Prostate Disease Facts87
- Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in males
- Prostate cancer is the 2nd most common cause of male cancer deaths
- Approximately 13% of all men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer
Background
- Faced with any disease you become introspective and ask if there was anything you could have done to have avoided being in the position you find yourself in.
- You will almost invariably look at your diet and lifestyle and ask many questions - why did I eat so much and eat the wrong things? Why did I allow my waistline to expand knowing that this was a high-risk for many diseases including prostate cancer? Why didn't I exercise more often? Or eat more fruit and vegetables?
- Indeed there are many factors that can be controlled by any individual but there are other hidden dangers. Dietary factors such the glycemic index of the carbohydrate and the high insulin response to these types of carbohydrate can have a cancer promoting effect. Also many of our foods are contaminated by herbicides or pesticides or industrial chemicals that can have an hormonal effect and pose dangers to glandular tissues such as prostate and breast tissue.
How the environment can be your enemy even as a foetus in your mother's womb!
- Persistent Organic Pollutants [POPs] are industrial organic compounds that resist being broken down in the environment. The 'Dirty Dozen' POPs are: aldrin, chlordane, DDT, dieldrin, endrin, heptachlor, hexachlorobenzene, mirex, polychlorinated biphenyls [PCBs], polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins/furans, and toxaphene.
- Many of these compounds have hormonal effects and have been associated with many cancers.
- These POPs can bioaccumulate in human and animal tissue i.e. they simply build-up day-by-day in your tissues and organs and fat stores and they biomagnify in food-chains i.e. predators consuming the flesh of other animals, simply absorb the POPs in the animal they have consumed and bioaccumulate these in their bodies. Some species of fish are so contaminated with POPs that they are great health risks. The UN/WHO
assessment on POPs states that:
'PCBs, may persist in the environment for periods of years and may bioconcentrate by factors of up to 70,000 fold.' Click PDF icon for a download of the UN/WHO Report [NutriDesk registration required]
- With regard to the graphic above, male foetal exposure to bisphenol-A [which has estrogenic effects], used in the manufacture of plastic and epoxy resins, can sensitize the DNA through a mechanism known as epigenetics. This epigenetic process can affect the way the DNA is expressed without altering the genetic code88.
- This epigenetic programming which has occurred in the mother's womb, is a 'ticking time bomb' waiting to trigger a cancerous change in the prostate when estrogen levels start to rise in middle age.
- From a review of a study done by Prins et al, the researchers stated "Most remarkably, early BPA exposure sensitized the prostate to precancerous lesions brought on by exposure of the adult animal to elevated estradiol," said Prins, professo
r of urology at UIC and senior author of the study. "This is highly relevant to people, because relative estradiol levels increase in aging men as a result of their increased body fat and declining testosterone levels89." [Science Daily, 2006] - The fat that accumulates in the belly of men as they age, has an enzyme called aromatase and this enzyme converts testosterone to estrogen.
- The Prostate Health Diet is designed to help men lose weight in the abdominal area and to increase the consumption of foods that can help to change the estrogen profile to less harmful forms of estrogen and to lower estrogen levels in the first place.
Prostate Cancer - A Chronic Disease
- It is an interesting fact that up to 40 percent of men who died of non-cancer causes and who were subsequently autopsied, were found to have prostate cancer85,86.
- This is true of both Asians and Westerners and the conclusion is that diet and environment play a large part in making these existing tumours progress to life-threatening cancers15.
- In an important book that can be found in the nutridesk.com.au bookshop titled
‘Foods that Fight Cancer’ , the authors state “The acquisition of these cancerous properties generally takes place over a long period of time, a latency period that gives us a golden opportunity to intervene in order to prevent the tumour from reaching the stage of maturity.”
A NutriDesk Tutorial
- Click on the image to go straight to a NutriDesk tutorial on prostate cancer and to learn some very interesting facts about prostate disease and initiation.
- This tutorial also expands on the estrogen link explained briefly above providing you with greater detail about this mechanism.
Oxidative Stress
- Oxidative damage occurs due to compounds such as free radicals [charged electrons] or reactive oxygen species [ROS] due to the breakdown of food or during chemical biotransformations in your cells.
- Oxidative stress will lead to inflammation and this is the last thing you want if you are trying to protect your prostate from cancer or if you have a history of cancer then inflammation may trigger change that can allow that cancer to spread.
- The NutriDesk approach is for you to have an antioxidant-rich diet and to support this antioxidant intake through nutraceutical approaches and to use safe and reliable dietary and nutraceutical approaches to help dampen inflammatory processes.
Inflammation & Cancer
- 'Tumour progression progresses in some cancers through the effects of what cancer biologists have labeled a “smoldering” inflammation, in which the tumor recruits immune cells that linger in its surroundings and within the malignant mass83.'
- '..developing tumor can commandeer the immune system’s inflammatory component— normally part of the wound-healing process—to foster carcinogenesis83'
- Being able to dampen down inflammation may help to prevent cell progression towards cancer or to help decrease the risk of cancer spreading.
- Curcumin has shown powerful anti-inflammatory effects through numerous molecular pathways.
- Omega-3's can also help to dampen inflammation in the body. Inflammation seems to accompany the aging body and dietary imbalances can allow this inflammatory process to increase to dangerous levels in the body either causing or contributing to many chronic illnesses and cancer progression and spread84.
- The last thing you will want to do if you are trying to avoid prostate disease or if you do have prostate health issues, is to have a fish oil that is contaminated with any number of highly noxious chemicals that spill into our oceans through industrial waste. The fish oil recommended below is an ultra-pure, pharmaceutical grade fish oil that is renowned for its purity.
Organic Food
Search the NutriDesk Shop for organic foods: NutriDesk Shop: Organic Foods
- Choose organic foods as these are least likely to be contaminated with pesticides or herbicides.
- For your protein source, choose organic chicken or turkey and the purest fish you can find. Wild Alaskan Salmon is a good choice.
