Any experience with "cancer-fghting" books?

I'm still searching for things that will help me beat this disease. I've looked into a few different books on changing lifestyle, diet, etc., but the books push different approaches and who knows what they're worth. Several want you to add supplements to your diet, and after the last couple of days on this site, I'm not overly excited about supplements. Well meaning friends have suggested that cancer can be defeated holistically, but I've been an original skeptic on such things.

Certainly, there changes I could make in my lifestyle to make me more healthy, and some things should at least help with the PCa. I've already made a lot of changes, but I'm willing to make lots more.

The books that have the most interest to me at the moment are: "Anticancer:A new way of life" and "I Beat Cancer Holistically". Is it OK to mention books by name here? If not, I'm glad to edit this post or re-post without the names.

I'd appreciate any feedback on these books or other approaches.

Thanks,
Greg.

Mentioning books by title and author is quite acceptable, unless you want to trash one, which isn't really something we want.

I would suggest Dr. Mark Moyad's books.

syzygy51 -

As a former university librarian, I'd like like to try fielding this one.

First of all, as we are all aware, there is an absolute host of materials about PCa available now, both in printed text form and in the form of digital resources, from so many libraries and agencies. There are also vast resources of digitally available indexes to materials, again both in print form and digital, available to the public from libraries, state and governmental agencies, hospital libraries, you name it.

Books can be excellent, but tend to became outdated more quickly than online resources, especially in the medical areas. Books, however, are frequently updated by second, third, etc., editions issued by the publishers.

The arrival and growth of the Internet over the past 20 years or so has of course completely revolutionized information processing, control and availability in every area of knowledge, but with the ongoing caveat of consumer beware.

Books indeed are just like websites: some are much more accurate and trustworthy than others, as we all know.

But getting back to your question, for starters you might just look at the permanent thread "Prostate Cancer Resources" at the top of this forum's index screen. It's getting to be a bit dated, and references digital resources more than books, but it still looks like a pretty good place to start.

Clearly, searching the web for suitable books on PCa is a daunting task, and one is well advised to proceed with caution and ask advice, as you are doing. This challenge is especially compounded by the fact that so many of the issues at the heart of PCa are still fluid and even controversial, as we have been seeing here even recently, making the decision process for finding specific books even more difficult.

There are so many ways to try and answer your question, but I would like to suggest a couple of approaches which served me well in my librarian days.

First, a book is only as good as its author in terms of quality, experience, authority, etc. Do research on the author and see how well received he is. This also applies to the publisher. Good publishers do considerable vetting of the books they publish as their reputations are riding on their product. Second tier publishers, often not so much.

Second, think about and determine exactly what you are looking for in a book about PCa. I can't tell you the number of times a patron would come to me in my library saying they wanted "a book on economics," when, as I determined after talking to them, what they really wanted was a book on local economics during the past ten years with an emphasis on taxation. Determine specifically what aspect of PCa you are actually interested in and tailor your search for books accordingly.

I cold go on and on, but perhaps these are a couple of suggestions for a start. And I would certainly recommend a visit to your local public library. It's amazing what resources even small public libraries will have access to, especially in this digital age. And if they don't have a specific book you're interested in, they can usually obtain a copy of it for you through interlibrary loan in just a few days.

In any case, the people on this forum have become very knowledgable indeed about good informational books on PCa, and are already making some good recommendations for you.

If you have more specific questions, by all means post them.

Thanks to all for the great responses.

I guess I'm looking at two different questions:

1. What can I change in my lifestyle to promote health overall but specifically to help slow down the growth of my metastatic prostate cancer? This could include food, exercise, controlling thought processes, stress management, and more.

2. What specific foods should I eat or avoid to help with this? Understanding the science behind suggested dietary changes would be useful, along with proven results rather than just platitudes. If this could be coupled with a cookbook/recipes it would be even better.

The limited reading I've done so far leads me to believe that we can impact the progression of this disease through lifestyle changes, but there are so many competing ideas and books that it's hard to tell which to choose. The clear messages are to get good exercise, eat less red meat and animal fats, and to eat more fruits and vegetables (especially colorful veggies). Beyond that it gets murky. For example, some promote tofu as being healthy for beating prostate cancer, others say just the opposite.

I'll keep working on this and I appreciate the feedback.

I'm still going to say Mark Moyad. He stays up to date and is focused on PCa.

Try "Beating Prostate Cancer, Hormone Therapy and Diet" by Dr Charles Snuffy Myers. Dr Myers is one of the most noted prostate oncologists treating aggressive PC, and because he is also a 15 years survivor of mastastasized PC he is very credible.