Prostate Cancer & Hormones

[pjoshea13]

I am about to begin a new series of posts, on hormones. One might expect the first to be on testosterone - or even estradiol - but I will begin with prolactin, since there is a new study. Look for: "Prostate Cancer & Hormones - Prolactin".

Suggestions as to other hormones to cover would be welcomed.

-Patrick

[CBurnett]

Something a naturopath suggested to add to my fathers regime was indole-3-carbinol. The pharmasist has approved it during chemo but has to stop 3 days before treatment and wait 3 days after to take. We haven't started it yet as he is in hosptial and god forbid a doctor come by to say go ahead. Gotta love Canada.

[dkschul]

Thanks Patrick,

First, I want to let you know how appreciative I am for the work you do and your willingness to share. You are amazing and undoubtedly have helped many on this site. And thanks to all who contribute to this site, I cannot imagine being on this journey alone.

I would be very interested in what you find regarding IGF-1. After discovering this hormone is a strong indicator and contributor, to prostate cancer development and growth, I had this tested a few times. The first time I was 296 and the second time, 3 months later, it was 274. I have seen estimates that someone my age(52) my level should be in the 150 range.

Things I am taking that have been shown to help lower IGF-1 are Apigenin, Metoformin, and IP-6. I found some studies like this one that was completed at MDA and although the results seemed favorable the drug company funding the study decided not to pursue it. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

Thanks in advance to anything you discover.

Dan

[Hidden in reply to dkschul]

A much less obnoxious, drug-free, FAR more broadly beneficial way to lower our IGF-1 AND improve MANY other cancer and other health factors is intermittent fasting. Excess fat? Gone. Type II diabetes? Gone. Prediabetes? Gone. Hunger or food cravings? Gone (if done with a ketogenic diet, which add its own GREAT set of health benefits if any of those are present). Dangerous lipids profile? INFINITELY better than anything any drugs ever did. Safety/track record? Hippocrates and Plato did it. Muslims have always done it. Simplicity and cost? Far less than free/effortless, because you buy less food, spend less time shopping/preparing/eating/cleaning up, and trying to manage your weight. There is one cost if you're overweight: new, smaller, clothes. My military boot camp clothes are now loose on me, and I've resolved several health problems countless Air Force, VA, and civilian physicians could not.

[wagscure259 in reply to Hidden]

What procedures do you utilize in your intermittent fasting ? 16 hour fast . 18 , 20 or every other day ? Curious. Thanks

[Hidden in reply to wagscure259]

I'm just beginning, so experimenting. So far I've been simply pushing breakfast, our main meal of the day for 30 years now, off until late morning. I eat my last meal between 4 and 5, so that's usually a 16 hour fast. I've gone as long as 36 hours out of curiosity, and couldn't care less. It's really convenient in ketosis, since one doesn't get hungry ... I don't miss the old days of sugar highs and lows and hunger at all. It works for the world's premiere endurance athletes, so it's good enough for me, and it made running around the Mayo Clinic like a chicken with its head cut off especially simple: On days when I'm doing fasting labs and PET scans 12 hours a day, I simply don't eat until the next day. Fung's and Moore's book on fasting, among some others, discusses the advantages of the different fasting regimens.

Both the ketogenic diet and intermittent fasting are Infinitely convenient, SO healthy, and so vastly superior to actually dieting that it's a shame another 200,000,000 Americans don't do both. It would save literally millions of lives here alone every year and vastly improve the QOL of another 100,000,000. Their loss. When a nurse asks how long ago I last ate, I have to think about it, because the only way to even guess is to actually remember. Three hours and three days feel the same. I make sure I get extra protein for a day or two after a major workout or a big day of sports, otherwise I eat when it's convenient and has been a while. It's neat knowing that the longer I go without eating anything, the lower such things as my IGF-1 and other cancer-promoting hormones go and the higher my human growth hormone, which fights cancer, get.

The ketogenic diet quickly got my obese wife off several nasty drugs her doctor had her on for many years for high BP and other problems, then knocked off 80 pounds until she plateaued. Months of stalled progress persuaded her to try fasting, and the weight began falling off again. I experimented with fasting to see whether I might use it to modulate my weight if and when I go on prednisone or other steroids with chemotherapy. Holy cow! Wanna dump excess fat overnight? Fast. Getting too skinny because of the cancer drugs? Stop fasting. SOOOO easy. Need to lose 100 or 800 pounds and keep it off? Just stop eating anything but vitamins, water, and coffee/tea until it's gone. You don't get hungry, you feel MUCH better every day, your energy level and resting metabolism increase, and your health markers improve like clockwork. The official, hospital-controlled record was a little over a year, and the guy has kept the weight off for years now because it changed his hormones s effectively.

It's hormones, after all, not calorie consumption, that controls our weight loss or gain. Put squirrels in a cage with zero food during the Fall nut-hoarding season, and they will build up as much fat and in the same places as their overfed buds in the next cage simply because their hormones drive fat into those winter storage fat layers.

Oh ... where did the starved squirrels get the fat with which to stuff their winter storage cells? By digesting their vital organs. It killed them, of course, but by golly they were otherwise ready for the winter.

[Hidden in reply to dkschul]

Yup, just starve yourself. Works everytime.