Advice for the Newly Diagnosed

BY RALPH BLUM

If you are recently diagnosed, the good news is that promising new drugs and therapies, as well as new thinking about when to treat and when it is not even necessary to treat, have made a diagnosis of prostate cancer far less threatening than in the past.  Having said that, remember the old rule of the desert: "Trust in God, but tie your camel to a tree." Because the same applies with a cancer diagnosis. It's not enough to depend entirely on your medical team. Now is the time to consider what you can do to support your recovery and reduce the risk of recurrence.

First, you need to be involved in each treatment decision, making certain that you are fully informed, and that you understand the risks and side effects involved. It is all too easy to play a passive role and just go along with whatever the urologist or oncologist recommends. But you need to take charge. Research your diagnosis on the Internet. Explore all your treatment options and decide whether you do, in fact, need treatment, or if active surveillance is your best option. Get a second opinion.

Next--and I'm sure you don't want to hear this--you need to examine your lifestyle. Yes, I know you would prefer just to let your treatment get rid of the cancer.  But everyone I have talked with who has done really well in the cancer wars has made good nutrition, moderate exercise, stress management, and positive engagement in their own health and healing--key parts of their recovery program.

So where to start? Anyone overweight? A new study suggests that being overweight or obese lowers the chances of successful treatment. It is also known to increase the risk for prostate cancer, particularly for more aggressive, high-risk disease.  So experts agree that losing weight is an important first step.

A study led by UC San Francisco involving 4,600 men diagnosed with non-metastatic prostate cancer found that by substituting healthy vegetable fats--olive and canola oils, nuts, seeds and avocados--for animal fats and carbohydrates, the men lowered their risk of disease progression. Men who replaced 10 percent of their daily calories from carbohydrates with healthy vegetable fats had a 29 per cent lower risk of increasing aggressive prostate cancer.

There is no doubt that certain foods are helpful in reducing cancer growth and other foods are not. High on the "not" list is sugar, especially high fructose corn syrup, and processed meat--salami, bologna, sausage, hot dogs etc. Your shopping list for "helpful" foods should include all fish and skinless chicken breast, beans, vegetables and fruit, whole grains and breads, and non-fat dairy. It doesn't mean you can never have another slice of pizza in your life, it just means cutting out the steak and fries. Because there has never been a more important time in your life to eat well.

Here are a few other simple things you can do:

 Take Vitamin D³. Credible research links Vitamin D³ deficiency to cancer growth, predominantly breast and prostate cancer. The recommended dose is 2,000 to 4,000 IU daily.

·       Hydrate. Lack of water inhibits immune function.

·       Get eight or more hours of sleep each night.

·       Laugh a lot. Laughter is the ultimate antioxidant.

·       Listen to music.

·       Stay in the moment. Don't let past regrets and future fears contaminate the present. Remember Deepak Chopra's words: "Every cell in your body is eavesdropping on your thoughts."

 

Oxygen Therapy: In the Absence of Evidence

BY RALPH BLUM

Since Mark and I published, Invasion of the Prostate Snatchers, I have been getting a surprising number of questions about the use of oxygen therapy as a vigorous anti-cancer technology. Based on all the inquiries one would think there must be evidence of a widespread belief that oxygen therapy acts to retard or even halt the spread of prostate cancer.

I regret to say that, as of this writing, that is almost entirely untrue, or at best, unproven, except in one situation: Hyperbaric treatment is used to accelerate healing of tissue damaged by radiation therapy. Available scientific evidence does not support claims that increasing oxygen levels in the body will kill or even inhibit the growth of cancer cells.

How is Oxygen Therapy Promoted for Use?
Different varieties of oxygen therapy are effective for treating multiple conditions, including carbon monoxide poisoning, certain kinds of wounds, injuries and skin infections, delayed radiation injury and certain bone and brain infections. However, the FDA sent a warning letter to at least one manufacturer about promoting  oxygen treatment for unproven uses such as certain types of cancer, asthma, emphysema, AIDS, arthritis, heart and vascular diseases, multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer’s disease.

Proponents of oxygen therapy claim that cancer cells thrive in low-oxygen environments. They believe adding oxygen to the body creates an oxygen-rich condition in which cancer cells cannot survive. They also claim that a high oxygen environment increases the efficiency of all cells in the body, increases energy, promotes the production of antioxidants and enhances immune system function.

Other oxygen aficionados believe that immersing an affected body part can cause tumors to separate from the body so that a cancer can be “wiped away.” There is little evidence that this is the case. And yet, a considerable number of men are committing to a variety of oxygen treatments. And that concerns me. So I will give you a brief survey of the oxygen therapy field.

What is the History of Oxygen Therapy?
The history of putting oxygen-releasing substances into the body follows several tracks. Interest in ozone dates back to the mid-1800s in Germany, where it was claimed to purify blood. During World War I, doctors used ozone to treat wounds, trench foot and the effects of poison gas. In the 1920s, ozone and hydrogen peroxide were used experimentally to treat the flu.

One of the earliest accounts of the medical use of hydrogen peroxide was a short article by I.N. Love, MD, in 1888 in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Dr. Love recommended using hydrogen peroxide as “a stimulator of healing." Unlike most current articles, the 1888 report in that prestigious journal did not include details that would be required today, such as whether patients treated with peroxide lived longer than those receiving placebo, or whether there was any solid evidence that peroxide caused cancers to shrink or disappear.

During the 1930s, Otto Warburg, MD, a winner of the Nobel Prize in 1931 for his research on respiratory enzymes, discovered that cancer cells have a lower chemical respiration rate than normal cells. He reasoned that cancer cells thrived in a low-oxygen environment and that increased oxygen levels might therefore harm and even kill them. Many of the beliefs held by oxygen therapy proponents are based on Dr. Warburg’s theories concerning cancer, even though technical advances have since offered a great deal more information about how cancer cells really use oxygen.

Negative Reviews
According to Dr. Stephen Barrett, who writes about health fraud, reviewed a researcher from the Dominican Republic who claimed that his clinic used ozone gas to cure thirteen people with cancer. An investigative news group later learned that two of the patients died of cancer, three could not be found, two refused to be interviewed, three were alive but still had cancer, and in three cases it was not clear if the patients actually ever had cancer.

Furthermore, a 1993 review article found some evidence that too much oxygen in the body’s tissues may damage genetic material and promote abnormal growth. And a 2001 review of ozone therapy concluded that "… few rigorous clinical trials of the treatment exist. Those that have been published demonstrated no evidence of effect . . . Until more positive evidence emerges, ozone therapy should be avoided."

Conclusion
Although oxygen therapy has its benefits, it is the subject of a great deal of controversy, and I could not find credible evidence that it either halts or slows cancer growth. Nor does depriving tumors of oxygen stimulate their growth.  Nevertheless, oxygen therapies continue to be widely promoted as alternative treatment for cancer and other serious illnesses, and are offered at clinics in Mexico, the United States and Europe. These clinics are attracting men with prostate cancer, men hopeful that the therapies provided will benefit them.

The lack of randomized clinical trials makes it difficult to judge the value of oxygen therapy for many of its claims, and we need to expand our knowledge on the effect and mechanisms behind tumor oxygenation.  Meanwhile it continues to be big business south of the border.

But let the buyer beware.