Alright I give up on diet? Too much conflicting research.

I can understand your frustration. I to felt that way, then when I went to The Cancer Treatment Center of America they made diet make sense to some one as simple as me. Obviously fruits and veggies are healthy, wheat bread, sea salt, sugar in the raw, fish (baked), and many of the things you currently eat just prepared in different ways. For me radically changing my diet was not a good option, however the approach they gave me was workable. My PSA is down, my energy is up, so I am not complaining. A good vitamin regime is important as well.
Thanks for writing, and if I can help further don't hesitate to email me.

peace to you
dale

I am also concerned and frustrated with the lack of scientific evidence concerning diet and vitamin supplements. A recent post on Mercola advocated the benefits of Vitamin K2 for PCa, and guess what, you can buy the supplement on the Mercola web site!!

There's a European study on the relationship between cancer and nutrition called the EPIC study at http://www.iarc.fr/epic/Sup-default.html

The initial results for postate cancer say . . .

Prostate cancer etiology:  We have shown that similarly to breast cancer, prostate cancer risk is not related to fruit and vegetable consumption

I try to follow the Budwig Protocol (flax seed oil + cottage cheese, and other recommendations) but without clinical trials, I wonder if it will do any good.

Steve

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Chris,

Don't get a worried about a silly ole diet. Concentrate on being healthy, period. For heaven's sake...just eat a healthy diet reasonable in fat, fiber, fresh fruits and vegies with enough good protein (including some red meat if you like) to help keep muscles strong. Taking red meat out of our seniors diets has helped create such a horrible generation of dementia sufferers in th last 30 years. DO NOT lose sight of brain health on the way to better physical health! Eat organic whenever possible. Then.... toss all this with a dressing made of stretches, some cardio and weight bearing excersise and you'll all be just fine. If ya'll want an easy way to learn how to eat, check out Sparkpeople.com. Good place for the newly interested health watcher. Good Luck.

Swim

Since my brushes with cancer, I have made some changes (mainly my wife's doing):

* Less red meat

* Less animal fat

* More fruit and vegetables

* More fiber

* Two brazil nuts every day (just recently, apparently high in selenium)

Our modern diets can't be that bad -- the figures that I have seen show that average life expectancy is rising. Maybe with a better diet, it would rise faster. Yes there are conflicting studies, so I am following a path of moderation. I still eat a bit of everything that happens to cross my path, especially chocolate-caramel fudge slice

Taiping,

I noticed you are only doing H/T therapy.  Why?  I have a the same type of cancer diagnosis as you.  All my slides came back "small focus".  PSA 2.75 (3/08)  2.4 (11/03).  Very low velocity for 4 years.  Are you waiting on treatment.  Will H/T keep PCa at bay?

Thanks

Chris

Chris,

 

I would like to add that in my case "Watchful Waiting" was not an option because of my high and rising PSA of 19.6.

I note your PSA seems low and stable.

After 9 months of TAB my PSA is now 0.057.

 

Steve

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Hello Selmer,

Thanks again for your interesting insights. However, please do not be concerned about how I read certain sites like Mercola because I'm very well aware of the financial interests involved, and take everything with a pinch of salt, or perhaps I should say a sip of soy.

I only brought up Mercola's opinion of soy because you said you were consuming it. Maybe you were not aware of the negative opinions about soy products. There seems to be conflicting evidence on the merits ot otherwise of soy so I don't know what to believe.

I'm a Brit who's lived in Thailand for the last 18 years, married to a Thai with a 12-year old daughter. My wife cooks Thai food for me most days, but as you say, diet changes later in life are no guarantee of progress of PCa.

about my choice of treatment, I decided on hormone therapy after reading several books with differing opinions and scouring the Internet. Of course my urologist suggested a RP, and when I asked for other options he referred me to a radiation oncologist who recommended high dose brachytherapy with external radiation. I travelled to Singapore to see Dr Steven Tucker who was involved with the ASCO presentation I referred to previously, and after a long discussion decided on Intermittent Triple Androgen Blockade Therapy lasting one year. "Watchful Waiting" was not an option because of the high PSA. I figured I could go back to other treatments if TAB was not successful or there were undesirable side effects, but there's no going back with a RP, RT, or Bracky.

The urologist had tried a course of anti-biotics to lower the PSA level, and was reluctant to recommend a biopsy because of the risks involved, particularly the 5% risk of infection, but since the PSA remained stubbonly high we eventually agreed to a biopsy which turned out to be positive. I sent the slides to Prof Jonathan Epstein at Johns Hopkins for a second opinion.

Johanna Budwig mixed flax seed oil with "quark" which is something similar to cottage cheese or yoghurt sold in Germany. She said that flax seed oil on its own is harmful. One of her books is available through Amazon at this link . . .

http://www.amazon.com/Against-Arthritis-Infarction-Cancer-Diseases/dp/0969527217/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1209993376&sr=8-2

As I say, I have no idea if Budwig is a quack or not, but many of the things she recommended 50 years ago are now becoming mainstream like the importance of unsaturated fats, avoiding processed food, sugar, eating a mainly organic vegetarian diet, sun baths, avoiding stress, etc. Oh yes, a glass of wine is allowed !!

All the best,

Steve