Double prostate cancer protection from boron....

Today's Post:  Tuesday, 4-5-2016

Many, many years ago I saw a short article saying that one of the US Armed Forces found that giving their men a boron supplement caused small but significant increases in their alertness.

Since this is critical for pilots, I think it was the US Air Force.

Then I found out that boron was available at my Health Food Store and very inexpensive too.

Because I wanted to be as alert as possible, I began taking boron and because it was so inexpensive and I continued to want that alertness edge, I’ve kept taking boron once a day from then until now.

What I had no way of knowing then was that I was doing one of the most valuable and smartest things I’ve ever done in my life!

Here’s why:

Imagine my delight when, after worrying about my horrible high prostate cancer risk due to my family history, I read that Dr Al Sears had found research that taking boron cut the risk of the potentially fatal aggressive form of prostate cancer in half.

But much to my surprise, that wasn’t all!  Then I read that getting the boron I was taking had been found to ensure my bones were unusually strong; and that the effect so pronounced that surgeons cutting the bones of a person with a high boron intake had  real chore to do it because their bones were so strong and resilient.

Last week, I got an email from Ben Ong who specializes in ways to prevent prostate cancer that may explain the connection between the aggressive prostate cancer protection and the bone strengthening effect.

Ben’s email had this:

“In recent years, there have been many studies that demonstrate that boron has been found to selectively kill prostate cancer cells while leaving healthy cells unharmed.2,4 In addition, boron has been found to lower PSA 1—which was previously believed to be only a marker for prostate cancer. More recent research shows that elevated PSA is actually a causal factor in prostate cancer progression.1

Adequate boron levels are associated with a 64% reduced risk of prostate cancer,3 but obtaining protective levels of boron from food alone is difficult.5”

     And, there may be a connection that explains the separate finding that taking boron cuts the risk of the deadly kind of prostate cancer in half:

“Boron plays an integral part in bone metabolism. It supports the functions of calcium, magnesium, and vitamin D, all of which are crucial to promoting dense, healthy bone tissue.5,18-20

Another study showed that when animals were fed a diet deficient in vitamin D, increasing their dietary intake of boron helped support optimal calcium absorption—demonstrating that boron promotes optimal mineral balance and ensures healthy calcium utilization.”

The connection seems to be that boron helps slow down or eliminate prostate cancer at least in part.

Then this lesser amount of prostate cancer that would have possibly entered softer bones, is shut out of the bones because they are too hard to enter.

This is hugely significant because most people who die of advanced prostate cancer DO get it in their bones.

Between the fractures and pain this causes this aggressive bone cancer causes almost certain death.

Apparently for people who take boron and do the other things that keep their bones strong, this very rarely happens.

It’s even less likely in people who take 30 mg a day of lycopene and more than 5,000 iu a day of vitamin D3 AND avoid tobacco products and tobacco smoke 100% of the time.

Research finds that those actions slow the slow growing kind of prostate cancer to a stop and even put it in reverse.  Boron then reduces what prostate cancer is left over!

But the new information on the tie-in to stronger bones is very interesting also:

Ben Ong’s email had this:

“Boron plays an integral part in bone metabolism. It supports the functions of calcium, magnesium, and vitamin D, all of which are crucial to promoting dense, healthy bone tissue.5,18-20

Another study showed that when animals were fed a diet deficient in vitamin D, increasing their dietary intake of boron helped support optimal calcium absorption—demonstrating that boron promotes optimal mineral balance and ensures healthy calcium utilization.”

1.  Note that the same 7,000 to 10,000 iu a day we now know is the real minimum intake of vitamin D3 for supporting good health does a very interesting double!

It helps slow down or kill prostate cancer cells --

AND, like boron, it helps ensure that your bones use the calcium in your body to build strong bones.

2.  This effect is even stronger if you take vitamin K2 also.  This little known and very protective vitamin prevents your body from putting calcium into your blood vessel linings and sharply increases how much calcium your body puts into your bones.

3.  Magnesium also is somewhere between essential to very helpful in helping your body build strong bones.

People who eat greens or green non-starchy vegetables and tree nuts almost every day and do NOT take acid reducing or diuretic drugs tend to have enough magnesium.

Because few people today do all those things, for strong bones (and other functions of magnesium) It’s a good idea to take 400 to 800 mg a day of magnesium to ensure you have enough for strong bones.  (Note that adding magnesium based antacids can cause an overdose if you both supplement and use the adding magnesium based antacids every day.)

4.  Walking and other exercises that cause your legs to bear weight and effective strength training cause your bones to become harder and stronger.  Conversely, doing neither tends to cause your bones to atrophy and become weaker.

(Decades ago it was discovered that slow rep strength training with relatively heavy weights in leg exercise can help reverse osteoporosis in its early stages at least.)

5.  The other key to keeping your bones strong is to

                                                       never drink any soft drinks!

The carbonic acid that makes the fizz, the “carbonation,” removes calcium from your bones and weakens them.  So treating them with that a few times a day is a VERY BAD idea.

That goes more than double for cola drinks.  The phosphoric acid in them removes calcium from your bones even more than the carbonic acid does.

Every cola soft drink someone drinks weakens their bones both ways!