Confess your supplements, brothers! I'll start.

Vit D daily, Vit C in large doses when I have a cold, a dirty martini on the weekends, and a glass of red wine each evening with dinner.

Double check the ingredients of that multivitamin, particularly for Vit E and selenium.

You have some expensive urine, PDA.

I take daily Vit D (1000 ISU)
blood pressure
allopurinol for gout
zyrtec

and occasional vit C when I feel a cold developing.

I also drink a lot of black tea.

does miralax count as a supplement?

In general I don't start a supplement unless I've gotten a medical recommendation that it might help. And yes, my doctor does recommend supplements from time to time and gives reasons why it might help.
Andrew

"Double check the ingredients of that multivitamin, particularly for Vit E and selenium."

Really, that again? A lot can happen in 17 years.
click here - lmgtfy.com/?q=why+the+select+study+was+flawed

Sure there are some clunkers in the list. But if not a single person can find something of value in there then I promise to NEVER come here again. Fair deal?

Post Edited (Tommyc) : 8/15/2017 10:59:27 AM (GMT-6)

The only items I've seen brought into question for prostate cancer are Vitamin D in very high doses (we've discussed this ad nauseum), folates, resveratrol, and omega-3s (see below):

/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3199279/
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ijc.20646/abstract
/academic.oup.com/ije/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/ije/dys199
/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3199279/

/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3628095/

/academic.oup.com/jnci/article/105/15/1132/926341/Plasma-Phospholipid-Fatty-Acids-and-Prostate

and also note for CV health:
jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/1357266

I'm surprised, with a list that extensive, that you don't have a statin. I'm not advocating it - just surprised.

The supplements not on your list that I feel provisionally positive about for PC are sulforaphane and mixed soy isoflavones (but I can see why you might want to avoid the soy with your testosterone issue).

Vitamin D 1000 IUs
low dose aspirin (not a vitamin but hey)

I take Pomi-T (pomegranate, green tea, and broccoli) on the recommendation of a resident oncologist who said it might - his emphasis on might -- have some benefit. I'm doubtful, but I see no harm in it so I'm going along for the time being. My former radiation oncologist also suggested fairly high-dose vitamin D, but I've not taken it because of the potential increased risk of kidney stones. -- Sorry I've already got cancer and will soon be on lupron, so I'll do without the kidney stones, thank you.

Other than that a daily baby aspirin on the recommendation of my PCP and prescribed 20 mg lovistatin.

When first diagnosed, I had a neighbor -- a good guy -- who urged me to avoid surgery and take peach pits and loaned me a book on the topic. I thanked him for his suggestion and then promptly saw doctor and began actual treatment.

Jim

Right now I'm taking zero supplements unless you count a couple of glasses of Cabernet each week. In the past at one time or another I have taken:

Vitamin C, when I felt a cold coming.

Baby aspirin, but my PCP showed me data that questioned the validity of doing that for men over 70 with no heart issues.

Vitamin D, but now that I live in Florida full time I get my fair share naturally.

I'm sure my diet could use improvement but I'm taking the "everything in moderation" approach because that makes me really happy, especially when I moderately feed my sweet tooth (aren't Oreo's a necessary food group?).

Jim

Tall,

Success in dealing with prostate cancer often involves simply living with it long enough to die of something else. While that approach doesn't always work it does suggest that the choice of what to eat and what pills to pop shouldn't use prostate cancer as its only touchstone. Currently I seem to be on track to die of something else so PCa is only one of many factors I consider. I am more likely to extend my lifespan by minding my cardiovascular health than by targeting PCa.

So, I read your studies. The resveratrol study is interesting reading. They report a slight negative for resveratrol with one xenograft of human prostate cancer and they find this disappointing since other recent studies have found it really good for most everything else people have looked at. Looking at their results it seemed that resveratrol was bad for mice with one cell line xenograph but the dose response was odd -- the higher level of resveratrol was not as harmful as the intermediate amount. And for the other cell line there did appear to be a slight benefit although it did not rise to the level of significance. They also mention that resveratrol shows a benefit for TRAMP mice, which have, admittedly, mouse PCa, not human PCa. So, I dunno. Given that PCa is only one of the diseases that will eventually knock me down, I'll keep on taking my small amount of resveratrol and watch the research to see if it settles down.

As for the Omega 3 thing, once again there's more to life than prostate cancer. And there's this:
Meta-Analysis of Long-Chain Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids (LCω-3PUFA) and Prostate Cancer.

As for the L-methylfolate, I like to imagine that it helps with the neuropathy in my feet that probably arose from years of poor blood sugar control from metabolic syndrome. Again the very small increased risk for PCa has to be balanced against other problems needing attention. Here are a few studies that have nothing to do with prostate cancer:
Management of diabetic small-fiber neuropathy with combination L-methylfolate, methylcobalamin, and pyridoxal 5'-phosphate and Metabolic Correction in the Management of Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy: Improving Clinical Results Beyond Symptom Control (the second also mentions alpha lipoic acid and acetyl l-carnitine)

I sort of bounced off of statins back when they used to combine them with real niacin. Couldn't put up with the side effects and when I was able to accomplish more or less the same thing with a carb-restricted diet I waved a fond farewell to statin drugs.

And, lastly, although you didn't mention the nicotinamide it is something mentioned by my dermatologist. One recent small study found it very significantly reduced the chances of recurrence of melanomas and actinic caritosis, both of which I have had. Oral Nicotinamide Prevents Common Skin Cancers in High-Risk Patients, Reduces Costs

http://www.harvardprostateknowledge.org/selenium-vitamin-e-supplements-increase-decrease-prostate-cancer-risk

Selenium, vitamin E supplements increase prostate cancer risk

Posted February 28, 2014
Patrick J. Skerrett, Former Executive Editor, Harvard Health

Vtamin E and selenium supplements increase prostate cancer risk

When the SELECT trial started in 2001, there were high hopes it would prove that taking vitamin E or selenium could help prevent prostate cancer. The newest results from the trial show just the opposite—that taking selenium or vitamin E can actually increase the odds of developing prostate cancer.

Bottom line: men shouldn’t take selenium or vitamin E as a way to prevent prostate cancer, or anything else for that matter.

“I counsel all of my patients to absolutely avoid any dietary supplements that contain selenium or vitamin E—including multivitamins,” says prostate cancer expert Dr. Marc Garnick, a clinical professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, an oncologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and editor in chief of Harvard’s Annual Report on Prostate Diseases.

The case against selenium and vitamin E

Studies done in the 1980s and 1990s suggested that vitamin E and selenium each somehow provided protection against prostate cancer. The Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial (SELECT) was started in 2001 to see if that was true. The 36,000 healthy, middle-aged volunteers were divided into four groups. Each man took two pills a day: 400 international units (IU) of vitamin E plus 200 micrograms of selenium; vitamin E plus a placebo; selenium plus a placebo; or two placebos. Neither the men nor their doctors knew who was taking what.

Although SELECT was supposed to last until 2011, it was stopped three years early because neither vitamin E nor selenium were showing any benefit—and there were hazy warning signs they might be doing some harm.

A new report in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute clarifies the picture. A team of researchers from across the U.S. looked specifically at almost 5,000 of the SELECT volunteers who sent in toenail clippings when they joined the trial. Toenail clippings are a great way to measure how much selenium is in a man’s (or woman’s) body. The new study showed that:
•Taking vitamin E alone boosted the risk of developing high-grade prostate cancer, but only in men who started the study with low selenium levels.
•Taking selenium, either alone or in combination with vitamin E, increased the risk of high-grade prostate cancer in men who started the study with high selenium levels, but not in those with low selenium levels.
•Among men who didn’t take either vitamin E or selenium, those who started the study with high selenium levels were no more likely to have developed prostate cancer than men who started it with low selenium levels. (This means the culprit is added selenium from supplements, not selenium from food.)

“The new data are very troubling, and emphasize that supplements can cause real and tangible harm,” says Dr. Garnick. “Any claims of benefits from dietary supplements must be ignored unless large, controlled, and well-conducted investigations confirm such benefits—which I believe will be a very rare occurrence.”

Post Edited (garyi) : 8/15/2017 2:23:54 PM (GMT-6)

PDA-

I just wanted to clarify that I was not being at all critical of your choices. I was just responding to your request for alternative evidence: "But I am eager to hear about studies that show real harm."

I very much agree with with you that CV disease is 20 times the killer that PC is, and should be any aging person's first priority. My feeling about supplements is that a very good reason for people to take them after illness is to restore a sense of control after the disease has robbed us of it. Does it really accomplish anything? Who knows? But if it makes us feel better to take them, is probably not harmful, and we can afford them -- why not?

I feel pretty much the same about dietary interventions. But I don't have the same concern about overwhelming our biological systems and microbiota with large concentrated doses that our bodies did not evolve to deal with. Our bodies/microbiota are expert at dealing with food. I think heart-healthy foods are best. For prostate cancer,I think the studies of say, dairy and chicken, are fun to read, but I think whatever effect they had in encouraging mine had that effect over many years, and changing it now will have little effect. Besides, I'm cured. But the same restoration of a feeling of control argument applies with food. Doing something for one's health feels better than doing nothing - so why not? (as long as it's not harmful or too expensive).

The pills/supplements I take daily are Truvada (PrEP), propranolol (essential tremor), aspirin (hip pain), and Vitamin D 400 iu (to keep serum level normal). My diet is high vegetables (mostly broccoli and kale), very low in sugars or starches (just the bread on one sandwich/day and sugar in my coffee), and my protein staple is chicken. But I eat anything (I just ate a grilled sausage for lunch).

Most importantly, I keep my waist size at 33" (I'm 6'4"). I think waist size is a better measure than BMI. I'm fairly muscular, so my BMI is high because muscle mass weighs more per unit of volume than fat mass. I also walk a lot (not a typical Angeleno in that regard) and work out with weights almost every day.

B-50 1/2 pill
Turmeric
Vitamin D 1000 iu
Vitamin b-1
Vitamin c 1000mg daily
Probiotic
D-limonene
Lutein
CoQ10 100
Vitamin b-12
Sulforaphane
Milk thistle
Cinnamon from Ceylon
Lycopene
Vitamin b-6
Magnesium
Vitamin k-2