Clyde’s PCa Diet
Hello, I’m a 69-year-old retired carpenter and published writer. I’ve never had a Free PSA reading, only two biopsies and 5 Finger-Waves (and two of those almost made me jump through the wall).
My diet is centered around ocean fish (tuna and salmon), veggies (a lot of brocolli and other cruciferous veggies — cauliflower, Brussel sprouts), fruits (in particular apricots, which are high in selenium), vitamins (E, A, D3, a good one-a-day vitamin), Essiac Tea at five in the A.M. (when my stomach is empty), heavy sprinkling of turmeric on my food (in Ayurvedic medicine of India this herb has been in usage for almost 2 millenia — it shrinks tumors), cayenne (for the capsicum), garlic powder (both sprinkled over food, like the turmeric).
Go to a health food store and read up on herbs. In my area (Grand Prairie, TX) there is no good store so I have to drive to the next town. See if they carry a mixture of herbs specifically for prostate health. Years To Your Health in Irving, TX does, this is the herbal shop where I get my herbs.
Severely cut down on red meat and animal fat in general. Consume as much selenium as possible (not to exceed 900 mcg. daily) as this appears to help.
Get as much exercise and sunlight on as much of your body as you can take.
I have discussed this diet with my property manager and she said her father, an Indian did the same thing and expulsed his PSa. It can be done. American doctors don’t believe in herbs, they look upon their usage in the same light as they look upon Voodoo and Santeria – they are far too quick to prescribe drugs and try to force operations and radiation and chemo on their patients. They need to take a good look at India – its foods, medicines, etc. The incidence of PCa in Indian men is far less than that in American men. It’s all in the diet, kiddos!
16/08/2007 at 11:17 am Permalink
Thanks Clyde. Nice to see your enthusiasm for managing your diet and staying healthy.
The one nutrient I wonder about is your selenium intake limit – is it really 900mcg per day, and if so why?
As I’m sure you’re well aware, Clyde, the usual daily supplement dose recommended for men to prevent and/or fight prostate cancer is 200 mcg (some comes from food depending on where it was grown). Recommendation of 200mcg is based on Larry Clarke’s double-blind trial at the University of Arizona Cancer Center (JAMA. 1996; Br. J. Urol, 1998). Designed to find the effect of selenium on skin cancers (and finding zero effect there), the study chanced to show “a 63% reduction in the secondary endpoint of prostate cancer.” The selenium-treated group developed fewer prostate, colorectal and lung cancer. They had a nearly 50% decrease in total cancer deaths and a 17% decrease in overall mortality compared to those taking placebo.
400 mcg is considered “hazardous” level by one source (Beloit University). That may be exaggerated. The Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences has set a tolerable upper intake level for selenium at 400 micrograms per day for adults.
You may already be consuming some selenium from your foods, especially vegetables and sea food. I’ve seen an estimate of 800 mcg in 3 Brazil nuts.
True, senior adults may absorb less selenium from dietary sources than younger people do.
For all of us — a good listing of foods high in selenium (depending on where they were harvested) is at Unversity of Pittsburgh. They say that for cancer “Many studies that have examined selenium intakes and blood selenium levels have suggested that people with greater intakes of selenium are less likely to develop cancer or to die from cancer if they already have it.”
Types of cancer that selenium may help prevent include, they say, include:
lung cancer
colorectal cancer
prostate cancer
skin cancer, nonmelanoma
stomach cancer
breast cancer
They say "Selenium’s effects on cancer are believed to be due to its action as an antioxidant. In addition, selenium helps to stimulate the immune system, making it better able to fight cancer.” Just stay in the safe zone.
The most recent study on selenium and prostate cancer risk comes from NCI and a large group of researchers at US centers:
Serum selenium and risk of prostate cancer – a nested case-control study, Am Jour of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 85, No. 1, 209-217, January 2007).
They come to a mixed conclusion: "Greater prediagnostic serum selenium concentrations were not associated with prostate cancer risk in this large cohort, although greater concentrations were associated with reduced prostate cancer risks in men who reported a high intake of vitamin E, in multivitamin users, and in smokers."
Short term high-dose selenium (1000 mcg per day given intravenously) is used for a period of days in some critical care centers to reduce oxidative stress in burn patients and people with sepsis. Results have been called mixed although a 1000 mcg dose does appear to have some benefit for these critical care patients. A study preceding this with a 4000 mcg loading dose on day 1 reports that more people died who received IV selenium compared with those who did not.
Mark Moyad at the University of Michigan wrote in 2002: “Selenium supplements provided a benefit only for those individuals who had lower levels of baseline plasma selenium. Other subjects [i.e. patients], with normal or higher levels, did not benefit and may have an increased risk for prostate cancer.”
Some people might be interested in New Selenium Test for Prostate Health (2006)