although the lifetime risk for a man is put at 1 in 13, i.e. 7 per cent, if you reach 50 years of age you then have a 33 per cent chance of being diagnosed with prostate cancer. Black, urban males have a threefold increased risk.
4: We rang the Prostate Cancer Helpline and asked "Why is there this sudden epidemic?" Their answer? "Better diagnosis". We dont think thats an answer. And its also definitely not true.
5: Your doctor may give you a PSA test. Reports on its accuracy vary between 40 per cent and 70 per cent. It will be high, for example, if you took exercise in the previous 24 hours, or even if you consumed dairy produce.
6: Professor Julian Peto at a cancer conference in June stated that 90 per cent of doctors would not have a PSA test themselves as it was a waste of time! The Professor at Stanford has dubbed it "almost useless". In research, half of men having a high score requiring medical intervention saw it fall to "safe" levels within a month.
The great majority of prostate cancers stay in the prostate
7: With a positive PSA test you might be offered a biopsy. They may take up to 10 pieces of tissue from your prostate. Be very careful. You have a 15 per cent risk of impotence; and an 85 per cent chance of infection.
8: You can have a scan; you may be told you have secondaries. Get a second opinion. We have evidence that scans can be wrong too!
9: Your doctor may tell you that your prostate cancer is caused by high testosterone. There is absolutely no scientific evidence for this especially as testosterone declines as you age. If anything, prostate cancer is usually caused by the female hormone oestradiol, which converts testosterone to DHT, a very dangerous chemical.
10: The great majority of prostate cancers stay in the prostate. They do not spread. And as Dr Contreras said in icon "No one ever died of prostate cancer". One third of all 60 - year olds in the USA who died of other causes had prostate cancer in autopsies yet never knew.
11: If you dont want to be misdiagnosed or put into panic, there are simple things you can do to keep your prostate from enlargement and from becoming cancerous. Most importantly "Do not be overweight". This greatly increases levels of agressive oestrogens in the body, while your fat deposits store toxins you would rather expel.
12: Eat five or six small meals a day, not two big ones, because insulin surges can cause oestrogen surges and this can increase oestradiol levels.
13: Avoid oestrogen mimics in your life. Recent US research linked 13 genes to prostate cancer and all were seen to be affected by chemicals around us. So avoid perfumed products on your skin, toiletries, household and personal care products containing toxins; herbicides and pesticides on your food, oestrogen in your tap water. (Read our articles As safe as Houses, and Oestrogen, the killer in our midst.
Eat five or six small meals a day, not two big ones
14: Eat tomatoes, especially cooked ones. Harvard Medical School research shows 7-10 helpings per week will reduce risk by 40 per cent, and cut symptoms by 40 per cent if you already have cancer.
15: Cut dairy out of your life (beware hidden dairy like lactose in dried meats biscuits, cakes). Swedish research shows that there is a direct correlation between total dairy volume consumed and prostate cancer risk.
16: Take selenium (100-200 micrograms) supplements, avoid mercury-based vaccines, or mercury filled teeth and coastal water sea fish. Selenium displaces toxic mercury in your body and reduces risk 40 to 60 per cent. Research also suggests you should take zinc supplements (no more than 15-30mgs). The healthy prostate is a store of zinc but this can be displaced by heavy metals like nickel and cadmium.
17: Eat lots of Broccoli - the
Indole 3 carbinol converts agressive oestradiol to a safer version and the sulphur based ingredients act on cancer forming pathways according to Harvard research.
Curcuma Longa also has beneficial properties for reducing an enlarged prostate, as does Saw Palmetto Oil.
18: Take aspirin (81 mgs per day -about a fifth of a tablet). The Mayo Clinic in 2001 proved that this reduces prostate cancer risk by 40 per cent. Alternatively eat a handful of almonds, which contain salicylin. Or take Aloe Vera which has 6 such anti-inflammatories
19: Take fish oils. The same Mayo Clinic research showed long-chain Omega 3 was equally effective in combatting localised inflammation. In fact Sir John Vane won a Nobel Prize in 1982 pioneering this work.
20: If you cannot get out in the sunshine for 30 minutes per day (or you are of Afro-Caribbean descent) take vitamin D supplements. The research is very clear on this. It reduces risk by up to 40 per cent.
Panic?
No Panic.
Sensible, disciplined, self-preservation.