Prostate Cancer – interesting facts

I am a member of the National Wellness Institute and as a result receive lots of wellness information. In their member publication area were some facts about prostate health and prostate cancer.

The tips I took away were these:

• Get to an ideal weight through diet and exercise and stay there
• Eating foods high in anti-oxidants like green tea, reservatrol, lycopene and others are beneficial
• minerals that are not in balance i.e. Zinc and Copper, Selenium, Calcium and others can harm and not help. There is no magic bullet, be conservative.
• Vitamin E has been harmful in high doses when it is artificially produced and not multi-tocopherol

Here are the pearls gleaned from a prostate health letter attributed at the end of the information.

Prostate Facts

With prostate cancer gaining in occurrence in westernized and modernized countries, studies are increasing in number to try to figure out what the cause is and how to increase the survival rate for those with prostate cancer. Negative correlations found:

• Previous studies have led researchers to believe increasing selenium consumption may decrease prostate cancer occurrence. New studies may bring selenium into the light as having the opposite effect in some men. For example: a large study called SELECT, done by the National Cancer Institute, now shows that selenium as a benefit to men may be genetically dependent to help some and harm others. Enough research has not yet been done to identify the importance genotype testing for men with prostate cancer
• Vitamin E was previously viewed as a benefit to the prostate. The same SELECT study has shown that large amounts of vitamin E, 400 IU a day, may actually increase prostate cancer risk. Previously, studies with men given 50 IU of vitamin E a day was proven to be beneficial.
• Men with large intakes of calcium and dairy, 1,500 mg to 2,000 mg of calcium a day had a higher risk of fatal prostate cancer than those men consuming 750 mg of calcium a day. The link between dairy, calcium, and prostate cancer is still being analyzed.
• Vitamin D has recently been in the spotlight of product claims as being supporting prostate health. To date, there are no studies which have shown a link between vitamin D and the prostate. Obesity and being overweight are linked to an increased risk in prostate cancer, and are more likely to have an aggressive form of the cancer.
• A recent study of 29,000 men has shown that those men eating at least 2 � ounces of well done meat in a week have a 40% higher chance of getting prostate cancer than those men eating no well done meat in a week.
• Zinc has previously been thought to be beneficial to lower the risk of prostate cancer but studies are inconsistent. In fact, some recent studies have shown that men taking 80-100 mg of a zinc supplement daily were more likely to get prostate cancer or experience prostate complications.

Positive correlations:

• Lycopene has been found to decrease the likelihood of men being diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer. Lycopene is the red carotenoid found in carrots, tomatoes, watermelon, and papayas. Most studies on lycopene revolve around tomatoes as tomatoes are higher than most other fruits and vegetables in lycopene. Some recent studies show that men eating three tablespoons of flaxseed daily had slower growing prostate tumors than men who did not eat flaxseed.
• Green tea was a spotlight in the large study of 50,000 Japanese men and was linked with a lower risk of advanced prostate cancer. The study compared men drinking 5+ cups of green tea daily versus men drinking less than one cup of green tea daily.
• Diet, exercise, and well lifestyle changes were one treatment in a study of men who had early stage prostate cancer. The other treatment was “usually care” from their doctors. Between the two treatments, over two years, the usual treatment group had 13 men undergo surgery versus 2 men in the lifestyle change group. The reduction of surgeries in the lifestyle change group could be attributed to a change in the men’s attitudes or to a slower progression of the disease.
• Men with lower fat diets and an increase in fruits and vegetables show a lower risk of aggressive prostate cancer.
• More studies are in the process to determine if soy foods can lower the risk of prostate cancer as there have been hopeful recent results in a study done on 82,000 men in the United States of America.
• Remember, it is important to not exceed the recommended amounts of selenium (55mcg), vitamin E (33IU), calcium (1,200 mg), or zinc (11 mg).

Source: Prostate Cancer: First Do No Harm. Nutrition Action Health Letter, September 2009, 3-7. Center for Science in the Public Interest.

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