Hi all, I have a question about my husband's PSA. He just had his yearly lab work done, and his PSA came 3.7. His doctor told him that is too high and to do a free PSA test and see him in a week. He feels a very slight discomfort, maybe a small infection? The urinalysis came negative.
There are so many supplements out there for prostate health, so I am confused as to what to buy for him, he is 62. I would greatly appreciate some advice.
Josy, the most popular natural remedies for prostate enlargement (in no particular order of effectiveness) are Vitamins B6, D, E, Glycine, Kava-Kava, L-Glutamic Acid, L-Lysine, Parsley, Pumpkin Seed, Pygeum Africanum, Saw Palmetto, Selenium, Stinging Nettle and Zinc. If cancer is involved, then you might consider adding Cat's Claw. AHCC and Ellagic Acid. As for the PSA reading, a single reading is fairly meaningless. If there is an upward trend over a period of months or years, then there might be cause for concern. The PSA test itself is only about 60% accurate in the first place. Blood flow to and within the prostate is fairly minimal, so any cancer in the prostate tends to develop very slowly. The flip side of that is the minimal blood flow carries fewer immune cells to the area.
If it's any consolation, prostate cancer is a disease that men die WITH, not FROM. Very rarely does prostate cancer metastasize (spread to other organs and tissues) and when you hear of a man "dying from prostate cancer" in reality it means he died from the effects of the treatment, not from the cancer.
Keep an eye on it (that's called "watchful waiting") and don't be rushed into a treatment. When and if several PSA readings in a row are 10.0 or higher, then you might have cause for concern.
The worthless test are the PSA's days numbered?
I've been saying for years that the Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) test for prostate cancer was worthless. Readings often vary from one test to the next in individual men, yet a single "elevated" reading is enough to convince many men to needlessly undergo invasive prostate surgery that renders them incontinent, impotent, or both.
Beyond this, it's a dirty little secret of modern medicine that the PSA is not only ambiguous, it's downright inaccurate. According to an Associated Press article from earlier this year, the majority of prostate biopsies (which spread cancer, by the way) among men with elevated PSA levels did NOT reveal cancer - and many with "normal" PSA scores actually have the deadly disease.
But the medical mainstream continues to administer the test anyway, even though it often results in more harm than good. Perhaps not for much longer, though...
Evidence is surfacing - and is being seriously discussed in mainstream medical circles - that points a harsh finger at traditional methods of diagnosis, including the PSA test. Among these findings are that men who have been screened for prostate cancer were no more likely to live than those who had not.
According to an article in the Archives of Internal Medicine, researchers studied 1002 veterans, 501 who had died of prostate cancer and an identical number of men the same ages and of similar condition who had lived with the disease. They found that traditional forms of prostate cancer screening (like the PSA) had NO BEARING on the likelihood of death from the disease, based on data gathered from 1991 to 1999.
In other words, the screening methods, regardless of their result, don't increase your chances of survival - but they do increase your chances of living the remainder of your days incontinent or impotent should you choose the surgery many mainstream urologists want to force upon you...
Of course, critics of the study say it isn't big enough.
Well, their wagon will get fixed come 2009, when the largest-ever study of the PSA's effectiveness will be concluded in the U.S. and Europe. At that time, there will be data from more than 300,000 men - and I'm betting it'll prove the worthlessness of that test once and for all.
Until then, keep your prostate where it is - and follow up an elevated PSA with the infinitely more accurate AMAS test for cancer. Your doctor will know what this is, and if he doesn't, find one who does.
you might want to consider a product a www.youngagain.com for prostate health. And there are articles on this site about green tea for prostate health also. Also go to the Green Tea Prevents Cancer thread further down in the general discussions.
And doesn't cucurmin help with inflamation in this area also?
by Heather Granato
WASHINGTON�Researchers from Georgetown University Medical Center report homeopathic preparations of saw palmetto may reduce prostate cancer growth (Integ Cancer Ther, 5, 4:362-72, 2006) (DOI:10.1177/1534735406295350). In the study, researchers assessed the antiproliferative effects of a homeopathic preparation of Sabal serrulata (saw palmetto) in vivo, on nude mouse xenografts and in vitro on PC-3 and DU-145 human prostate cancer cells.
Treatment with Sabal serrulata in vitro resulted in a 33-percent decrease of PC-3 cell proliferation at 72 hours and a 23-percent reduction of DU-145 cell proliferation at 24 hours; researchers attribute the difference in reduction to the specific doubling time of each cell line. In vivo, prostate tumor xenograft size was significantly reduced in mice treated with Sabal serrulata compared to untreated controls (P=.012). The researchers suggest a homeopathic preparation of Sabal serrulata may have efficacy in prostate health.
User Comments !
Saw Palmetto is a long-time homeopathic remedy for enlarged prostate and to some degree, prostatitis. What is not clear here is how much Saw Palmetto is necessary to project an effect in the human body. Does anyone know?
{AUTHOR} | December 08 2006 11:42:26
Not much, depends on the protocol. This preparation has been used successfully. No self-promotion is allowed though.
Josy, according to the Lab Corp range. 4.0 is still considered normal. As stated above only if the number has been increasing over time does one need to be concerned.
If he were my husband I'd make sure he takes a Saw Palmetto complex daily, I give my hubby the Life Extension one; have him take a lycopene supplemnt daily or eat lots of tomato stuff, and give him an anti-inflammatory for his discomfort. I like the curcurmin combination from Dr. Donsbach called RE-LEV-IT. The Dr recommends one each 2x daily for good health. I use it for chronic pain. My hubby's numbers are fine and he never has discomfort. www.letstalkhealth.com
Make sure he is getting at least 200 mcg of selenium daily and that his daily multiple has a good amount of zinc. Have his vitamin D level checked. The test is the 25(OH)D. Optimal range is 45-50 ng/ml or 115-128 nmol/l for vitamin D.
I'd wait six months and have him get another PSA from the same lab. If the number is greater I'd have an ultrasound done just to make sure everything is OK. A lot of things can affect the PSA test results, so don't worry.
Prostate infections are extremely difficult to diagnose and treat because many doctors do not order the right tests and even when they make the correct diagnosis, they often fail to treat the condition long enough or they fail to treat infected partners.
SYMPTOMS: Chronic prostatitis is characterized by a feeling of having to urinate all the time, discomfort during urination, terrible discomfort when the bladder is full and having to get up many time each night to urinate. Benign prostatic hypertrophy or large prostate causes difficulty starting stream and dribbling. Prostate cancer rarely causes burning on urination or urgency.
TESTS: Total and free PSA blood test to screen for cancer, check your prostate and sometimes order a sonogram of the prostate. If I am suspicious of a prostate cancer, I will refer you to a urologist for further evaluation. Your doctor can order a urinalysis and urine culture. If abnormal, your doctor will treat a urinary tract infection, but it is usually normal. Then, your doctor may do a special swab for chlamydia and gonorrhea and request a semen culture. No test is available for practicing physicians to diagnose mycoplasma or ureaplasma and the test for chlamydia is not dependable. The only dependable test for prostate infection is for your doctor to massage your prostate to collect secretions and immediately check your secretions for white blood cells. If a) he sees more than 5 white blood cells in your secretions under the microscope, or b) the white blood cells are clumped together; or c) your urine has a positive leukocyte esterase or nitrite test and your urine culture and semen do not grow a germ, the odds are overwhelming that you are infected with chlamydia, mycoplasma or ureaplasma or something else that cannot be diagnosed.
Failure to see white blood cells in your secretions does not rule out a prostate infection. Most urologists do not order semen cultures because they claim that they are always contaminated with germs from the skin. Recent studies from Cornell and Mexico City show that they are wrong (2,3). Most men collect semen cultures from the vagina or mouth which always is contaminated. If the patient is asked to shower and clean himself with soap and water, then collect the specimen with his hands and then let it squirt into the culture jar without touching it, the culture is very dependable (2).
Prostate infections are extraordinarily difficult to cure because antibiotics do not accumulate in high concentrations in the prostate. So most men have to take appropriate antibiotics for many months and their partners have to take the same antibiotics for a much shorter duration. I often prescribe a quinolone antibiotic called Tequin for several months, or a combination of Tequin and doxycycline. If you do not feel much better by six weeks, you may need to ejaculate frequently or find a kind urologist who will agree to massage your prostate at least once a week while you take the antibiotics. UCLA researchers report that 40 percent were cured, 20 percent were initially cured and then had a recurrence perhaps because the partner was not treated, 21 percent were improved and only 21 percent had no improvement. All the men who had bacteria in their semen cultures produced sterile specimens after treatment (1). However, treatment of prostatitis with long-term antibiotics is controversial and not accepted by many doctors; discuss this with your doctor.
1) DA Shoskes, SI Zeitlin. Use of prostatic massage in combination with antibiotics in the treatment of chronic prostatitis. Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases, 1999, Vol 2, Iss 3, pp 159-162.
2) FY Kim, , Goldstein. Antibacterial skin preparation decreases the incidence of false-positive semen culture results. Journal of Urology 161: 3 (MAR 1999):819-821.
3) CA VillanuevaDiaz, GA FloresReyes, M BeltranZuniga, M Echavarria Sanchez, JF. International Journal of Fertility and Women's Medicine, 1999, Vol 44, Iss 4, pp 198-203. MEXICO.
4) JJ Stevermer, SK Easley. Treatment of prostatitis. American Family Physician, 2000, Vol 61, Iss 10, pp 3015-3022
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