If you or someone you love has been diagnosed with non-metastatic prostate cancer, a new medical research study published in the journal Cancer Research (www.medscape.com/viewarticle/744000 ) shows that brisk walking for at least 3 hours per week may reduce the chances of dying from the dreaded disease by a whopping 61%.  According to the researchers, brisk walking may reduce the risk for prostate cancer progression by “reducing insulin resistance, decreasing bioavailable IGFI (insulin-like growth factor I), and increasing adiponectin”.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in American men (excluding skin cancers).  For reasons not fully understood, African-American men have the highest frequency of prostate cancer in the world and the highest death rate from the disease.  However, in other parts of the world, notably Asia, Africa, and Latin America, prostate cancer is rare.  Once again, the Standard American Diet (SAD) and lifestyle is most likely to blame.

To Screen or Not to Screen?

Current recommendations promote informed decision making rather than universal screening.  However, the majority of physicians don’t follow these guidelines and still recommend prostate cancer screening to their patients, with few decision making tools used.  But universal screening is a good thing, right?  Not necessarily.  New doubts have been cast on the value of prostate cancer screenings, and a new study from Sweden (www.medscape.com/viewarticle/740077 ) shows that screening did not significantly reduce prostate cancer deaths over two decades of follow up, and in fact, this and other studies have shown that routine prostate screening leads to the over detection and over treatment of prostate cancer.  PSA (prostate specific antigen) screening is still very commonly done today by many doctors even though it is very controversial and the American Cancer Society stopped recommending routine PSA screening more than a decade ago.

To Treat or Not to Treat?

The false positives caused by PSA and other tests result in unnecessary surgery and radiation which can result in erectile dysfunction and bladder and bowel incontinence.  Further, many doctors do not adequately discuss the possibility of these side effects of treatment with their patients.  A recent study showed that only 35% of physicians discussed the side effects of prostate cancer treatment with their patients (www.medscape.com/viewarticle/742889 ).

So if you have been diagnosed with prostate cancer, immediately get multiple medical opinions on whether or not treatment is necessary and ask about the side effects of treatment.  Next, clean up your diet- no more processed meat or red meat, and dramatically increase the amount of fruits and vegetables (organic preferred). For more on diet and cancer, go to www.cancerproject.org .Then go to your local animal shelter and rescue a dog and walk him or her briskly for at least three hours per week.  You may be saving your life as well as the life of an animal in need!