My Introduction - elevated psa, unconfirmed prostate cancer

9 months ago•34 Replies

Hi, I'm a 57 year old with unconfirmed prostate cancer. My psa has been elevated for 14 years and recently jumped from 6 to 14 in a 6 month time frame.

Since it was over 10, I thought it was time for a biopsy. My DRE was negative so I wasn't too surprised when it came back as negative. From what I read, if the DRE is negative and the psa is below 20, odds are that the biopsy will be negative. It doesn't mean I don't have cancer, just that it didn't find it.

Last couple years I've been floundering about with diet and am now on a Vegan diet. I'm very interested in how diet and nutrients effects prostate cancer. I'm also very interested if any others have had success with diet?

As far as nutrients, I'm taking 4000 IU vitamin D and eating broccoli sprouts, and not consuming meat or dairy. I'm wondering why some countries have higher prostate mortality rates than others. I'm reading about the effects of cholesterol on prostate cancer. Apparently prostate cancer doesn't feed directly off glucose, rather it feeds off lipids and is why statins have been shown to be effective.

My total cholesterol is low but my HDL is very high, around 60. My non-HDL cholesterols are very low. A recent study is saying elevated HDL is now a risk for advance prostate cancer. Can't win! HA.

Prostate cancer runs in my family. My brother, father and his brother all have had prostate cancer and have all had prostatectomies.

Being a retired web developer, I've created a blog of my thoughts at nutrition.mossycity.com . I'll warn you ahead of time, writing was never my strength. Several of the published articles on the blog are a work in progress because I don't have all the answers.

--Mike

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mikehike

in reply to Tall_Allen

9 months ago

This is a very interesting result. If I'm reading this correctly, it says HDL increase proliferation and migration of prostate cancer cells for androgen-independent PCa but not for androgen-dependent PCa. To be honest, I've only read the abstract so far.

I think its possible some of the benefit that is being reported with nutrition/diet like broccoli sprouts is due to their effects on cholesterol. I've read that eating broccoli sprouts reduces your non-HDL cholesterol while increasing your HDL. Now I'm wondering if broccoli sprouts may even be harmful to the ADT group. The article claimed benefit was due to down regulating the androgen receptor. That wouldn't help the ADT group, cancerpreventionresearch.aa...

Seems other nutrients may possibly effect the ADT PCa group differently too. For example, high doses of vitamin D in mice "neither vitamin D analog had any effect on castration resistant prostate cancer in mice treated pre- or post-castration. Interestingly, although vitamin D showed inhibitory activity against primary tumors in hormone-intact mice, distant organ metastases seemed to be enhanced following treatment". The metastases part was scary above but I'm still going to take 4000 IU D.

journals.plos.org/plosone/a...

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in reply to conagher

7 months ago

To be clear I am referring to CBD hemp, i.e. industrial hemp, below 0.3% THC so it is legally classified as industrial hemp under the Farm Bill. I get flower and trim and make my own cannabutter and brownies. The beneficial effects I've noted during IMRT with abiraterone, just finished my 7th week today: helps with appetite, so I can take the prednisone when I need to, keeps mood on an even keel, definitely helps with a good nights sleep if I eat a brownie 2 hrs before bed, general feeling of well being, eliminates aches and pain and low level chronic pain and finally, in a complete surprise, got rid of my gout. The joints in my big toes had almost locked up from the crystals in the joint and were extremely hard to bend and I had to use my hand to do it. With high doses of high concentration CBD strains, I rapidly felt the gout drain out of my toes and I can wiggle them freely on their own. I can go back to eating foods that were off limits because of the gout. I really did not expect this at all. Also, this stuff is vastly cheaper than medical marijuana. For example, I buy high quality trim for 1/25th the cost of medical marijuana trim. And of course it does not cause or contribute to cognitive decline, no risk of unpleasant abnormal reaction as with THC. I don't think for one second it "cures cancer" or anything like that but I am hoping it helps with the uptake of the radiation. I have no way of knowing if it helps or not. I am doing so fine with the treatment so far, though I credit exercise more for that. I certainly don't think CBD is essential to anyone, and don't think it cures cancer, and do not even recommend it to anyone. But for people interested in cannabis it might be safer, more effective, and cheaper for people already interested in medical marijuana. It's also a lot easier to get and manage. Oh, btw, my gray hair is turning dark and the bald spots filling in but I think that is due to the radiation and abiraterone.

rocket09

9 months ago

I tried the vegan route and it is helpful but I did not feel strong on it. It did not lower my Psa . I was on active surveillance for 2 years and could only lower my Psa by 2 as it was 10 -11. I tried various supplements and basically used myself as a human guinea pig. I feel I should have given fasting a shot but did not. I had one biopsy that was gleason 3 plus 4 then an MRI a year after that showed cancer in the area they could not get needles into and a small protrusion , all low risk. One year later my Urologist said I was ok to keep on watching as stable Psa but I asked for another MRI and the protrusion had grown 1 mm. I chose RP by robot. Recovering now. I am eating less meat now but all organic local meat and fish with vegan meals as well. I feel good on it. I don't think vegan cures but it is a healthy way. RP is more invasive and serious than they make it out to be but for me was the way to go as I had a large prostate and could see peeing problems down the road. I have other problems caused by RP that I am working on. Sex and incontinence . I believe some supplements are helpful but I dont believe there is any magic bullet. A book " The Key To Prostate Cancer " by Scholz was and is very helpful. Hope all goes well for you!

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