What to eat to beat prostate cancer

4-PAGE PULLOUT EVERY MAN MUST READ

MORE than 26,000 Irish men are living with prostate cancer — which is a whole lot better than dying from it. If the cancer is caught while still localised within the prostate, the chances of it killing you within the following five years are practically nil.

However, if the cancer spreads, your chances of surviving five years may be as low as one in three.

For this reason, scientists have been desperate to identify factors that help cause prostate cancer to spread.

EGGS AND POULTRY

HARVARD University researchers recruited more than 1,000 men with earlystage prostate cancer and followed them for several years.

The results were astonishing. Compared with men who rarely ate eggs, men who ate even a small part of an egg a day appeared to have twice the risk of their prostate cancer spreading — for instance, into the bones.

The only thing potentially worse than eggs was poultry.

Another trial found that men with more aggressive cancer who regularly ate chicken and turkey had up to four times the risk of prostate cancer progression.

Scientists suggest that the link between consuming poultry and cancer spread may be due to carcinogens in cooked meat. For unknown reasons, these carcinogens build up more in the muscles of chickens and turkeys than in those of other animals.

But what about eggs — how could eating less than one a day double the risk of cancer spreading?

The reason may be choline, a compound found in eggs.

Indeed, higher levels of choline in the blood have been associated with an increased risk of developing prostate cancer in the first place.

Another study discovered that men who consume two-and-a-half or more eggs per week — basically an egg every three days — may have an 81% increased risk of dying from prostate cancer.

MILK

MILK contains growth hormones designed by Mother Nature to put a few hundred pounds on a baby calf within a few months. But are they good for us? Leading Harvard University nutrition experts have warned that the hormones in dairy products could stimulate the growth of hormonesensitive tumours — such as prostate cancer.

Not only that, but experimental evidence suggests that dairy may also promote the conversion of pre-cancerous lesions or mutated cells into invasive cancers.

To date, there have been 14 studies in which organic cow’s milk was dripped on to human prostate cancer cells in a laboratory petri dish.

In each experiment, the milk stimulated the growth of human prostate cancer cells, producing an average increase in cancer growth rate of more than 30%.

In contrast, almond milk suppressed the growth of the cancer cells by more than 30%. What happens in a test-tube or petri dish, though, doesn’t necessarily happen in people.

Nevertheless, a compilation of studies has concluded that cow’s milk consumption is a risk factor for prostate cancer.

But, you may be wondering, if you don’t drink milk, what will happen to your bones? Doesn’t milk help prevent osteoporosis?

It turns out that the promised benefit may be just another empty marketing ploy. An analysis of many studies shows no significant protection.

Even if you were to start drinking milk during adolescence in an attempt to bolster peak bone mass, it probably wouldn’t reduce your chances of fracture later in life.

One recent set of studies involving 100,000 men and women followed for up to two decades even suggested milk may increase bone and hip fracture rates.

CAN YOU REVERSE PROSTATE CANCER?

EATING a varied plant-based diet — and avoiding all meat, fish, chicken and dairy products — may have much to recommend it, but it’s certainly not for everyone.

With this in mind, a group of researchers at the University of Massachusetts did a study on prostate cancer patients who agreed to get only half their protein from plant sources.

Happily, this half-vegan diet did, indeed, appear to slow down the growth of the cancer. Instead of doubling in size within 21 months, their tumours took 58 months to

grow to the same dimensions. So, even tweaking your daily diet is well worth the effort.

Half a serving a day of broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower or kale, for instance, can cut the risk of cancer progression by more than half.

For another study, a research team recruited 93 men with prostate cancer who had chosen not to undergo conventional treatment.

One group wasn’t given any diet or lifestyle advice. The other was prescribed a strict diet of fruit, vegetables, whole grains and beans ,and walked 30 minutes a day.

Cancer progression was then tracked using PSA levels (a protein in the blood).

In the people who did nothing, PSA levels increased by 6% in a year. That’s what cancer tends to do: grow over time. But among the healthy-living group, PSA levels decreased by 4%, suggesting their tumours were shrinking.

A year after the study ended, the cancers in the control group patients had grown so much that 10% needed surgery. By contrast, none in the plantbased diet and lifestyle group ended up in surgery tables.

Does that mean men suffering from prostate cancer merely need to change their diets?

No — I certainly don’t recommend that they ignore medical advice. They have nothing to lose and much to gain, however, by also changing what they eat.

Other research has shown that the blood of people on plant-based diets are able to fight cancer eight times better than the blood of people on a typical Western diet.

But what if the benefits are down to exercise? To find out, a research team compared three groups of men: a plant-based diet and exercise group, an exercise-only group and a group of sedentary people eating standard fare.

Would people who exercise hard enough and for long enough develop cancer-fighting abilities that rival that of strolling plant-eaters? To find out, blood from each of the groups was dripped on to human prostate cancer cells growing in a petri dish. Well, the blood of the sedentary lot wasn’t completely defenceless. Even if you’re a chip-eating couch potato, your blood may still be able to kill off 1–2% of cancer cells.

But the blood of those who had exercised strenuously for 15 years killed 2,000% more cancer cells than the blood of the couch potatoes — a fantastic result.

Even better was the blood of those in the plant-based diet and moderate exercise group, which wiped out an astounding 4,000% more cancer cells than that of the blood of the couch potatoes.

FLAXSEED

PROSTATE cancer rates vary around the world. For instance, African-American men are 120 times more likely to contract the disease than Chinese men.

This discrepancy has been attributed in part to the higher amounts of animal protein and fat in Western diets. Another factor, though, may be the soya in many Asian diets, which contains protective phytoestrogens. These are also present in concentrated form in flaxseeds. So, researchers asked men who were scheduled to have their cancerous prostates removed the following month to consume three tablespoons a day of flaxseed. After surgery, the tumours were examined. Within just a few weeks, the flaxseed appeared to have lowered cancer cell proliferation rates, while at the same time increasing the rate of cancer cell clearance. Even better, flaxseeds may also be able to prevent prostate cancer from advancing to that stage in the first place.

Fifteen men with prostate cancer were asked to eat three tablespoons of flaxseed a day for the six months until their next biopsy.

At that point, they all had a significant drop in PSA levels (a marker of prostate cancer growth) and cell proliferation rates — suggesting flaxseeds may thwart the progression of prostate cancer.

In two of the men, the PSA levels even dropped back to normal. TIP: Always grind flaxseeds or buy them pre-ground — or they may pass through your body undigested.