Screening for Prostate Cancer Not Recommended for Elderly Men

NEW YORK - Doctors should stop routine prostate cancer screening of men over age 75 because there is more evidence of harm than benefit, a federal task force advised on a hotly debated topic.

The U.S. Preventive Services, which made the recommendation Monday, reported finding evidence that the benefits of treatment based on routine screening of this age group “are small to none.” However, treatment often causes “moderate-to-substantial harms,” including erectile dysfunction and bladder control and bowel problems, the task force said.

The new guidance is the first update by the task force on prostate cancer screening since 2002. Its last report concluded there was insufficient evidence to recommend prostate screening for men of all ages.

In recent years, there has been a growing debate about the value of the somewhat imprecise PSA blood test to detect cancer, as well as the value of treating most prostate cancers. A positive result from the test must be confirmed by a biopsy. And even then, there is no foolproof method of identifying aggressive tumors from slow-growing ones. A number of experts contend patients are being over treated.

“The issue of screening for is frankly an area of medicine that remains somewhat unsettled,” said Dr. Durado Brooks, a prostate cancer specialist for the American Cancer Society. “While it’s clear there is benefit to a significant number of men, it’s equally clear that many men end up being diagnosed and treated for cancers that would likely not have caused them any significant harm.”

Most major U.S. medical groups recommend doctors discuss the potential benefits and known harms of prostate screening with their patients and make individual decisions. And most agree such testing shouldn’t occur before age 50.

The federal task force, which sets the nation’s primary care standards, reviewed past research in reaching its conclusion and “could not find adequate proof that early detection leads to fewer men dying of the disease,” task force chairman Dr. Ned Calonge of Denver said in a statement.

The cancer society’s advice for screening differs from the task force’s because it doesn’t set a fixed age to stop screening, Brooks said. It suggests that men shouldn’t be offered screening if they aren’t expected to live another 10 years.

“That’s because every 75-year-old is not created equal,” said Brooks.

While some have health problems and aren’t likely to live long, others are “very active, very vigorous and have minimal health issues, and many of those men are going to live into their late 80s or 90s,” Brooks said.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in American men — about 220,000 cases will be diagnosed this year. It is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in men. But most tumors grow so slowly they never threaten lives.

Earlier this year, a study found that older men who already had early-stage prostate cancer were not taking a big risk by not treating it right away. The vast majority were alive 10 years later without significantly worrying symptoms or had died of other causes.

Prostate cancer treatments are tough, especially on older men. Some doctors instead recommend “watchful waiting” to monitor signs of the disease and treat only if they worsen, but smaller studies give conflicting views of the safety of that approach.

The new guidelines from the Preventive Services were published in this month’s Annals of Internal Medicine.

http://www.annals.org/content/vol149/issue3/

IV Drips - Intravenous Therapy

This is not the same as Intrathecal drug delivery. IV drips can be anything from drugs to vitamins or minerals. The reason this is valid and helpful treatment modality is the medication or vitamins/minerals go directly into the veins bypassing the stomach.

Most people do not realize that oral vitamin consumption may only deliver as little as 5 to 15% of the vitamin to your system. People who are ill generally absorb even less! You’re intestinal tract is your “Second Brain” full of nerves and needs the care an attention the rest of your spine receive. Opportunistic pathogens in one area of the body may prevent another area of the body from receiving the healing attention it needs. The body is a whole!

This is a complex topic whose use extends from Mainstream to Alternative Therapies. The whole point is to bypass the digestive tract and deliver Nutrition/Drugs directly to the bloodstream.

Visit this link to learn more about Intravenous Therapy

14 Simple Things You can do to Reduce Your Risk of Breast Cancer

Breast Cancer Prevention Tips

Written by… Dr. John Mericle MD

1. Increase your consumption of fresh, organic fruits and vegetables.
2. Avoid using any pesticides or chemical sprays in your home. Avoid new carpet*
3. Avoid drinking tap water.
4. Decrease alcohol consumption.
5. Start an exercise program.
6. Increase consumption of organic whole grains and fiber.
7. Decrease meat, poultry and fish consumption.
8. Stop smoking.
9. Increase consumption of phytoestrogens from organic sources.
10. Decrease or stop consumption of processed foods.
11. Avoid trans-fatty acids found in margarine and some vegetable shortenings.
12. Take two capsules of organic flaxseed oil daily or just add a teaspoon of flaxseed oil to your daily organic salad.
13. If you are pregnant definitely breast feed.
14. Gets lots of sunshine as breast cancer is less prevalent in areas where there is ample sunlight unobscured by fog or smog.

* “Green” Carpeting is available that is tested to be free of Dangerous “Out Gassing” Chemicals.

Discussion: Dr. Mericle’s Thoughts

As a retired diagnostic radiologist who read way too many mammograms I am excited because I finally have a path to try to connect to so many women who are having and have had mammograms. I was always chagrined since we would really torture and radiate many breasts but it was as if these breasts were not connected to a human type person. It bothered me that so many mammography programs make no effort at all to educate their clientèle about what “they can do” to reduce their risks of breast cancer. I would suggest to the directors of these programs that we try to educate the patients and their response was 100% predictable. They would always first deny the relationship between diet and breast cancer and then add that their patients would not listen anyway.

Increasing your consumption of fresh organic fruits and vegetables has been shown to reduce the risk for breast cancer.

“There is strong evidence from epidemiologic studies that eating more fruits and vegetables decreases a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer. This conclusion is strengthened by the similar results obtained from animal studies and experiments using isolated breast cells.” Quoted from the Cornell University Program on Breast Cancer and Environmental Risk Factors. They go on to recommend uncooked fruits and vegetables. The reason for this is the heating damages some of the beneficial nutrients in the fruits and vegetables. Carrots, squash, sweet potatoes, broccoli and spinach top the list for being most protective. The Cornell study however does not stress the fact that these need to be “organic.” Non-organic commercial fruits and vegetables besides being largely nutritionally bereft are also heavily sprayed with a wide variety of toxins.

The relationship between pesticides and other toxic chemicals such as benzene and toluene and cancer has long been established. There are better ways to rid your house of undesired guests than using chemical sprays. It sounds difficult but even if you can’t get rid of all your pests you will live a longer and healthier life if you refrain from spraying. New carpet is another source of extremely toxic chemicals that “off gas” for at least a year or so after it is installed. Try to avoid new carpet especially in children’s rooms.

Avoid tap water unless you live either in Lake Tahoe or Ithaca, New York. The tap water here in Tucson is CAP water that travels in an open trough from the Colorado River. It is loaded with fungicides / herbicides not to mention all the chlorine added once it gets here. While bottled or filtered water may not be perfect,you will considerably reduce your risk for any cancer by avoiding most tap water.

There is a little debate about the link between alcohol consumption and breast cancer. However, the consumption of any simple sugars such as occur in most alcoholic beverages is associated with decreased T-cell mobility and thus some immune compromise. I still have an occasional beer but that is the only sugar I ingest. The general consensus however, is that it is best to reduce alcoholic beverage consumption as much as possible.

Exercise has been proven in multiple studies to enhance the immune system. In order to be beneficial I would recommend thirty minutes at least three times a week. This should be exercise that elevates the heart rate and keeps it there for the thirty minutes. Running is good if you are not biomechanically impaired. Cycling and swimming are also good alternative and or exercise machines.

Increased consumption of organic grains and fiber has been shown to reduce the risk of breast cancer.

Decrease your meat, fish, poultry and dairy consumption. Animal protein has been linked to all the big three killers in this country as well as osteoporosis. For more on this see the “China Study” by T. Colin Campbell and “Diet for a New America” by John Robbins. Stop smoking is really a “no brainer” here. Smoking is associated with a variety of cancers and there is now strong evidence that cancer of the breast is one of them.

Prostate Cancer

Prostate Cancer Testing

The prostate specific antigen test may not be the best solution to accurately diagnosing prostate cancers. It should be considered but not relied on exclusively

Why haven’t you been told about the AMAS Test for ProstateCancer?

With all the media talk about prostate surgery vs. taking drugs for prostate problems, you would think those are your only two options.

If information like this can save one more person from making a mistake with their prostate health, it will be worth taking the time to educate yourself on this important subject. Are you aware that you can avoid surgery and drugs with proper testing in the first place?

Let’s take a look at the facts when it comes to testing for prostate problems and look beyond the media headlines. Better testing leads to more accurate information and a better diagnosis about the health of your prostate. And one of the keys is early detection with the RIGHT tests.

The most commonly MIS-used test is the PSA or Prostate Specific Antigen test.

Prostate-specific antigen - is a protein which is naturally produced by the prostate gland. Prostate tumors typically cause over-production of PSA, so when a blood test reveals an elevated level of the protein, it’s a red flag that warns of possible problems.

Both cancer and benign prostatic hyperplasia or BPH which is a swelling of the prostate, can increase PSA levels.

What doctors usually do next is to recommend a biopsy. This is the next step toward trouble. Prostate biopsies are painful procedures that can result in bleeding and infection which only worsens your problem – if you even have one. And recent evidence shows that most of these biopsies are completely unnecessary.

In a 2003 study from the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, researchers set out to determine if fluctuations in PSA levels would reveal a single PSA test result to be unreliable on its own.

The conclusions of this 4 year study revealed that an isolated PSA screening with an elevated level should be followed with an additional screening several weeks later before proceeding with further testing or a biopsy.

Because the problem with a single PSA test is that PSA levels normally fluctuate and having just one test leads to over diagnosis of prostate problems.

Here is where the AMAS test is significantly better.

A more sensible and dependable way to screen for prostate cancer is a blood test called the anti-malignin antibody screen (AMAS). Anti-malignan antibody levels become elevated when any cancer cells are present in the body. Most importantly, these levels rise early in the development of cancer cells, which means that cancer can sometimes be detected several months before other clinical tests might find it.

With an accuracy rate of more than 95 percent, the AMAS test is much more reliable than the PSA test. And the best way to detect prostate problems is a SERIES of PSA tests (as the Sloan- Kettering Trial concluded), WITH the AMAS test.

This powerful combination of tests will allow you to avoid false alarms which lead to painful biopsies, drugs and unnecessary painful surgery.

The more you learn about these tests, the more you will feel compelled to implement them. You can find out more about the AMAS test at AMAS Test Information.

Take control of your own health by educating yourself about tests, treatments and nutrition so that you can become more healthy and stay healthier in the long run.

Editors Note: I have not had this (AMAS) test nor had I heard about it before reading this article. I have had the prostate specific antigen test. My results were “normal”. If they come back outside the normal parameters you are typically referred to a Gastroenterologist for an examination.

Cancer Resources: Cancer Treatment and Cancer Research

Supposedly 33 to 50% of adults in the USA will develop some form of cancer in their lifetime! The statistics for all kinds of cancer related deaths are on the rise! Cancer Treatment is ongoing and unproven. Cancer Research continues at a rapid pace yet the ability to cure some cancers is dismal in comparison to others. If you are not concerned; you should be, cancer is an insidious horrible way to die. While no one knows the exact cause of cancers research is helping to find treatments to extend both quantity and quality of life. The most effective cancer treatment is prevention!

Cancer Research - Introduction to how to use this page?

Thankfully I personally at this time do not have cancer. However many family members have suffered from Breast Cancer and even Bone Cancer. I am doing everything I can nutritionally and lifestyle wise to prevent the onset of any form of this insidious disease. You will hear time and again there is no cure for cancer! I’m not sure that is true. I believe many cancers can be cured and not with Chemotherapy (Although I do believe that Chemo has it’s place - and I’d bet the Cyclist Lance Armstrong would agree), but with Nutrition and early detection accompanied by appropriate dietary and lifestyle changes. You may think this is all bullshit - then this information won’t help you until you open your mind.

I am listing many articles that may benefit you depending on the type of cancer you have or are researching. I did not write these articles, I can not say that they will or will not help you. Occasionally I will publish articles I personally do not agree with 100% because I feel there is enough beneficial information contained within to merit inclusion. Keep in mind I AM NOT A DOCTOR nor do I profess to be such, I publish my research for your benefit. What you do with this research is entirely up to you.

These articles may be written by Doctors, Clinics, or individuals who are promoting their own materials (books, diets, clinics, etc.) or by individuals who have suffered from the disease and simply want to share their experiences. I have broken the articles into Topics by type of Cancer.

Suggested Helpful Cancer Research Reading:

Natural Cancer Treatments- Books covers 350 drug free alternative cancer treatments along with the research backing up each claim. In the Authors own words: Do not delay in seeking advice from a qualified licensed medical professional about treatment for your cancer. The information presented here is no way meant to discourage you from undertaking conventional treatments for your cancer, but hopefully will support you and your doctor to undertake ’smarter’, more effective approaches to beat your cancer.

Cancer and Health: It’s all about the Cell - This one is also worth a look.

Richardson Cancer Diet - Dr. Janet Starr Hull, PhD., CN

You should find your answers from mainstream medicine alone. I have a close friend whose mother was diagnosed with Cancer that had spread throughout her body. She was told without chemotherapy she had about 3 months to live. She chose to NOT undergo Chemo and instead found a ND and completely changed her diet. I am happy to report that nearly 4 years later she is still with us, however I am sad to report she is not completely cancer free. I have a neighbor who chose Chemo and her cancer has been in remission for 6 years now. So don’t discount either approach, keep an open mind and try and counsel with family, friends, doctors, and spiritual advisors and chose the method you think is best for you. This is a perfect example of Health Synergy. Choose the treatment option you believe will benefit you the most - don’t let others tell you what to do. It’s your life.

I’ve decided this page was simply too large so I’m breaking out additional information into separate posts.