When prostate cancer recurs, eating a plant-based diet and reducing stress may help slow progression of the disease, a study shows. Dr. Gordon A. Saxe of the Moores UCSD Cancer Center and colleagues note that hormone treatment may be used to extend survival when prostate cancer returns. However, they add, the treatment reduces sex drive, causes hot flashes and weakens bones. The researchers investigated whether a plant-based diet might be another way to slow the advance of recurrent prostate cancer, because the typical “Western” diet high in animal protein and low in plant foods has been seen to boost the progression of the disease.
Fourteen men with recurrent prostate cancer participated in the study. They were instructed in how to raise their consumption of whole grains, vegetables, fruits, and legumes, and taught how to meditate and do several yoga and tai chi exercises. Just ten of the patients could be evaluated after the 6-month intervention, because two dropped out and two opted for hormone therapy. Compared to the 6 months before the study, the average rate at which the patients’ PSA levels rose slowed down during the dietary modification programs. Four patients actually showed a drop in PSA levels. The rate of PSA rise is the best predictor of survival and cancer spread, according to Saxe. “Our findings suggest that the intervention we employed may have resulted in a slowing of disease progression and, in a few patients, possibly disease reversal,” they write, concluding: “These results provide preliminary evidence that adoption of a plant-based diet, in combination with stress reduction, may attenuate disease progression and have therapeutic potential for clinical management of prostate cancer.”
– Integrative Cancer Therapies
Dr. Keith and Laurie Nemec’s comments on Diet Changes Slow Prostate Cancer.
Very interesting in this study, is that they showed when prostate cancer reoccurs, eating a plant based diet and reducing stress actually helps slow the progression of the disease. In this study, they showed that the standard treatment of hormonal treatment used to extend survival prostate cancer returns, however they found that treatment reduces sex drive, causes hot flashes and weakens the bones. This is because all medications have side effects. If it’s not natural, if it’s not from diet and lifestyle it is going to cause side effects. For every medication put into the body there is a minimum of seven very significant hazardous to your health side effects and some medications have up to 500 side effects. So, what the authors of the research study were seeking is another alternative and they decided to test a plant based versus an animal based diet to see how it affected the disease. So patients were put on a six month intervention. What happened was those that stayed in the study, their PSA levels, which is the sign of prostate specific antigen, which is what they use to measure progression of prostate cancer, it either slowed down the rapid progression in the people eating the plant based diet, or it dropped.
This was not seen in standard people, eating a standard American diet, it just continued to rise at the same expected accelerated rate. So what the author concludes is that the adoption of a plant based diet in a combination of stress reduction may attenuate disease progression and have therapeutic potential for clinical management for prostate cancer. This is just common sense. A diet of living/raw plant based food is the most anti-inflammatory diet available it is also the most disease protective and preventative diet that is available. This diet should be part of an alternative cancer treatment. So a person that would eat this diet, and of course work on, as this study showed, exercises to reduce stress, the two combined are going to reduce stress in the system and decrease inflammation and of course help in the healing of all types of cancer and all types of health challenges.
It is important to understand, animal protein is inflammatory, and inflammation is the root of all disease, including cancer. Refined sugar and flour are also inflammatory. Refined sugar is the most, then animal protein and animal fat the second, the refined flours the third, as far as producing inflammatory reactions in the body. Also very inflammatory are dairy products. Dairy products are the number one allergenic food this due to the casein or milk protein. Casein is extremely allergen and mucous forming. This causes mucous in the respiratory tract, the digestive tract and sinuses. So, how can you avoid these diseases? How can you heal your cancers and all other health challenges? By adopting the diet, the lifestyle changes, as the study showed.
