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Active Surveillance - Prostate Cancer

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food

aceace12 profile image
14 Replies

Just a quick hello to everyone. Hope all is well on this site as well as are brothers on the other sites. I am curious if anyone went a little crazy when first diagnosed with PC . and starting eating foods that help promote healthy prostate as well as foods that slow growth of cancer. At least that's what they say. I have only been following tips on nutrition from prostate.net web site , such as top 10 foods for prostate and for cancer. I have always been on a healthy diet but i have changed such things as not eating red meat.. to eating brazalian nuts and so on.... Has anyone done this and has it made a difference ????

thanks

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aceace12 profile image
aceace12
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14 Replies
EdinBmore profile image
EdinBmore

Hey, Aceace12,

Not sure there's any research which supports eating "healthy" as a means of fighting (what does that even mean? delaying? slowing down process? Dunno) PC. However, what's the harm in doing so? If it makes you feel better and makes you feel like you're doing something to be in greater control against the PC, then, go for it. That being said, I'm always skeptical of claims that taking x pill or y supplement will do anything other than enrich the folks selling their products.

For myself, I stopped eating red meat and a lot of fats (sure do miss the ice cream!), cut back on booze (most days), continue to take vitamin and calcium supplements, and started exercising. I am doing this because I'm on ADT not because I have PC. I'm trying to prevent myself from turning into a "a tub of butter" as so many books say is caused by ADT. Doing this has made me feel better - in terms of mood and feeling like I'm doing something/anything - to counter the effects of the ADT. Will it help? Will it have no effect at all? Who knows? But, it's not harming me (I hope!) and, if I slip and drink too much one day, so be it.

Anyhoo, welcome to the chat. Good luck to you.

EdinBaltimore

aceace12 profile image
aceace12

Ok thanks I agree if it makes you feel good do .. but it does amaze me that there are reputable web sites that link foods to helping PC

darrelmw profile image
darrelmw

I went pretty much vegan shortly after diagnosis. In addition to effortlessly losing those 15 pounds I'd been fighting for years, I found myself eating a much more interesting diet. Yes, there are days when I'm tired or lazy and I throw a bean burrito in the microwave---but it's replacing the frozen pizza or fast food I might have done previously. But I'm thinking more about what I want to eat and need to eat and looking at food and cooking differently. I love to cook---but I'd found I'd lost some of that over the years with work and blizzards and flat tires and emails and everything else that takes over your life. Forcing myself to find interesting things to eat has made me more adventurous, as well as gotten me back to foods I'd enjoyed before and had forgotten.

There isn't any one thing that's going to be the silver bullet that fixes everything. The point is to make your body as healthy as possible (and diet is only part of it) so that your immune system can fight pathogens better, help medical/pharmaceutical treatments work better and recover more quickly and more thoroughly from the various medical treatments that take such a toll on our bodies.

aceace12 profile image
aceace12

k thanks

Darryl profile image
DarrylPartner

You mention "reputible websites" that link food to cancer. It's easy for website's to hook an audience by feeding them the kind of news they want to read. Search the nytimes.com for articles about diet and cancer. Search pubmed and scholar.google.com What you'll find is quality clinical evidence that a good diet is essential for heart and overall health care. So, for your overall health, the mediteranian diet is often recommended. And, if it helps with your cancer, then, all the better.

aceace12 profile image
aceace12

ok thanks , the only site i have been referencing too is Prostate.net ... very confusing of all webs site u would think they would have most accurate and up to date news on our disease. whether food , nutrition, physical activity, supplements.

I will review your recommendations. submed and scholar.

thanks,

123-Anoka profile image
123-Anoka

Hi AceAce,

You can count me among the believers in diet, nutrition and lifestyle as the causes and the cures for the cancer.

I was diagnosed in June, started AS and a vegan diet soon thereafter. My approach to healing is purely based on diet, fitness, faith and stress reduction. I am making great progress, I feel better now than I have in years, plus my PSA is down by 20%. My doctor is very happy with my progress as well.

If you are looking for a good cancer coaching method I highly recommend a google search for Chris Wark's Square One protocol. It's a 10 episode video series that coaches you though a comprehensive approach to healing cancer naturally. The first one hour episode is free and if you like it, you can then buy into the program.

Good luck!

Mike

P-M-A profile image
P-M-A

All good information, I have been vegan, macrobiotic, pescatarian going on 10 years and I am in the best health of my life and the best physical shape of my life at 78. I still work 10 hour days on "Active Surveillance Patients International" and love it. I am in the process of starting a support group for newly diagnosed and men on AS in the St Louis Area. Let food be thy medicine and your medicine thy food. Now add exercise, faith, positive attitude right supplements and you have a winning plan for life. I am on no drugs and have had no treatments. My PSA has been in the 20's for 3 years and last year went to 30.2 and this year dropped to 30, my PAP which is an old type PSA test and reliable went from 2.9 to 1.7 this year and I am very happy about that. Read the book How Not To Die, and How Not to Die Recipe book, I own and have given to others. Nutritionfacts.org is a great website nutritionfacts.org. Nutrition and Exercise work and that is being written more today that ever. When your body is healthy your immune system will help fight the cancer. We are all on a cancer journey and you determine your own quality of life and I plan on die healthy. If you research and prove what is good or bad you can do the same.

123-Anoka profile image
123-Anoka

P-M-A, that's an awesome perspective. Bottom line is that with AS we need every advantage that we can get and by feeding our bodies the medicine needed to heal is without question the best approach.

You cannot be passive with AS.

Also, How Not To Die is a fantastic read! Check out the book Chris Beat Cancer too.

123-Anoka profile image
123-Anoka in reply to 123-Anoka

By "feeding our bodies the medicine" I mean food and nutrition. The body created cancer and it's totally capable of removing / neutralizing it. You just need to give it what it needs to do it's job.

NashTim profile image
NashTim

hey bud, welcome to the club, not sure if this matters but i don’t drink any sodas, fast food, red meats and try not to eat anything fried, living in the south that’s pretty hard, not because of the cancer, i just don’t eat that stuff....been on AS for about 5 years now with Gleason 6....just wanted to say hey.....

aceace12 profile image
aceace12

k thanks im in south also .. yea it is hard to do,but im up for it

ecosailor profile image
ecosailor

I got diagnosed with PSA 14, 4 weeks later 15.3. Then I went onto a full on vegan diet and a range of supplements. 6 weeks after starting the diet my PSA is down to 10.6

gardenerd profile image
gardenerd

Hi, I have had prostate ca for over 4 years now on active surveillance, Gleason 3+4=7, but tiny amounts on biopsy. Plant-based since diagnosis (meat lover for 68 years before that), always some exercise. PSA has stayed at around 5, which I think is from BPH not cancer. I believe that it is working. I believe that Dr. Greger's philosophy is useful, partly by keeping growth pathways like mTOR and IGF1 depressed (google if not familiar.) Also perhaps the change in microbiome is beneficial from plant-based diet. It certainly changes it in the gut...wonder whether it does in the prostate! I don't like the "war on cancer cells" concept as they are OUR cells, but rather make the soil infertile so they can't flourish. We can easily live with a few inactive cnacer cells. Our cells and their epigenome (how our DNA is expressed) are highly influenced by their environment, and we have power over that. I respect Chris Wark, but haven't been able to be as extreme as he recommends.

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