Ways to prevent prostate cancer….

Today's Post:  Friday, 7-10-2015

1.  Several weeks ago, a study was reported on Medical News Today saying that there is indeed support for the position that things that prevent prostate cancer ALSO prevent breast cancer.

Of course, anything that prevents all cancers prevents both prostate and breast cancer!

2.  Though tobacco use and smoke “only” have been thought to cause 30% of all cancers, if you look at cancers that result in death or have the chance of causing death it’s 50%.

A. The first thing to do is to take the steps that prevent all cancers when you want to prevent prostate cancer.

1.  The biggest and most effective one is to avoid using tobacco products of any kind and any exposure to tobacco smoke AND nicotine for anything but temporary use as a stop smoking aid.

a) Tobacco is grown today using fertilizers containing polonium, a radioactive element.  If you touch a tobacco product to your mucous membranes in your mouth, throat, or nose – or if you breathe tobacco smoke, this polonium goes into your blood stream.  And, because your blood goes everywhere in your body, guess what that means? 

It means that tobacco use can and does cause cancer of every single kind in each part of your body.  This of course includes prostate cancer, breast cancer, and ovarian cancer.

b) Medical News Today in the last few month also reported that nicotine by itself BOTH causes cancer AND heart disease. 

(That’s doubly significant because although some people who smoke do escape cancer or die before the cancer shows up, EVERY SINGLE EXPOSURE TO TOBACCO SMOKE CAUSES A BIT OF THE PLAQUE BUILD UP THAT EVENTUALLY WILL RESULT IN HEART DISEASE, STROKES, ED, AND OTHER PROBLEMS WITH CIRCULATION—INCLUDING  VASCULAR DEMENTIA.

That means that teens just trying smoking and people who “only smoke one or two a day are giving themselves heart disease.  NO ONE escapes because this happens every single time.)

Since nicotine by itself also causes both heart disease and cancer, this also means that eCigarettes should be banned, taxed, and considered as smoking in every place where smoking is banned or prohibited.

c)  The hotter the flame used to start a cigarette, the more carcinogenic tobacco smoke is created due to the short lived and very reactive hydrocarbons produced.

The editor of Analog Science Fiction also followed science and found and published a study that found that although there was some lung cancer when people lit cigarettes with matches, the curve of increasing use of lighters with their much hotter flame and the incidence of lung cancer was virtually identical.

If you know smokers, guess how many use matches today and how many use lighters?  Since they almost always use lighters, you not only want to NOT be around their smoke in general, it’s very important not to be around them when they light up.

(Last bit about smoking.  Tobacco also includes cadmium; and since that is brain toxic along with the circulation impairment caused by smoking, nearly two thirds of smokers will develop Alzheimer’s disease according to one study.) 

This is a bit of a heavy emphasis I realize; but we’re talking about how to avoid the killing forms of prostate and breast cancer here.

The evidence is that if you avoid tobacco products, nicotine, and tobacco smoke, 100 % of the time,

             you just cut your risk of that AND any other cancers in HALF!

2.  The second way to cut the risk of all cancers is to avoid high chronic inflammation.

Mercifully this is becoming better and better known and most of the better health writers now know it and promote it.

Simply put, people are genetically adapted to thrive on a diet with omega 6 oils and omega 3 oils in balance.  Before 10,000 years ago people didn’t eat grain and the seafood and even other animals they ate which ate their natural diets were high in omega 3 oils.

As a result our bodies are genetically set to do well with an equal amount of omega 6 oils and omega 3 oils.  Omega 6 oils in this low moderate intake allow our bodies to use inflammation on a temporary basis when it’s beneficial and omega 3 oils with their anti-inflammatory effects keep inflammation temporary and low the rest of the time.

But in the last 100 years our diet has made massive changes for the worse.  People eat grains directly which have omega six oils.  They eat animals fed grains instead of their natural diet which causes their fat to be extremely high in omega 6 oils.  Worse, they eat grain oils such as soy, corn, and canola. On top of that over 90% of each of these grains are GMO grains which I strongly suspect are even more pro-inflammatory.

The first major pioneer in publishing this nutritional train wreck and how it helps cause or worsen cancers was in the book:

Anticancer: A New Way of Life Dec 31, 2009   by David Servan-Schreiber

He lived a lot longer with his brain cancer but did eventually die of it.

But the anti-inflammatory lifestyle he teaches and explains is a HUGE lever to use for good health besides its effect on preventing and slowing cancer. 

Keeping chronic inflammation very low also prevents and even may treat autoimmune disease; it not only reduces the pain and limitation of osteoarthritis, it prevents it from forming!; it is a major lever besides lowering small particle LDL in preventing heart disease and strokes; and it also strongly prevents Alzheimer's disease and other kinds of mental decline.

By the way, NOT eating wheat and rarely eating other grains and never eating soy or corn or canola oil using extra virgin olive oil only AND virtually never eating farmed fish, or meat from animals or poultry fed grain works. 

People likely to have cancer and heart disease et al have HSCRP inflammation readings of 3.0 and up.  1.0 and less is desirable.  Mine recently tested as being .02. 

3.  What if you could slash your chronic inflammation AND prevent cancer and Alzheimer’s disease another level by adding something else to the very low inflammation eating style?

It’s closer to two or three levels!  And, yes you can!

The research Dr Servan-Schreiber found was that eating turmeric with black pepper or taking the curcumin supplements made from and including some turmeric with black pepper slashes chronic inflammation.

I’d started taking curcumin supplements by the time I read about curcumin helping to stop cancer because they have been shown to strongly prevent Alzheimer’s disease.  So I just began taking my curcumin with black pepper.

(Turmeric and curcumin not only keep inflammation from causing the damage that leads to Alzheimer’s disease, they apparently ALSO speed up the repairs of any damage that forms!)

Unbelievably there is more!

I began taking curcumin; and began taking ginger as an anti-inflammatory and bracing morning tonic each day in chilled water.  (Ginger is a better tasting botanic cousin of turmeric and is also a safe and quite effective anti-inflammatory.)

Then my LDL cholesterol on my next test dropped from about 106 decently low, to 73!

I realized it might be due to the turmeric and ginger but wasn’t sure.  Then I read in Dr Dean Ornish’s book, Spectrum that yes research verifies that they do lower LDL cholesterol.

4.  And, there is still more, if you also do the things like take omega 3 oils and the DHA omega 3 oil and real niacin and do regular vigorous exercise each day, your HDL goes up and they have shown that your triglycerides go down AND the small particle LDL that causes heart disease goes down!

(Doing all that is what dropped my HSCRP inflammation so low.)

But here’s the incredibly good news for fighting cancer here:  Separate research found that a very low level of small particle LDL has the effect of preventing cancer from metastasizing and spreading all over and becoming deadly!

5.  You can also eat, take, and drink many things with an anti-cancer effect on all cancers:

According to a UK study people who eat 6 or more servings of vegetables a day have a fantastically high 43% lower chance of dying from any cause than people who do not.

24% of the 43% was the drop in heart disease and strokes; but close to 19% was the reduction in cancers.

Moreover, you can do much better than a 19% drop with some vegetables.

a)  Eating some cruciferous vegetables raw prevents or kills off cancer.  The micronutrients involved are killed off by heat. 

So raw broccoli florets or cauliflower by themselves or diced into a salad work. 

[I’ll repeat this later:  Eating raw broccoli florets or raw cauliflower florets at least once a week was found to cut the incidence of aggressive prostate cancer about in HALF. 

With my family history, I began and have continued to eat broccoli florets four to seven days a week ever since!]

Using raw kale or chard or collard greens or even water cress in a Vitamix drink also work!

Coleslaw made with either green or red cabbage or both works.  (Note that virtually all commercial pre-made mayo really uses cancer boosting oils like soy or canola and NOT 100% olive oil as real mayo does.  So, if you don’t make your own mayo, just using extra virgin olive oil and cabbage with maybe some diced onion or carrots or organic raisins works.)

b)  Since many pesticides and herbicides are carcinogenic and organic vegetables have close to zero instead of enough to matter, although many vegetables do prevent cancer, making a strong and consistent effort to eat almost only organic vegetables also helps prevent cancer.

The good news is that Whole Foods Market carries many vegetables and fruit that is organic and at relatively reasonable prices.  I’ve not seem them carry organic fresh spinach which was reported as having multiple kinds of pesticides.  But they have been carrying organic red and green cabbage and onions and carrots and raisins and broccoli florets.

c)  Some cancer preventing compounds are released when cruciferous vegetables are gently steamed.  And if the steaming is brief enough some of the heat sensitive cancer preventers may survive the process.

d)  Beta carotene by itself has been tested to be a mixed review in terms of cancer protection. 

However, mixed carotenes from dark green and yellow and orange vegetables are strongly health protective AND cancer protective.

In addition, eating these vegetables with extra virgin olive oil in a salad or cooked with extra virgin olive oil makes the carotenes many times more available to your body.

So, while cooking or boiling broccoli but not so long it gets a bitter taste may turn off the cancer preventive compounds that are heat sensitive it IMPROVES your body’s access to its cancer preventing carotenes!

The best way to get carotenes is NOT in supplements but in real organic vegetables.  We now know that vegetables like carrots and broccoli and yams don’t just have beta carotene, they have HUNDREDS of carotenes!  And it may be the combination of those that is so health protective – not just some of them!

In fact, alpha carotene, not beta may be the most powerful single carotene for good health.  A study found that if you knew the level of alpha carotene in someone was high or low, you could predict their overall health so well by that it was amazing.

(When I read that I looked up which vegetable was highest in alpha carotene and found that it’s carrots!

By the way, after I read that, I added diced organic carrots to the broccoli florets I had been eating for lunch each day.)

e)  Carotenes are so potent for good health that an interesting study was done that found that people who eat a lot of them have a kind of ruddy glow to their skin.  When people see people with that glow, they perceive them as healthy.  When they don’t see that glow, they perceive the people as much less healthy.

But what was astounding about that study was that the people tested did NOT know why they saw people with that glow as healthy, they just were aware they “looked” healthy!

e)  People get DNA damage and other things that cause carcinogenic cells.  In younger people with strong immune systems and low chronic inflammation, their immune system kills them off and cancer as a disease caused by such cells growing out of control never happens at all.

A study was published making the case that the real optimum daily intake of vitamin D3 is about7,000 iu. 

(The manmade vitamin D2 IS undesirable in amounts that high; but the natural form is made by the body from summer sun in amounts over 20,000 iu a day with no ill effects.)

What has that to do with your immune system killing off potentially cancerous cells?

A huge amount it turns out!  People who get 5,000 to 10,000 iu day or a bit more of vitamin D3 get an astounding double benefit! 

The amount of killer T cells your body makes go up several fold!  Instead of single shot rifles and sparse ammunition, it’s like that much vitamin D3 provides multiple barrel machine guns and a fleet of ammo trucks to your immune system!

The other effect is nearly or even more astonishing!  Your T cells accuracy goes way up too!

They are then dramatically less likely to cause an autoimmune disease by thinking your healthy cells need to be attacked.

AND if similar but cancerous cells show up, your immune system recognizes that and kills them!

f)  A quite well done study of the cheap manmade form of vitamin E found that high doses of it slightly INCREASED the amount of prostate cancer.

The headlines said “Vitamin E found to cause prostate cancer.”

Oops!

The studies of real alpha tocopherol, vitamin E, and other tocopherols in their natural form consistently show the reverse!

Not only that, but just like carotenes, vitamin E is a whole set of related compounds if you get it in foods.  There are at least 8 variants that we know of.

And gamma tocopherol is many times more potent and preventing prostate cancer than the alpha tocopherol known as vitamin E.

How do you get that?  You can do it easily with good health benefits by eating unprocessed raw tree nuts and avocadoes and extra virgin olive oil.

Not only that but pecans are unusually high in gamma tocopherol and they taste good too!

g)  Different studies show varying degrees of cancer prevention from green tea.  But it’s clear that people who drink a cup or more a day of organic green tea or take green tea extract or both will have far fewer cancers than people who do not. 

(I like coffee and Earl Grey and Oolong tea better and drink some of each.

But I drink a double bag cup of Choice organic green tea and take two Now green tea extract supplements when I first get up each morning.  Then I take two Now green tea extract supplements when I first get to work and drink another double bag organic green tea with my lunch.

The wake up effect is far gentler and less anxiety boosting than coffee.  And, I suspect the anticancer effect is quite strong.  It’s at least equal to drinking 8 cups of green tea a day.

People who simply drink 5 or more cups of green tea a day get less of all cancers and of prostate cancers than people who don’t.)

h) People who get a bio-effective 200 mcg a day of selenium but not over 400 get fewer cancers than people who don’t.  I take that much as a supplement but I found out its bioavailability may be as low 25%.  So when I found out that eating a Brazil nut delivers about 100 mcg of bioavailable selenium, I also eat an average of one a day.

(An interesting note is that while doing this helps prevent prostate cancer, it may also boost testosterone to do this!)

B.  Besides these things what prevents prostate cancer?

1.  Taking up to but NOT more than 45 mg a day of zinc and the 3 mg a day of copper needed to balance it is similar to taking selenium.

Doing so boosts your immune system and seems to be most effective in preventing prostate cancer.

And, like selenium it boosts your testosterone a bit.

Also, like selenium taking way more has harmful effects. The depresses your immune system instead!

It’s in meat and nuts.  So a vegan vegetarian who doesn’t eat nuts is likely to be deficient in it.

2.  But the real grand slam winner is lycopene.  Lycopene is the primary carotene in tomatoes.

It was found that men who ate a lot of cooked tomato and pasta sauce had a much lower rate of prostate cancer than men who didn’t.

Then someone though to test having men take 3 10mg capsules of lycopene with and oil to make it bioavailable and both found that it prevented prostate cancer and tended to slow it down if it was already present.

THAT study made the front page of TIME magazine at the time.  And, with my family history, I’ve taken 30 mg a day of lycopene AND have tomato based pasta sauce with extra virgin olive oil three to five days a week as part of my dinner.

More recently, a study was done that gave men with slow growing prostate cancer both the lycopene and just 4,000 iu a day of vitamin D3.

Some of the cancers vanished and almost none of them got any bigger!

C. What prevents the aggressive form of prostate cancer?

Note that just the lycopene and vitamin D3 combination comes close.

I now take a bit over 10,000 iu a day of vitamin D3.

And, as we wrote earlier in this post, people who do the things that boost HDL and lower triglycerides have far fewer particles of small particle LDL.  And studies have found this make aggressive cancers far less successful in leaving where they began.

But there are at least two others:

a) Eating raw broccoli florets or raw cauliflower florets at least once a week was found to cut the incidence of aggressive prostate cancer about in HALF. 

With my family history, I began and have continued to eat broccoli florets four to seven days a week ever since!

(I did note this earlier in this post also.)

b)  An interesting thing happened. Long ago I read that people who took the mineral supplement boron were slightly but very consistently more alert than people who didn’t.

I’ve taken 3 mg a day of boron ever since.

Wow! Has that been lucky!

It seems that taking boron plus strength training plus taking vitamin D3 plus never drinking colas and taking vitamin K2 plus getting enough magnesium creates strong very hard to break  bones.  And adding the boron apparently about doubles the effect of the other things because the bones of people who take boron are so tough to cut surgeons found they had to use specials saws to cut bones in people who get enough boron.

Then I read that Dr Al Sears found that men who take boron ALSO get half the aggressive prostate cancer of men who don’t.  But when I read that I didn’t need to go buy some because I’d already been taking it for over TEN years!

Conclusion:

How well does this work?

Both my grandfathers died of prostate cancer.  My Dad might have if he had not had his prostate cancer treated.  And, one of my younger brothers developed the slow growing kind of prostate cancer.

About 15 years ago my PSA tested at 4.6 a few times in a row and my doctor said not to worry since it wasn’t going up.

I’ve since learned that 4.6 is actually moderately high and NOT a good sign.

Since adopting virtually all these methods for several years I simply presumed it was working.

But my other younger brother challenged me to check.

My PSA went DOWN to 1.68 a level low enough it’s usually considered safe enough to not need a lot of checking as it’s below 2.0.

With my family history, I find that impressive and convincing!