A study conducted by researchers from the Ohio State University found that selenium can reduce specific markers that increase the risk of prostate cancer.

The Dreaded Prostate Cancer

The average age of prostate cancer diagnosis is 67 years old.  This is according to the National Cancer Institute Surveillance and Epidemiology and End Results Center; this is based on the incidence of prostate cancer in the United States from 2003 to 2007. Based on the same data, more than 16 percent of men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime. In the United States alone, it is estimated that more than 210,000 men will be diagnosed of prostate cancer and over 32,000 will die of the dreaded condition.

There are no assured means of preventing prostate cancer. But making smart choices in the foods that you eat and avoiding the risk factors associated with it can help in preventing the disease. Like other types of cancer, prostate cancer starts when cells begin to behave abnormally. It is clear that this behavior of the cells is caused by the mutation of the genes but researchers are still trying to better understand what causes and what triggers the mutation.

Lowering the risk of prostate cancer will take a little more than just diet modification. Taking bigger steps like changing your lifestyle and avoiding cancer-inducing habits may help in reducing your risk. Studies show that lifestyle intervention is the best approach in preventing prostate cancer and other diseases for people with heightened risk.

Natural Ways to Lower Your Risk

The nutritional guidelines for preventing prostate cancer is yet to be established. But so far, studies show that specific eating habits are linked to a lowered risk of developing the disease. Eating a variety of fruits and vegetables can supply the body with essential nutrients that helps in preventing different kinds of cancer.  Food sources rich in cancer-fighting substances like folate, vitamin B complex and diindolylmethane, which is found in cruciferous vegetables like kale, cabbage and broccoli, are well-recommended.  Sensible eating means balancing your calorie intake according to your body’s requirement.

The incidence of prostate cancer varies in different countries. Studies show that the highest rate appears in populations with the highest intake of fat. Foods rich in saturated fats, like those found in red meats, can increase the risk of developing prostate cancer. Eating whole-grain foods like whole-wheat breads and brown rice while limiting the consumption of refined sugar and white flour can also help in preventing the disease.

Eating foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids is also linked to a lower risk of developing prostate cancer. Omega-3 is found in salmon, mackerel, herrings and other cold-water fishes. Although there are mixed scientific evidence regarding the potency of omega-3 in lowering the risk of developing cancer, adding foods rich in the nutrient into your daily diet offers other health benefits like the prevention of cardiovascular disease.

Soybean products and other legumes are rich in phytoestogens, an enzyme found in plants that act like estrogen in the body. These chemicals can help reduce the risk of prostate cancer. A good evidence for this is the low incidence of prostate cancer in Asian countries where soybeans and soybean products are popular food choices.

Green tea contains various antioxidants like polyphenols that has been found to lower the risk of developing cancer. Vitamin D, on the other hand, has also showed strong potential in lowering the risk of developing prostate cancer. Foods rich in vitamin D are egg yolks, and fish liver oil. Exposing the skin to the sun for a few minutes a day will also trigger the production of vitamin D in the body.

The high incidence of prostate cancer drives state and privately-funded studies to determine better ways to prevent the disease. Researchers are also looking at the potency of some nutrients in fighting prostate cancer risk. A study conducted by researchers from the Ohio State University found that the supplementation of selenium can lower the levels of prostate cancer markers such as prostate specific antigen (PSA) and help in reducing the risk of the disease.

Selenium to Lower the Risk of Prostate Cancer

A study published in the Nutrition Research journal showed that selenium glycinate can improve the activities of plasma enzymes and reduce the levels of prostate cancer markers. The researchers from the Ohio State University said that the regular supplementation of selenium in a group of 30 middle-aged Americans resulted to a reduced risk of developing prostate cancer. They added that their study contradicts the popular notion that selenium cannot improve the activity of blood glutathione peroxides and lower the risk of prostate cancer.

Head researcher Dr Robert DiSilvestro of the Department of Human Nutrition and his co-authors said that if selenium has the ability to lower prostate-specific antigens in study participants, it can also lower the risk of prostate cancer.  This could be better achieved by introducing the nutrient in daily diet. They used a certain form of selenium called selenium glycinate which has not been used in previous studies. The researchers added that selenium glycinate has significantly high bioactivity.

The researchers reported that the supplementation of selenium raised the levels of erythrocyte and plasma activities in study participants. They also found that cancer risk marker serum PSA was lowered by selenium glycinate. But they added that the reduction in prostate cancer markers does not necessarily mean a lower risk of developing the disease.

Health Benefits of Selenium

Selenium is a mineral present in the soil and which appears in small amounts in some foods and in water. The nutrient plays an important role in metabolism and recent studies show that selenium has strong antioxidant properties. Although there are some evidences suggesting that high levels of selenium can increase the risk of skin cancer, regulated levels of the nutrient can result to a lower risk of developing various diseases. Population studies show that selenium deficiency is rare in healthy people.

The Recommended Dietary Intake of selenium for adults and children aged 14 years and above is 55 to 70 micrograms in a day. For the prevention of prostate cancer, men can take as much as 200 micrograms a day. But the threshold for selenium intake should be no more than 400 micrograms; anything beyond this is considered an overdose. Selenium has been used as a treatment for asthma, infertility and arthritis. But more importantly, selenium can act as an antioxidant which neutralizes cancer-causing free radicals and at the same time improve the potency of other antioxidants.

Sources
nutraingredients.com
webmd.com
webmd.com
mayoclinic.com
seer.cancer.gov

Resveratrol may be helpful in reducing the growth of prostate cancer cells and also provides a myriad of other health benefits.

According to the US Agricultural Research Service, the compound responsible for the so called “French Paradox” is proving to be a potent weapon against one of the deadliest killers around – prostate cancer.

The statement from the US ARS came about because of a study that was published in the medical journal Carcinogenesis. In the said study, in-vitro testing showed that prostate cancer cells actually died when they were exposed to the potent compound, resveratrol.

Throwing caution into the air

While it was true that cancer cell inhibition took place when the prostate cancer cells were exposed to the compound, it also increased the growth of blood vessels after the initial death of cancer cells, according to Thomas Wang, a researcher working for the Diet, Genomics and Immunology Laboratory of the US ARS.

The growth of extra blood vessels in the site of the prostate cancer was observed in laboratory animals who were genetically prone to developing prostate cancer.  Each of the animal subjects had been given 3 to 6 milligrams of the potent compound, which was equivalent to the amount of resveratrol found in six glasses of red wine.

What does this all mean?

According Wang, more research is needed to further substantiate the potential anti-cancer benefits of resveratrol.  He also stated there should be a clear focus on studying the effective dosage needed for cancer prevention as well as important factors such as interaction with other chemical compounds and timing.  In short – people shouldn’t be complacent with just taking large amounts of supplements.

The issue of overabundance

Nutrients (like vitamins, theanine and resveratrol) are still biological compounds, whether we like it or not.  With the proliferation of nutritional supplements in the market, it’s hard not to take extra doses of these supplements because of the health benefits.  Folic acid for one, is being taken in large amounts by people because of its numerous purported health benefits.

But did you know that too much of this nutrient can actually encourage the growth of cancer cells?

According to Joel Mason, a program director for the US ARS, cancer requires a very complex process in order to survive.  And one of the requirements for cell growth are nutrients like folic acid.

If you get more than four hundred micrograms of folic acid per day, you just might be encouraging the growth of cancer cells, instead of preventing it.

Too much folic acid can actually facilitate the DNA replication process necessary for the growth of cancer cells.  Watch what you eat – if you take a high-nutrient shake in the morning and eat folic-acid loaded snacks toward the end of the day, you just might be taking in too much of the nutrient.

Other benefits of resveratrol

1. Resveratrol helps promote a healthy heart by reducing oxidative stress and by improving blood circulation.  It also reduces the incidence of swelling or inflammation in the body’s tissues, as well as reduce unnecessary clotting in the blood vessels, which may lead to embolisms or even stroke.

2. In another study, it was shown that resveratrol prevented the initial processes required for cancer growth.

3. Studies show that resveratrol can help seniors by reducing the risk of neurological diseases and neural degeneration.

4. Coupled with calorie reduction, resveratrol can make a person resistant to many chronic and degenerative conditions such as heart diseases and even diabetes.

5. If used in conjunction with supplements like co-enzyme Q10 and omega 3 fatty acids, resveratrol can protect you from conditions like coronary heart disease.

6. Resveratrol has also been shown to reduce damage caused by stroke.

Sources:
nutraingredients.com
altmedicine.about.com
longevity.about.com
longevity.about.com
altmedicine.about.com
longevity.about.com
wine.about.com
altmedicine.about.com

Is chemotherapy really necessary in many cancer patients?

When it comes to diagnosing people with disease, doctors often put the cart before the horse.  They overestimate the seriousness of the disease, putting a patient’s physical and mental health on edge and sapping their quality of life in the process.

Now I don’t mean to paint too broad a stroke on the medical profession; the overwhelming majority of doctors are highly qualified practitioners and serve the best interest of their patient.  But malpractice has become commonplace, too commonplace, as a recent study suggests 60 percent of people treated for prostate cancer receive treatment unnecessarily.

On the surface, this sounds absurd.  How can anyone receive unnecessary treatment for a disease as degenerative and progressive as prostate cancer (Worldwide, it is the fifth most diagnosed cancer; in America, it is second only to lung cancer in the number of cancer deaths annually)?

Well according to a new study that looked into whether or not this was happening, the aggressiveness of prostate cancer is demonstrated through the production of a particular protein.  When doctors find this protein in the blood, called Hsp-27, it’s a tell-tale sign that the cancer is advanced and will metastasize.

But when researchers reviewed the treatment profiles of 4,000 prostate cancer patients over a 15-year period, two-thirds of those that received chemotherapy did not have this protein in their blood.  In other words, the doctors could have taken less aggressive measures to treat the condition as opposed to chemotherapy, which kills both the healthy and the unhealthy cells.

The research was performed by researchers from the University of Liverpool and published in the British Journal of Nutrition.

The researchers did not point out how many people died in the course of their study, but it would be interesting to know, even if it can’t be ruled out definitively whether it was the chemotherapy or the pancreatic cancer that wound up killing them.

At any rate, this is just the latest reason for why it’s important to weigh all the options before committing to chemotherapy.  It’s an extremely invasive procedure, and as this study illustrates, is often used unnecessarily.  Should your doctor recommend chemotherapy, it may not be a bad idea to get a second opinion before making that commitment.

Source:
sciencedaily.com

My last article extolled the virtues of broccoli based on a study out of UCLA that said eating broccoli significantly slowed down the aging process.  This decrease in aging, the researchers believed, was due to the high sulforaphane content in broccoli, which helps to increase the amount of antioxidants in the body that fight free radicals.  Now new research from Britain’s Institute of Food Research says that men who increase their broccoli intake “activate” genes in their body that fight off prostate cancer while “deactivating” genes that help form malignant tumors. 

Researchers came to this conclusion after studying 24 men, all with a pre-cancerous legion of some kind, and asked the men to start consuming four extra servings of broccoli a week for 52 weeks.  The researchers found that all of the men exhibited changes in their gene patterns by the study’s conclusion.  These gene-pattern variations were examined throughout the test period, as the researchers took tissue samples from the men on various occasions.  The researchers said that the way in which these genes changed were changes that help ward off cancer from forming.

And what do researchers believe the ingredient is in broccoli that has such an impact in warding off cancer?  You guessed it – sulforaphane.  Just as sulforaphane plays a role in fighting the aging process, it also aids in the fight against various forms of cancer.  As this study found, it helps in fighting the second deadliest cancer among men, prostate cancer (Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among men).  Sulforaphane is also believed to play a protective role among women in the prevention of breast cancer.  Like prostate cancer among men, breast cancer is the second deadliest form of cancer among women (Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths among women as well).

Remember, sulforaphane is a phytochemical that’s found most prevalently in cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts and kale.  But broccoli sprouts are the thing to eat if you’re looking for a vegetable with a lot of it.

So, how does one get more broccoli into their diet?  Well, there’s the obvious way of having broccoli as a side dish more frequently.  But broccoli can easily be melded into your diet as it is now, without it seeming like a constant presence.  For instance, when you’re preparing a salad, throw in some steamed or raw broccoli for a change.  When eating your whole wheat pasta, instead of having it with tomato sauce, throw in some broccoli florets with your pasta, tossed with olive oil and parmesan cheese.  It’s a nice, light alternative to the same old spaghetti and marinara.  How about broccoli on pizza?  Topping some homemade pizza with broccoli gives it the pizzazz (and nutrition) a pizza often needs (Peppers and mushrooms are great, but they are among the most common pizza toppings).

Be creative.  Just start getting more of it in your diet.