My guy was diagnosed in August, 2018 with APc - stage 4b - Age 51. He was very healthy before the diagnosis. He was never sick. How can a healthy man have cancer?
I would like to hear from members/caretakers that experienced the same shock that we did - a healthy person with advanced stage PC... totally shocking.
Also, from reading postings on this site, alot of members appear to have been eating nutritious diets and have regular exercise routines prior to diagnosis. I would like to hear from you to as I continue to read - cancer is caused by poor diet. Is this true?
I was diagnosed two years ago when I was 57. Totally healthy, no symptoms. Crazy. My diet was healthy although I did have at least two drinks every day before dinner. Those were the days! I do very little drinking now. Who knows why I got cancer. I have family and friends who eat poorly, drink heavily and some even smoke. They are all cancer free. Nobody can answer the why so I don’t spend time thinking about it. I choose to concentrate on the future and living each day to the fullest.
Prostate cancer, like most cancers, don't have any symptoms in early stages.
There was nothing he did that caused it - not diet nor lifestyle choices. Like many other diseases - it just happens - don't try to blame anyone or anything.
I was 46 and always healthy and very active. I never thought I'd be that guy sitting in a doctor's office in complete disbelief either as the Urologist was telling me I have Stage IV prostate cancer. I couldn't wrap my brain around it then and am still learning now.
Life throws some serious curve balls sometimes and is seldom perfect. There are young people as well as old that get cancer and many other serious diseases as well. Your husband was handed a bad deal but it's up to him to make it better and your a huge part of that too. Focus on getting well and not why. Bottom line is cancer has no boundaries.
As far as diet goes in my opinion just eat healthy. I went to more of a Mediterranean type diet and heart healthy. Nobody knows for certain exactly what specific diets can do in the fight against cancer. However it's definitely going to aid in keeping up the immune system through some pretty harsh theropys. Also when on HT it's very easy to gain weight and diet and exercise is only going to help. Exercise is strength for the mind as well as body.
There is more to life than cancer and we all have passions that drive us to be who we are. Don't lose sight of those things.
I’m sorry to hear about your husband and his diagnosis. It can be frightening, especially when one seems the picture of health, it just doesn’t make sense.
My husband was never sick except for the year he was diagnosed, he had the flu months before we would find out about his diagnosis. It was odd to me that he had the flu, he never caught those bugs.
We found out through an integrative doctor just before he was diagnosed that he had thyroid issues and he must have pushed through it for months or longer with this issue.
Months after diagnosis his integrative doctor found an intestinal parasite that needed two antibiotics. He used to travel quite a bit so who knows how long he was dealing with that, but we all can have bugs to deal with at times, we just don’t know it.
Looking back he was beginning to fight a rash on his knee, maybe psoriasis, so there were some indicators that his immune system was not up to par just before his diagnosis.
I’ve learned over the years that we have to look at the whole body...men are more than prostates.
My husband is currently on the therapuetic ketogenic diet (real unprocessed foods, high fat, moderate protein, very little carbs) suggested to us by his integrative oncologist. Fresh unprocessed food and no sugar can improve QoL and mood....and it has as far as we can see.
I’ve gone off the sugar (no artificial sweeteners allowed) and grains along with him and I feel so much better.
Men who are on this diet have been diagnosed with prostate cancer so it is not a cure or prevention diet...at least this is what I’ve observed.
Many studies are being done on Keto and doctors themselves with prostate cancer are now using this diet.
ALso, my husband did not go in to metabolic syndrome when on ADT treatment, we assume this is because he changed his diet to Keto ditching the carbs. I’ve read vegan or Keto can accomplish the same state in the body, so really, it’s a choice for each individual to make.
I don’t think trying to figure out the cause is helpful, but this may be the way you are processing it, so that’s okay. You will soon find out it’s time to move on since this thinking will only bring greater frustration with no definitive answer as to cause of cancer.
I do believe diet is helpful for the body, to be the best it can be, but I do not believe diet alone can cure or cause prostate cancer. I do know it can help in the fight in more ways than we can possibly know at this time.
I had a similar experience. Never really sick - occasional cold or flu. But that’s it. Felt great up until diagnosed at 53. Thought I had a pulled muscle or pinched nerve in my back from playing golf. Took 6-weeks for the doctor to diagnose me correctly. I went to his office thinking I would have a cortisone shot and came out with a PCa diagnosis. Head was spinning ...
In hindsight, I was having frequency issues that were a tip I had a problem. But I watched all the TV commercials that talk about men over 50 having this issue and just thought it was a normal part of aging. Candidly, I did not know anything about what a prostate was, or anything about prostate cancer. Wish I had. I have certainly discussed it with our son so he is better informed than me.
As everyone has said, no one knows what causes it. Now we just learn to live with it and do the best we can. Eat as healthy as you can, exercise, and love every day and every one.
Hey James! I too was 53 and my head spun.. Unlike you , I fought through symptoms of urgency to pee and others for years thinking it was just mid life crisis.
I too was living well before diagnosis at age 49. I have read (don't ask me to quote) that PCa is 15% down to identifiable genetic factors and 85% down to something else. I also read (on this sight) that this risk of getting the deadly version of PCa (which I have) is ten times greater, if you had appendicitis before the age of 20 (which I did).
I could be inherited. What matters now is not the past but what he does now .Speaking of diet , nutrition and exercise.. All three are good. I too thought I lived a pretty darn healthy life.. I got this from my dad.. being otherwise healthy and so young might give him
Just a little more strength to endure whatever comes.
I will try not to repeat what others have said but I too was healthy, though starting to have ED. I had a PSA test annually and I was uninformed about what the PSA level even meant. I was 57 when I was told very matter of factly by my primary care FNP that my PSA was rising too quickly and I likely had prostate cancer. I sought out a good urologist, did the biopsy and he called me to explain the Gleason scoring system and that I had a Gleason of 4+5 =9. I got a second opinion from Johns Hopkins, only to find out it was a 5+4 (worse). I read all that I could about treatment options, the types of prostate cancer and then had a robotically assisted prostatectomy, all was clean , except for one lymph node out of fourteen). Then I started with doxataxel(often a alter stage treatment) and lupron. I held out high hopes of curing it by hitting hard at the get go. My PSA was .01 at that time.
Seven moths later, my PSA started rising again. We waited bit longer to see the PSADT and it was less than two months. I was classified as "biochemically recurrent" and the disease was now manageable but not curable. It was tough to come to grips with but not unexpected because of the positive lymph node, high Gleason score and PSADT. I went back on Lupron and my PSA went back down. I am now on my sixth month of taking a break from Lupron and my PSA has been rising more rapidly than last year. My PSADT is now .8 months, so I will get an 18f PET/CT Axumin scan to see if my disease is more than "biochemically recurrent. Don't know what, if anything will be revealed but I want the snapshot either way of where I am.
I live life more in the moment, meditate and try to keep to a close to good diet with daily exercise. Life goes on and treatments change over time but I believe one should never live one's life for the next medical "break through". Just enjoy as much as you can, as soon as you can and for as long as you can to make the most of it! There is something to smile or laugh about every day, we just need to be open to those things.
My mom passed this year at 88 years. I never seen her exercise in her life. She did not take supplements or vitamins or special diet. But she didn't have a prostate.
There's the story of the guy whose life is in the dumpster, downtrodden, broke and living in the streets. He had enough so he looks up at the sky and says "but why me?" And a booming voice from above responds "CAUSE YOU PISS ME OFF".
Sometimes you're the fly and sometimes you're the windshield.
If you were a cancer cell, would you want to occupied a sick body. These cells are parasitic and look to survive by mutating. After they cannot mutant anymore, they give up and allow the host to perish.
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