Take charge of your prostate

Welcome to this month’s BioNews.  We must learn to free ourselves from the control that others exert over us. As we learn we become FREE, we become powerful.  This pursuit of self defense in wellness, I call “The Martial Art of Wellness.” And as we practice we become Wellness Ninjas.

– Richard L., Nevada, July 2010

MARTIAL ART OF WELLNESS ( Take charge of your prostate ) 

As most of you know by now, in the spirit of The Martial Art of Wellness, I am committed to demythifying beliefs about substances, supplements or certain concepts of health that I believe to be incorrect or just plain wrong. This month I am presenting you with information about prostate health. We men do not like to talk about this topic openly, even to close friends. But statistics do not lie: between the ages of 40 and 60, one in every two men will experience a swollen prostate accompanied by symptoms such as difficulty urinating. As wellness warriors, knowledge should be the first weapon in your arsenal. With knowledge, you will be able to make the right choices for your path to wellness.

Take charge of your prostate

The statistics get worse: by age 80, 90% of men will be affected by prostate issues! The fact is that most of us remain passive while the problem worsens, and we even forget the simple happiness of being able to:

• Watch an entire movie without having to get up to go to the bathroom.
• Sleep through the night without being awakened by the need to urinate.

That’s why I am sharing the following information with you today about natural ways to maintain and regain prostate health.

Be wary of the “too-easy solutions” from conventional medicine

Conventional medicine offers two classes of drugs to treat prostate problems. Neither one nor the other is satisfactory in the short or long run.

Difficulty urinating that appears with aging in men is caused by swelling of the prostate, a gland that is located below the bladder, and through which passes the urethra, the urine evacuation canal.

With age, the prostate swells and often compresses the urethra, preventing the bladder from emptying properly, which gives men an unpleasant, almost permanent feeling of having to urinate. This is not just an impression, as the bladder actually remains partially filled.

To fight this disease, conventional medicine has had two “brilliant” ideas so far:

• The first is to lower blood pressure in the prostate to reduce the pressure on the urethra and allow the passage of urine. This effect is achieved with drugs well known for lowering blood pressure, the alpha-blockers. The result, as you can imagine, is that while the urine passes better, life is disrupted from this chemically induced lowering of the blood pressure. There are many side effects including dizziness, lack of energy and half-mast erections at a premature age, to name a few.
• The second is to use drugs that prevent testosterone from being transformed into dihydrotestosterone, a hormone known to cause the prostate to swell. This may seem like a good idea, and it is indeed effective at preventing swelling, except that dihydrotestosterone has many functions in your body other than causing the prostate to swell. If you lower the level of dihydrotestosterone in the body, you’ll get all sorts of ill effects, including sexual dysfunction and more seriously, an increased risk of aggressive prostate cancer, the kind that is the most difficult to treat.

“Is that it?” Not quite

Fortunately, some researchers decided to look deeper to try and tackle the problem. They tried to understand what causes the swelling of the prostate instead of just preventing it chemically, and to find more efficient remedies. One of them, Thierry Souccar, is a researcher in France. Dr. Souccar has specialized for 25 years in nutrition and is the author of the bestseller, Milk, Lies and Propaganda. (1)

He has worked with other famous researchers in nutrition, the biology of aging and advanced natural medicine including Nobel prize winner Linus Pauling, Professor Walter Willett, head of the School of Public Health at Harvard University, and research teams at Johns Hopkins, Tufts University, the University of Texas and French research teams, especially the Inserm research unit of Prof. Etienne-Emile Baulieu.

He also wrote thousands of articles for the mainstream press (Le Nouvel Observateur, Science & Future), and participated in numerous radio and television interviews for a very wide audience (including the Envoyé Spécial).

On the issue of enlargement of the prostate – known in scientific terms “benign prostatic hyperplasia” or BPH – he has conducted extensive research on its causes and remedies.

Nutritional causes of prostate problems

Getting to the point, you should know that the prostate swells when you have lower levels of testosterone, too much dihydrotestosterone and estradiol, a female hormone that men produce in small quantities when they are young, but more and more over time, especially if they gain weight (estradiols are made in adipose tissue).

What some scientific research has uncovered:

1. A study done in Greece showed that consumption of olive oil, which is rich in omega-3 fatty acids, lowers the risk of BPH. (1)
2. A Japanese study has shown that eating dairy products increases prostate problems. (2)
3. An Italian study showed that the regular consumption of soup, cooked vegetables, legumes (peas, beans, lentils) and citrus fruit reduces the risk of surgery for BPH. (3)
4. In a large U.S. study, people who consumed more fruits and vegetables rich in carotenoids (orange or red pigments), vitamin C and polyunsaturated fats had less risk of BPH than others. (4)
5. With the exception of spirits, consumption of alcoholic beverages such as wine and beer appear to be almost always associated with a decreased risk of BPH. (5)
6. Thin people who eat little or moderately are less likely than others to be affected by BPH. (6)

If you are already having prostate issues, you might be interested in changing your diet and taking extra natural food supplements. Some natural food supplements that have shown to be effective are:

• Saw palmetto (From Florida) : This is a traditional medicine that was used by the Seminole Indians (South Florida), for the stated purpose. Numerous studies have confirmed that the extract of the fruit of saw palmetto was effective in reducing BPH. However, some doubt has been planted recently by studies that have had conflicting results. For this reason, saw palmetto is still widely recommended on countless websites, but Thierry Souccar does not recommend it. (7)
• Nettle root: Several studies have found that nettle root extract improves urinary symptoms and one study showed a decrease in prostate volume. (8)
• Flaxseed (not flaxseed oil!): An extract of flaxseed rich in lignans has improved urinary symptoms in a controlled study in 87 volunteers (9)
• African plum (Pygeum africanum): Based on a small number of moderate reliability studies, one can expect an improvement in symptoms with taking an extract of Prunus Africana. (10)
• Pollen extracts: The Cernilton is a food supplement made from extracts of pollen. Studies conducted by the manufacturer suggest that Cernilton improves symptoms of BPH.
• BioSuperfood: Last but not least, BioSuperfood, while not taken solely for prostate health, has an extraordinary nutritional potential to awaken the genius within by balancing homeostasis and improving performance of all body metabolisms such as hormonal balance and the regulation of all glands, including the prostate. (12)

Sources:

1. Lagiou P, Wuu J, Trichopoulou A, Hsieh CC, Adami HO, Trichopoulos D. Diet and benign prostatic hyperplasia: a study in Greece. Urology. 1999 Aug; 54 (2) :284-90. PubMed PMID: 10443726.
2. Araki H, Watanabe H, Mishina T, Nakao M. High-risk benign prostatic hypertrophy group for. Prostate. 1983; 4 :253-64. PubMed PMID: 6189108.
3. Bravi F, Bosetti C, Dal Maso L, Talamini R, Montella M, Negri E, Ramazzotti V, Franceschi S, La Vecchia C. Food groups and risk of benign prostatic hyperplasia. Urology. January 2006, 67 (1) :73-9. PubMed PMID: 16413336.
4. Rohrmann S, Giovannucci E, Willett WC, Platz EA. Fruit and vegetableconsumption, intake of micronutrients, and benign prostatic hyperplasia in U.S. men. Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 Feb; 85 (2) :523-9. PubMed PMID: 17284753.
5. Kristal AR, Arnold KB, Schenk JM, Neuhouser ML, Goodman P, Penson DF, Thompson IM. Dietary patterns, supplement use, and the risk of symptomatic benign prostatic hyperplasia: results from the prostate cancer prevention trial. Am J Epidemiol. Apr 15 2008, 167 (8) :925-34. Epub 2008 Feb 7. PubMed PMID: 18263602.
6. S. Suzuki Intakes of energy and macronutrients and the risk of benign prostatic hyperplasia. Am J Clin Nutr 2002; 75:689-697.
7. Barry MJ, Complementary and Alternative Medicine for Urological Symptoms (CAMUS) Study Group. Effect of Increasing doses of saw palmetto extract on lower urinary tract symptoms: a randomized trial. JAMA. 2011 Sep 28; 306 (12) :1344-51. PubMed PMID: 21954478.
8. Safarinejad MR. Urtica dioica for Treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia: a prospective, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study. J Herb Pharmacother. 2005, 5 (4) :1-11. PubMed PMID: 16635963.
9. Zhang W, Wang X, Liu Y, Tian H, Flickinger B, encroach MW, SZ Sun. Effects of dietary flaxseed lignan extract on symptoms of benign prostatic hyperplasia. J Med Food. 2008 Jun; 11 (2) :207-14. PubMed PMID: 18358071.
10. Wilt T, Ishani A, Mac Donald R, Rutks I, Stark G. Pygeum africanum for benign prostatic hyperplasia. Cochrane Database. Syst Rev. 2002.
11. Santé Nature Innovation at web site www.santenatureinnovation.fr
12. Awakening the Genius Within – Thomas, Kiriac, 2004-2008 – at www.awakeningthegeniuswithin.com