Prostate Health

By Susan Mosley, LAc, Dipl. C. H., RRT

Fast Facts:

7 out of 10 of men over the age of 60 have an enlarged prostate; that’s 20 million men worldwide!

Medicare spends 2.5 billion dollars a year for prostate treatment, 2nd only to cataracts.

180,000 Americans are diagnosed with prostate cancer yearly.

PSA tests miss between 15-30 percent of cancers, with false positive rates up to 60%!

Surgical and chemical castration are proven therapies to reverse both benign enlargement and cancers.

Only humans, lions, and dogs have prostate problems.

Prostate cancer is the 2nd most common type; skin cancer is first.

Frequent ejaculation may reduce your risk of developing cancer.

There is no proven association between vasectomy and prostate cancer.

What is the prostate anyway?
This donut shaped gland sits just below the bladder, in front of the rectum, circles the urinary tract, and makes the liquid component of semen. Experts suspect that prostate enlargement occurs with aging as testosterone levels naturally decline in relation to estrogen. Estrogen contamination of the environment by plastics and pesticides may also play a role.

Three types of prostate problems are:

1. Prostatitis, or inflammation, is usually caused by bacterial contamination, often leading to bladder and kidney infections. Acute symptoms include abdominal pain, burning and frequent urination, fever, and pus in the urine. Chronic bacterial prostatitis is characterized by recurrent bladder infections. Antibiotics are the usual treatment. The cause of noninfectious prostatitis is unknown, but signs and symptoms include pain and frequent urination.

2. BPH (benign prostate hypertrophy or hyperplasia) is an overgrowth of normal cells. The prostate feels soft by digital exam. BPH is really not dangerous with available current therapies, but it can be very disruptive to your lifestyle. Thomas Jefferson died partly because his prostate completely blocked urination, causing kidney damage and toxin buildup in the bloodstream.

Signs and symptoms of BPH:
Urinary frequency, both day and nighttime; Hesitancy (when urination will not start right away); Urgency, pain, and burning sensations; Weak stream of urine; Straining, dribbling, leaking, or difficulty stopping the urine flow once started; Retention of urine in the bladder, with a sensation that the bladder is not emptying; Blood in the urine.

Surgical resection of the prostate (a TURP) procedure can cause incontinence, erectile dysfunction, and retrograde ejaculation into the bladder. Laser, and microwave treatments are less invasive. Medications like Proscar and alpha-blockers can cause impotence, leading many men to seek more natural alternatives.

German physicians consider herbs to be safer than and as just as effective as customary pharmaceutical treatments. You can take these extracts in addition to your prescription drugs.

These three phytotherapies should be taken together for synergistic effect:
Saw palmetto: 320 mg of the fat-soluble extract daily. In a European study, 9 out of 10 patients taking this plant derivative saw improvement in their symptoms, without significant side effects.
Nettle root extracts: take 240 mg daily. Patients showed over 80% improvement in urine volume and flow rates after 8 weeks.
Pygeum africanum extracts, use 100-mg daily. Pygeum, a type of tree bark, decreases nighttime urination, and increases strength and volume of urination.

Other effective herbal therapies include:
Aged garlic extracts (Kastamonu Garlic) can reduce the size of the prostate by 30%.
Rye pollen extracts also have been proven useful.

Make sure you are buying standardized plant extracts from reputable sources, as some products do not really have active ingredients in the recommended amounts.

If you have an enlarged prostate, avoid known irritants such as alcohol, caffeine, tobacco and spicy foods. Avoid prolonged sitting or bouncing motions like on a bicycle, motorcycle, ATV, Jet Ski, or horseback riding.

Melatonin supplements may help you get through the night with fewer bathroom trips.

3. With prostate cancer, you may have many of the above symptoms or no symptoms at all. Upon physical exam, a cancerous prostate feels hard or irregular. However, your doctor can only reach part of the prostate during a digital exam. Further testing is required for a definitive diagnosis, including ultrasound imaging, biopsy, or cystoscopy. Fortunately, prostate tumors grow slowly when compared to other cancers, with excellent survival rates if detected early.
Despite its’ shortcomings, a PSA (prostate specific antigen) blood test is recommended if you are over 50 years old.

Cancer treatments include surgery, radiation, hormone therapy, and cryosurgery. My father just finished a successful course of treatment with estrogen therapy, radiation, and radioactive seed implants. Now, after suffering months of constipation and diarrhea, hot flashes, fatigue, rectal bleeding, and memory problems, he wishes he had just opted for the ‘watchful waiting’ alternative.

Eight-ounces of pomegranate juice per day can slow the growth of cancerous tumors. A new study at UCLA showed that it took 2 extra years for PSA levels to double in patients who already have prostate cancer who also took pomegranate juice, making it a useful therapy for those men who opt to hold off on aggressive treatments.

Prevention:
Diet has an enormous impact on the development of BPH and cancer. Asians who move to USA and adopt our lifestyle show increased rates of all kinds of cancers, including prostate malignancy.

Eat less fat! Especially shun red meat, including beef, pork, veal, lamb, hot dogs, hamburgers, and ham. Men who eat red meat more than 5 times a week have 3 times the prostate cancer than men who eat red meat only once a week! People with high cholesterol levels also have more prostate problems.

Get your protein from soy products instead. Polyphenolic flavonoids in soybeans retard tumor growth.

Avoid saturated fats and hydrogenated oils. This means oils, creamy salad dressings, margarine, cheese and dairy products, ice cream, fried foods, most chips and crackers.

Include fruits and vegetables with every meal. 1/2 to 2/3 of your plate should be covered with fresh veggies. Just 3 servings a week of cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, collards, kale, turnips and greens, arugula, radishes, watercress, or Brussels sprouts decreases your risk of prostate cancer by 41%!

Eat more fish, particularly wild salmon, sardines, herring, trout, catfish, and mackerel.

Drink green tea frequently. A Mayo clinic study showed that green tea kills prostate cancer cells.

Watermelon, pink grapefruit, rosehips, cooked tomatoes, tomato sauce, and tomato paste all contain lycopene, proven to shrink the prostate and lower PSA levels. Lycopene is absorbed more thoroughly if eaten with essential fatty acids in flaxseed, sesame oil, safflower or olive oil. You should have 1 tablespoon/day. Think of the Mediterranean diet.

Zinc, too, can shrink a swollen prostate! Zinc is found in pumpkinseeds, mushrooms, seafood, spinach, sunflower seeds, and whole grains. Take 100-mg a day. These large amounts of zinc may lead to copper deficiency, so you must add 2-3 mg of a copper supplement.

Drink 6-8 glasses of purified water daily to prevent dehydration, which stresses the prostate.

If your diet is less than ideal, (like everyone else in the real world) take 50-100 mg daily of soy isoflavones, lycopene (10-30 mg daily), selenium (200 mcg), and gamma tocopherol (200 mg daily), in addition to your multivitamins.

Stay active: Daily aerobic exercise cuts the risk of prostate enlargement and cancer by 25%.

Lymphatic massage in the groin area is helpful for reducing pelvic and prostate congestion: Take a small dry towel. Fold it several times into a massage pad that fits easily in your hand. While holding your scrotum to one side, stroke the towel up the inner thigh and beside the scrotum 10 times on each side. You may also use a soft bristle hairbrush. Always stroke upward toward the body.

Recipe section:

Prostate disease is not inevitable! You can prevent it with diet and exercise. Some of the most helpful foods include watermelon, cooked tomatoes, cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, and cabbage, soy, fish, and nuts and seeds. For further information, see the preceding article.

Here are a few healthy recipes to get you started:

Marinated Salad, from “Healthy Immunity” by Lorna Vanderhaeghe

2 cups bean sprouts
1 red bell pepper, sliced
3 cups chopped broccoli
1 small red onion, sliced
1 cup halved cherry tomatoes
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp. apple cider vinegar
6 tbsp. tamari
2 cloves garlic, pressed
1/4 cup black sesame seeds

Combine oil, vinegar, tamari, and garlic.
Combine sprouts, pepper, broccoli, onions, and tomatoes in a large serving bowl.
Toss dressing with salad. Garnish with black sesame seeds.

Here’s a great recipe for all those yummy summer tomatoes.
You can serve this soup hot or cold. From Mediterranean Light by Martha Rose Shulman

Provencal Tomato Soup

1 tbsp. olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
5 garlic cloves, minced
2 pounds (8-10) tomatoes, chopped
3 cups water
Salt and freshly ground pepper
8 large fresh basil leaves
1/4 cup pearl barley or tapioca
2 T. slivered fresh basil for garnish

Heat the oil in a soup pot; add onion and 1/2 of the garlic.
Cook over medium heat 5 minutes; add tomatoes and the remaining garlic. Cook for 10 more minutes, stirring frequently.

Add the water, basil leaves, salt and pepper to taste, bring to simmer. Cover and simmer 15 minutes.

Remove from heat and puree in blender or food processor. If you are serving cold, add juice of 1/2 lemon. Garnish with the rest of the basil.

Fishing is a great way to get some sunshine, fresh air, exercise, and a tasty meal, too. This recipe for Baked Trout is from National Institutes of Health cookbook: Heart Healthy Latino Recipes.

2 pounds trout fillet, cut into 6 pieces (can substitute
other fish)
3 tbsp. lime juice
1 medium tomato, chopped
1/2 medium onion, chopped
3 tbsp. cilantro, chopped
1/2 teaspoon olive oil
1/4 t. black pepper
1/4 t. salt
1/4 t. red pepper

Preheat oven to 350degrees
Rinse fish, pat dry, and place in prepared baking dish.
Mix remaining ingredients together, pour over fish.
Bake 15-20 minutes

And for a cool refreshing dessert that looks very fancy: Watermelon Sorbet from The Natural Gourmet by AnneMarie Colbin

1/2 medium watermelon
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

Remove rind and seeds.
Puree watermelon and lemon juice.
Freeze the mixture in trays in the freezer, scraping up the mixture with a fork until mushy, every 45-50 minutes until done.

Bon appetite!

This article was posted by susan mosley

View all articles posted by susan mosley

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