MEN: Prostate cancer diagnosis? STOP rushing into treatment

Two simple ways to BOOST your survival WITHOUT surgery, radiation, or drugs!

Men diagnosed with prostate cancer can feel enormous pressure to treat it aggressively… even if they’re diagnosed at an early stage, where it hasn’t metastasized.

And that’s an absolute shame.

For one, undergoing prostate cancer treatment—surgery, radiation, or hormone therapy—can make life downright miserable—with gruesome complications, including incontinence and erectile dysfunction.

Plus, a huge, new study published earlier this year questions whether these harsh treatments actually improve survival rates at all!

Since September is Prostate Awareness Month, there’s no better time to reassess the problem and talk about your options. Including two natural ways to BOOST your chances of survival after a diagnosis and SLASH your risk of getting the disease in the first place…

High occurrence doesn’t mean TREAT

When it comes to prostate cancer, there’s no denying the high occurrence rates in men. In fact, one in nine men will develop it in their lifetime, making it the second-leading cause of cancer in men worldwide.¹

But remember—it’s a very SLOW growing form of cancer, so the survival rates are more optimistic.

In fact, only one in 41 men will actually die from prostate cancer, making its long-term prognosis among the VERY BEST of all cancers! Plus, most men diagnosed with prostate cancer will die with the disease… not because of it.

Despite these encouraging and well-established outcomes, many prostate cancer victims still feel intense pressure to undergo aggressive (and costly) treatments that wreak havoc on their lives. Let’s take a look…

First up, we have prostatectomies, the radical surgery to completely remove the prostate. About one-third of all men diagnosed with prostate cancer in the United States, including those with slow-growing cancers, will agree to one. ²

But it brings about a very HIGH rate of complications—including incontinence, erectile dysfunction, and even impotence. Not to mention, these complications can lead to mood problems, depression, and suicide. So, you really don’t want to undergo this “elective” surgery… unless you absolutely must. (More on that in a moment.)

Next, we have external beam radiation of the prostate, which doctors often recommend for men with early-stage cancers. It may seem less invasive—and therefore less aggressive—than prostate surgery. But the complications of both treatments sound strikingly similar.

In fact, like surgery, prostate radiation can cause incontinence and sexual dysfunction.³ Plus, it can lead to rectal bleeding and leaking, as well as painful bowel movements.

And finally, hormone therapy, which is the third mainstream treatment for prostate cancer, often accompanies the previous two approaches. It works by blocking the body’s production of the hormone testosterone, which fuels prostate cancer, or by blocking the hormone from reaching the prostate.

But the side effects of this add-on therapy are nothing short of catastrophic for your health. Like the loss of muscle mass, decreased libido, and erectile dysfunction as well as an increased risk of developing Type II diabetes and heart disease. In other words, if the prostate cancer doesn’t kill you… these common side effects just might! (After all, heart disease is our country’s No. 1 killer.)

With all this in mind, let’s turn our attention to the new study that analyzed the long-term benefit (or lack thereof) of these treatments in men…

Risk-benefit analysis

For this new study, researchers followed 1,600 men diagnosed with prostate cancer in the United Kingdom between 1999 and 2009. All subjects had localized disease, meaning the cancer hadn’t spread outside the prostate to other parts of the body.

At the start, the researchers randomly assigned the men to one of three groups…

The first group had surgery to remove the prostate. The second received radiation therapy and hormone blockers. And the third group underwent “active monitoring” or “active surveillance.” (Notably, those in the “active monitoring” group could switch groups at any point, if their cancer progressed to the point of warranting treatment.)

Next, the researchers followed the men for approximately 15 years.

It turns out, by 2020, about 3 percent of the men from all three groups (45 men total) died of prostate cancer. But the truly eye-opening finding is this…

There was NO significant difference in the number of cancer deaths among any of the three groups!

Which means men who underwent radical surgery to remove the prostate… or had their manhood zapped with radiation and hormone therapy… did NOT improve their survival rates one iota compared to men who received no treatment outside of regular check-ins with their doctors.

The men who received the gruesome treatments did, however, suffer from the dreaded side effects we just talked about. In fact, about one in four needed to wear at least one pad a day to guard against urine leaks. They also suffered from significant sexual dysfunction.

Now, I should note that these findings do not apply to men diagnosed with high-grade cancers. But those aggressive types account for just 15 percent of all prostate cancers.

Overall, I think this study adds to the growing body of evidence showing that “active monitoring” is often the best choice for the VAST majority of men with prostate cancer.

Not to mention, we now have better diagnostic tools, such as magnetic resonate imaging (MRI) scans and genetic testing, which can help with monitoring and guiding treatment choices. (See the sidebar on page 3 about how complicated it is to rely solely on prostate-specific antigen [PSA] test results.)

Plus, as I mentioned earlier, there are two simple lifestyle changes you can make, starting today, to improve your survival rate if you do have prostate cancer. They’ll even help reduce your risk of ever developing it in the first place!

Two simple steps

In my view, when it comes to surviving AND preventing prostate cancer, nothing works better than getting some regular exercise.

In fact, in one 2019 study, men with prostate cancer who vigorously exercised for at least 20 minutes weekly the year prior to their diagnosis experienced a 43 percent reduction in the risk of lethal metastatic progression compared with men who reported less-frequent vigorous activity prior to diagnosis.⁴

And when it comes to prevention, the benefits of exercise are downright mind-blowing…

In the largest study of its kind, looking at the effect of exercise on men over age 50, those who were the most active had a whopping 51 percent LOWER RISK of ever developing prostate cancer compared to those who were the least active.⁵ Plus, even just gardening or walking counted toward those activity totals.

Exercise seems to benefit men by offsetting the effects of androgens (hormones) on lean muscle. And more generally, exercise enhances quality of life and mood.

Now, let’s move on to the second simple lifestyle change… improving the quality of your diet.

In a study published earlier this year, U.S. researchers found that men with prostate cancer who ate the most fruits and vegetables had a 52 percent lower risk of disease progression and a 53 percent lower risk of recurrence compared with those whose diets had the lowest amounts of these healthy foods.⁶

And in a second study on diet, researchers from the University of South Australia found that men who regularly eat a “rainbow” of fruits and vegetables are less likely to develop prostate cancer in the first place.⁷ Plus, among men undergoing radiation treatment for prostate cancer, obtaining more micronutrients found in colorful vegetables—including lutein, lycopene, alpha-carotene, and selenium—sped up recovery.

(When it comes to getting more lutein into your diet, enjoy more kale, spinach, and collard greens. For more lycopene, include more cooked tomatoes, melons, and peaches. Then, carrots, sweet potatoes, and squash are all good sources of alpha-carotene. And selenium-rich foods include nuts and seafood, including fish and shellfish.)

Men should also make sure to eat mushrooms regularly, as a remarkable, new study out of Japan suggests that they also help lower a man’s risk of EVER developing prostate cancer. They appear to be especially beneficial to men over age 50.

In fact, men who ate mushrooms just once or twice per week had an 8 percent lower prostate cancer risk compared to men who ate mushrooms less than once per week. And those who ate mushrooms three or more times per week enjoyed a 17 percent lower risk than men who did so less than once per week.

You’ll find many mouth-watering recipes that contain mushrooms in my book The A-List Diet, available on my website, www.DrPescatore.com, under the “Books” tab.

The bottom line is, these two simple lifestyle habits, which I always promote, will help boost your survival and avoid gruesome mainstream treatments after a prostate cancer diagnosis. And if you don’t have prostate cancer, these approaches can help you avoid hearing the awful words “it’s cancer” in your doctor’s office.

Of course, you can find dozens more cancer-fighting techniques in my online learning program, my Essential Cancer Protocol. To learn more about this educational tool, or to enroll today, click here or call 1-866-747-9421 and ask for order code EOV3Z902.

Do you NEED that yearly PSA test?

As you probably know, doctors measure PSA as a routine screening tool for prostate cancer. But it’s a flawed test, as many things besides prostate cancer can raise PSA levels—including infections, sexual activity, and even riding a bicycle.

Generally, it’s thought that only about 30 percent of men with an elevated PSA will actually have cancer, and of those who do have cancer, the majority don’t need to be treated.

But that doesn’t mean we should entirely abandon the test. I’ve always considered it one piece of a much larger puzzle in the effort to identify the truly aggressive and deadly prostate cancers. So find a doctor you can trust and continue to get screened regularly, so you can make more informed decisions about your health.