Download P 6 Steps to Prevent Prostate Cancer Dr. David Brownstein’s

Dr. David Brownstein’s
P
6 Steps to Prevent
Prostate Cancer
rostate cancer is the second leading cause of
cancer death in men (behind lung cancer),
with 238,590 new cases and nearly 30,000
deaths each year,1, 2 according to the National
Cancer Institute.
That’s why it’s imperative to do everything you
can to prevent this disease. The good news is that
there are six simple, natural steps that can help
you stave off prostate cancer without resorting to
expensive drugs or therapies:
1.Eating a healthy diet
2.Maintaining optimal hydration
3.Ensuring adequate iodine intake
4.Balancing your hormonal system
5.Not relying on PSA tests
6.Avoiding harmful prostate drugs
Maintaining Prostate Health
The prostate gland is part of the male
reproductive system. Located just in front of the
rectum, the gland surrounds the urethra and
produces seminal fluid.
But cancer isn’t the only concern when it
comes to prostate health. Two common conditions
can cause pain and swelling of the gland: benign
prostatic hypertrophy (BPH), and prostatitis. A
swollen prostate, which can be detected through a
rectal exam, may seriously slow or even block the
flow of urine.
BPH. More than 70 percent of men over
the age of 70 suffer from BPH.3 And while it’s
unclear if BPH is a precursor to prostate cancer,
it can nonetheless make a man’s life miserable. In
Special Report
severe cases of BPH, men cannot fully empty their
bladders. They have frequent urges to urinate and
often can’t sleep through the night because they feel
the need to get up and go.
Prostatitis. At least half of all men will
experience prostatitis, which occurs when the
prostate gland becomes inflamed, leading to painful,
difficult urination and lower abdominal pain. It
can also cause discomfort in the groin, testicles,
penis, rectum, and lower back. About 15 percent
of cases are caused by an infection, which is often
accompanied by fever, chills, nausea, and vomiting.
Prostatitis can also stem from a bladder infection,
dehydration, or trauma to the prostate gland from
such activities as horseback or bicycle riding.
Antibiotics — including tetracyclines and
quinolones — are very effective treatments. But
quinolones (notably Cipro and Levaquin) should
only be used as a last resort as they can cause serious
In This Issue . . .
Eat a Healthy Diet....................................................2
Ensure Proper Hydration........................................3
Get Adequate Iodine...............................................3
Balance the Hormonal System................................5
In the News: Problems With PSA Testing..............6
Take the Right Supplements...................................7
Avoid Harmful Prostate Drugs...............................7
Ask Dr. B...................................................................8
adverse side effects. Antibiotic therapy usually does
not result in a complete cure of prostatitis. Over
many years, men can suffer with recurrent episodes.
You can see how a swollen or inflamed prostate
gland can cause big problems in men. Inflammation
may also be a precursor to cancer.
Consequently, men who want to age gracefully
and stay healthy need to be sure that their prostate
glands do not become too enlarged or inflamed.
The following six steps can help you protect your
prostate and also help you heal if you are having
problems with BPH, prostatitis, or even cancer.
1. Eat a Healthy Diet
Since my first book 15 years ago — The Miracle
of Natural Hormones — I have been writing
constantly about the importance of eating a
healthy diet.
Eating a healthy diet should be the first step you
take to improve your health, no matter who you are
or what health conditions you may have. But talking
with patients about their diets is one of the most
frustrating things I do.
Americans generally do not eat healthy. The
processed foods many of us eat are loaded with
refined sugar, salt, oils, flour, and salt. They lack basic
vitamins, minerals, and enzymes that all are essential
to our bodies.
Remember, eating “devitalized” processed food
leads to a devitalized body. We cannot live without
essential nutrients; we must get them from our diet.
A lack of basic nutrients sets the stage for health
problems. I have seen many men who complain of
prostate problems — including BPH and prostatitis
— who are able to improve their condition by
simply cleaning up their diet.
Why would that occur? Because eating a diet full
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Page 2
of processed food promotes inflammation.
Inflammation can occur at weak points in the
body — especially at sites of injury or areas suffering
from infection. In the case of the prostate, if there is
trauma to the area, eating a pro-inflammatory diet
will increase your chances of developing prostatitis,
BPH, or even cancer.
On the other hand, eating a diet free of
processed food is anti-inflammatory for the body.
A healthy diet can supply the body with the
essential nutrients needed to promote healing and
optimize the immune system.
It does not take a medical license to understand
that eating good food will help any area of the
body heal and optimally function — the prostate
included.
One very common pro-inflammatory food is
dairy products.
My partners and I have been testing patients for
dairy allergies for more than 15 years. After testing
thousands of patients, we have found dairy allergies
in more than 80 percent of our patients. There is
no question that dairy from pasteurized products is
pro-inflammatory. Studies have suggested dairy may
also increase the risk of prostate cancer.
Compared to men with the lowest intake of
dairy, men with the highest dairy intake had an 11
percent higher risk of developing prostate cancer,
according to a recent meta-analysis (a larger review
of multiple studies).
Furthermore, men with the highest intake of
calcium had a 39 percent greater risk of developing
prostate cancer, according to a study published in
the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.4
Milk is designed to raise baby cows. Humans
do not need to ingest cow’s milk to be healthy —
regardless what the dairy industry claims.
Publisher Travis Davis
Doctor David Brownstein, M.D.
Contributing Editor Matthew Kalash
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Please note: All information presented in Dr. David Brownstein’s Natural Way to Health (including answers to reader
questions) is for informational purposes only, and is not
specifically applicable to any individual’s medical problem(s),
concerns, and/or needs. No content is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. All information presented in Dr. David Brownstein’s
Natural Way to Health should not be construed as medical
consultation or instruction. You should take no action solely
on the basis of this publication’s contents. Readers are advised to consult a health professional about any issue regarding their health and well-being. Any action you take on the
basis of the information provided is solely at your own risk
and expense. The opinions expressed in Dr. David Brownstein’s Natural Way to Health do not necessarily reflect
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Special Report
More information about dairy-free diets can be
found in my book, The Guide to a Dairy-Free Diet.
Another pro-inflammatory food for the prostate
gland is soy. I have seen many men improve their
prostate problems by eliminating soy from their diet
along with following other steps I have outlined in
my book, The Soy Deception.
2. Ensure Proper Hydration
Maintaining optimal hydration is important
for all parts of the body, including the prostate.
The body is 70 percent water and the brain is 80
percent water. If there was only one thing I could
recommend you do to improve your health, I would
say it is to drink adequate amounts of water.
Unfortunately, chronic dehydration is common,
setting the stage for many chronic health problems
including heart disease, arthritis, fatigue, and
prostate problems.
One of the best anti-inflammatory substances
known to man is water. Water helps flush out
injured areas and allows the body to send healing
cells to injured tissue. How is the prostate gland to
heal and detoxify from inflammation or cancer if it
is dehydrated? It can’t.
How much water should you drink? Take your
weight in pounds, divide by two and the resulting
number is the amount of water you should drink
in ounces per day. Keep in mind that other liquid
beverages don’t count. In fact, coffee, soda, and
processed juices contain substances such as caffeine
and sugar that actually add to dehydration.
I have seen many men who suffer from
prostatitis improve merely by drinking more water.
Jerry, a 61-year-old executive at an automobile parts
supplier, developed prostatitis six years ago.
“It came on suddenly,” he told me. “I had rectal
pain that really hurt. My doctor did a rectal exam
and told me my prostate gland was inflamed. He put
me on Cipro, which helped immediately.
“For a few weeks, the pain was totally gone, then
it came back. I would say that the last six years have
been awful. I am always feeling something down
there and I have days of severe pain.”
Jerry’s prostate was mildly inflamed. When I
took a dietary history, I found he was drinking a
lot of coffee — as much as a pot a day — and not
drinking water.
Special Report
He had many physical signs of dehydration
including dry mucosa, very dry skin, and poor skin
turgor. At the end of our first visit, I told Jerry to
drink two liters of water per day and see me again in
three weeks to go over the lab results.
When he returned for his follow-up visit, he
reported remarkable progress.
“I don’t know what you did, but my prostate
feels much better. All I did was drink more water,”
he told me. “I could feel the inflammation settling
down. I had more energy. I would say that drinking
water helped my prostate symptoms by 75 percent.”
Jerry’s story is not unique. Maintaining good
hydration is one of the basic things that can help
you achieve optimal health.
3. Get Adequate Iodine
Iodine is essential for prostate health.
Continued on page 5
David Brownstein, M.D., is a
board-certified family physician and
one of the foremost practitioners
of holistic medicine. Dr. Brownstein
has lectured internationally to
physicians and others about his
success with nutritional therapies
in his practice. His books include
Drugs That Don’t Work and Natural
Therapies That Do!; Iodine: Why You Need It, Why You
Can’t Live Without It; Salt Your Way To Health; The Miracle
of Natural Hormones; Overcoming Arthritis; Overcoming
Thyroid Disorders; The Guide to a Gluten-Free Diet; B12
For Health; The Guide to a Dairy-Free Diet; and The Soy
Deception. He is the medical director of the Center for
Holistic Medicine in West Bloomfield, Mich., where he lives
with his wife, Allison, and their teenage daughters, Hailey
and Jessica. For more information about Dr. Brownstein,
please go to www.drbrownstein.com.
Important
As a subscriber to Dr. David Brownstein’s Natural Way to
Health you may have opted to get this newsletter with our
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Page 3
Engineer Beats Andropause with Natural Hormones
In each issue, I will share with you the story of one of
my patients and how sometimes simple alternative
approaches can solve major health problems. Names
and some details have been changed for privacy’s sake,
but the problems and their resolutions are real.
— Dr. David Brownstein
Michael was a 45-year-old automotive engineer
who had a myriad of complaints including difficulty
sleeping, irritability, anxiety, and brain fog, which he’d
started noticing six months before seeing me.
“I used to feel good. Now I am starting to feel old.
I feel like I am losing muscle mass. At first I thought
this was just normal aging, but it keeps getting worse.
And I am not that old,” he said.
Michael went to his family doctor, who ran basic
tests and said that everything was fine. Michael wanted
to hit him — everything was not fine. I had been
seeing Michael’s wife for similar complaints, and
treated her with a combination of bioidentical, natural
hormones, as well as vitamins and minerals. After
a few months of this therapy, she felt much better.
When I asked Michael what prompted him to make
the appointment with me, he pointed to his wife. “She
feels so much better taking the stuff you prescribed. I
want some of that,” he said.
Usually, the first person in a family that I see is the
woman, because women tend to take more notice of
hormonal fluctuations. My typical female patient is
around 50 years old, and her complaints are centered
around fatigue, hot flashes, mood swings, irritability,
mental decline, and low libido.
Frequently, after I’ve helped get a woman’s
hormonal system in balance, her husband will come
in complaining that he can’t keep up with his wife.
This was the case with Michael. “She is definitely
feeling better than I am,” he said.
‘This Stuff Really Works’
Testosterone and DHEA are anabolic, adrenal, and
testicular hormones. They are produced in both men
and women, but men produce significantly more
anabolic hormones than women. Men feel the agerelated decline of anabolic hormones around age 50.
This is referred to as andropause or male menopause.
Andropause in men is similar to menopause in
women. Men can suffer hot flashes, fatigue, mood
swings, irritability, decrease in muscle tone and mass,
as well as declining mental function. But usually,
Page 4
the first complaint I hear from men suffering with
andropause is a lower libido.
Michael’s lab tests showed low levels of testosterone
(total testosterone, 228 ng/dl; normal, 400-900 ng/dL),
DHEA (48 mcg/dL; normal, 150-250 mcg/dL), and
pregnenolone (10 ng/dL; normal, 100-200 ng/dL).
DHEA is a steroid hormone produced from
the adrenal glands; it helps build muscle, burn fat,
and can increase libido. DHEA is a crucial part of
balancing the hormonal system. I have found DHEA
supplementation very helpful for men, beginning in
their 40s. Average doses range from 5 to 10 mg/day.
Pregnenolone levels are the highest in the brain.
Patients who complain of brain fog or mental decline
are likely deficient. Pregnenolone can be taken
orally; doses for men range from 25 to 50 mg/day. For
men, lowered testosterone levels signify the decline
of hormone production in the testes, similar to a
woman’s decline in estrogen production from the
ovaries. Using natural, bioidentical testosterone can
reverse a man’s declining libido and muscle loss.
Testosterone has been used in medicine for more
than 100 years. However, conventional medicine
has shunned its use due to the irrational idea that
testosterone caused or worsened prostate cancer.
Though there was no science backing this claim,
it became the “truth.” A great deal of research has
debunked this myth, and personally I have seen no
correlation at all between testosterone and prostate
cancer. In fact, the men who develop prostate cancer
often have the lowest testosterone levels.
Testosterone can be administered orally,
transdermally, or by injection. Oral testosterone
should be the last resort, as this method allows a
“first-pass” effect to occur in the liver. That means that
testosterone taken orally will be deactivated when it
passes through the liver. This can be avoided by taking
testosterone either transdermally or by injection. At
my practice, we have testosterone specially formulated
by a compounding pharmacist. This injectable form is
made with natural testosterone in olive oil at 200 mg/
cc. The usual dose for men is 0.2 cc, once or twice per
week, depending on the patient’s size and testosterone
levels.
Michael was prescribed one testosterone injection a
week. At a three-month follow-up, all of his symptoms
were better. “I feel like I got back 15 years. My wife was
right, this stuff really works,” he exclaimed. o
drbrownstein.newsmax.com
Special Report
Continued from page 3
Unfortunately, iodine levels have fallen more
than 50 percent in the U.S. over the last 30 years,
according to federal health researchers. During that
time, we have seen a sharp increase in the number of
men diagnosed with prostate problems.
How does iodine deficiency cause prostate
problems? Iodine is required by all the endocrine
glands of the body, including the breast, ovaries,
uterus, thyroid, and prostate.
In fact, iodine concentrates in all glandular
tissue. It is needed to maintain the normal structure
of glandular tissue.
When there is enough iodine, the glandular
tissue appears normal. In early cases of iodine
deficiency, the glands start to develop cysts. If
iodine deficiency continues, the cysts become
nodular. Eventually the cells in the glands become
hyperplastic, which is a precancerous condition.
The final stage of iodine deficiency is cancer.
All of the above progressions of iodine deficiency
can be halted, and sometimes reversed, with
iodine.
I have seen iodine get rid of cysts and nodules
in glandular tissues — the prostate included. The
most dramatic effects from iodine occur in the
thyroid and the breasts. Although I have seen the
same effects — cysts and nodules regressing — in
the prostate, iodine therapy is more likely to stop
further progression rather than reverse it.
4. Balance the Hormonal System
The prostate, like all glands, secretes fluid.
Seminal fluid secreted by the prostate enables sperm
cells to have a chance at fertilizing an egg. Like all
glands in the body, the prostate is very sensitive to
the body’s hormonal status.
What do I mean by that? As men age, their
bodies have a tendency to turn testosterone into
estrogen. This occurs due to an enzyme called
aromatase, which can cause testosterone to
metabolize into estradiol.
Is this a bad thing? No. Aromatase is a naturally
occurring enzyme, and men need both testosterone
and estrogen for healthy endocrine tissue, including
the prostate. There are some doctors who claim that
elevated estrogen levels cause prostate problems.
Special Report
Other doctors believe it is testosterone that causes
prostate problems.
I can assure you that testosterone does not cause
prostate problems. In fact, the male hormone may
actually help many prostate problems. As for the
estrogen, the answer is not that simple.
The men who develop prostate problems
generally have low testosterone levels and elevated
estrogen levels. Young men produce a lot of
testosterone. If testosterone were the cause of
prostate problems, I would expect prostate diseases
to be epidemic among young males. That is clearly
not the case.
I can assure you that the men with the lowest
testosterone levels have much more prostate illness
as compared to men with higher testosterone levels.
This does not prove that low testosterone causes
prostate problems, but it does give credence to the
idea. Recent research has dispelled the myth that
testosterone therapy may cause prostate cancer.
I have observed that it is the imbalance
between testosterone and estrogen that sets the
stage for prostate problems. When men are young,
they produce copious amounts of testosterone.
As they age, aromatase becomes more active,
turning testosterone into estrogen. I believe it is
the imbalance between too much estrogen and
testosterone that causes prostate problems.
How do you rectify this imbalance?
Detoxifying the liver helps the body to
metabolize estrogens better. Your liver is like a
human oil filter — its job is to keep the blood
pure and metabolize hormones as well as toxic
substances. In men, when the liver is overtaxed I see
elevated estrogen levels. A proper liver cleanse which
helps to rev up the liver’s detoxification enzymes can
lower estrogen levels.
I have created a powder called TLC (Total Liver
Care), which has proven effective at detoxifying the
liver. Taken with alpha lipoic acid (300 mg twice
a day), this combination has been very effective at
lowering high estrogen levels in men.
Balancing the testosterone in a man is very
gratifying. Men do not like low testosterone levels
— they lead to fatigue, low libido, irritability, poor
brain function, and prostate problems.
newsmaxhealth.com
Continued on page 7
Page 5
In the News: Reading Between the Medical Headlines
Synthetic Hormones
Increase Cancer Risks
Beef produced in the United
States is heavily contaminated
with natural or synthetic sex
hormones that are associated with
an increased risk of reproductive
and childhood cancers. According
to Dr. Samuel Epstein, chairman of
the Cancer Prevention Coalition,
“Increased levels of sex hormones
are linked to the escalating
incidence of reproductive cancers
in the United States since 1975: 60
percent for prostate, 59 percent for
testis, and 10 percent for breast.”
Dr. Epstein further states, “Not
surprisingly — but contrary to
long-standing claims by the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration
and the U.S. Department of
Agriculture — residues of
[estrogen and progesterone] in
meat are up to 20 times higher
than normal.”
The amount of estradiol in two
hamburgers eaten in one day by an
8-year-old boy could increase his
total hormone levels by as much as
10 percent, particularly as young
children have very low natural
hormone levels. Not surprisingly,
Dr. Epstein says, the incidence of
childhood cancer has increased by
38 percent since 1975, according
to an October 2009 article in
World Wire. This article should be
a wakeup call for all of us. As the
father of two teenage girls, I can
attest to the influence of hormones
in the food supply. Our kids are
developing earlier, and as a result
more are becoming obese. There is
no excuse for our government to
allow these toxic hormones to end
up in our food supply.
What is the end result of these
hormones being added to our
food? Cancer. One in seven women
has breast cancer, and one in three
men suffers prostate cancer. These
Page 6
epidemic rates are being driven,
in part, by our contaminated
food supply. It is vitally important
to eat organic food sources free
of hormones and pesticides.
Unfortunately, our government
is not looking out for our health.
We have to take matters into our
own hands with measures such as
buying organic products.
Problems with PSA testing
I wrote about the problems
with PSA testing in the December
2009 issue of Natural Way to
Health. The New York Times later
published an Op-Ed entitled “The
Great Prostate Mistake” by Dr.
Richard Ablin, who discovered the
prostate-specific antigen test (PSA)
in 1970.
In the United States, the annual
bill for PSA testing is more than $3
billion. Dr. Ablin states, “American
men have a 16 percent chance of
receiving a diagnosis of prostate
cancer but only a 3 percent chance
of dying from it.” In other words,
men lucky enough
to reach old age are
much more likely
to die with prostate
cancer than die of
it. Furthermore, he
states, “Even then,
the test is hardly
more effective
than a coin toss
. . . Testing should
absolutely not be
deployed to screen
the entire population of men over
the age of 50, the outcome pushed
by those who stand to profit. I
never dreamed that my discovery
four decades ago would lead to
such a profit-driven public health
disaster.”
In this time of healthcare
debate, Dr. Ablin’s thoughts
should receive more attention.
The PSA test should not be used
as a screening test. More than 70
years of conventional treatment
for prostate cancer — surgery,
chemotherapy, and radiation —
have never been shown to result in
a lowered death rate.
Why screen for prostate cancer
if the majority of those with
prostate cancer don’t die of it
and the treatments available are
relatively ineffective? The only
reason to have a mass screening
program is to save lives, yet the
PSA screening test has never
been shown to save lives. I say
the money spent on covering
PSA testing could be better used
to educate people about the
importance of diet and exercise.
High-Fat Diet the Answer?
Dag Poleszynski, Ph.D., who
is on the faculty at the University
of Oslo, talked about optimal
nutrition from an evolutionary
perspective. Specifically, he
described the Paleolithic diet,
which was rich
in fat — up to 85
percent of the total
food energy was
from fat. He also
described how
the prehistoric
settlements were
dominated by a diet
rich in meat and
fat for more than
2 million years.
Dr. Poleszynski
presented data that showed a high
fat diet prevents cancer, diabetes,
heart disease, and obesity.
I have found that most patients
do well on a higher fat, lower
carbohydrate diet. However, the
fats must come from good food
sources — organically raised
animals free of hormones and
antibiotics.
should
‘notTesting
be deployed
to the entire
population of
men over the
age of 50.
drbrownstein.newsmax.com
’
Special Report
Continued from page 5
The first patient I treated with low testosterone
was my father. Now, 20 years later, I can assure you
that men age more gracefully and feel much better
if they have adequate testosterone levels.
It is not just testosterone therapy that helps men
with prostate function. Other natural hormones
such as DHEA, pregnenolone, and particularly
progesterone can also help prostate function if levels
are low. A healthcare practitioner skilled in the use
of bioidentical natural hormones can help manage
this with you.
5. Don’t Rely on a PSA Test
During the past 20 years, doctors urged all men
50 and older to be routinely screened for prostate
cancer using the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test.
They believed the test could spot prostate cancer at
an early stage — and earlier diagnosis and treatment
of the disease would save lives.
But in October 2011, many men were left
confused when a government task force declared
that routine PSA screenings do not save lives.
Furthermore, the government task force advised
that healthy men should skip regular PSA tests.
Meanwhile, some experts and prostate cancer
survivors vehemently disagreed with the new
recommendations and defended the value of routine
screenings.
So, do you need a routine PSA test? No. It’s
basically worthless as a screening test, and even its
inventor says it has been a disaster.
PSA tests measure the levels of the PSA protein
produced in the prostate gland, but it can’t show
that you have cancer. It only indicates there may be
an abnormality.
Although rising levels can indicate prostate
cancer (cancer cells produce much more PSA than
normal cells), high levels can be caused by other
conditions, including infections.
In fact, more than two-thirds of men with high
PSA levels don’t have prostate cancer.
While it’s true that there’s an epidemic of
prostate cancer, many men never have symptoms,
and the cancer never spreads beyond the prostate.
Most die from other causes, and their prostate
cancer isn’t diagnosed until an autopsy is performed.
Special Report
There’s no evidence that shows PSA tests lower
death rates from prostate cancer.
They don’t screen for prostate cancer in England,
yet their death rate from the disease is basically the
same as ours.
We’re throwing men into surgery, chemotherapy,
radiation, and hormone therapy, and we really don’t
change the outcome of the illness.
For most adult men, there is clearly no benefit
for a routine PSA test.
6. Avoid Harmful Prostate Drugs
Do drugs that treat BPH increase the risk
of prostate cancer? Commonly prescribed BPH
drugs work by poisoning the enzyme 5-alpha
reductase in the prostate gland. This enzyme
is responsible for converting testosterone into
another hormone known as dihydrotestosterone
or DHT — which can cause the prostate gland to
enlarge.
But it is not known if blocking DHT formation
will lower the risk of prostate cancer.
A seven-year study of the drug Proscar found
a significantly increased risk of aggressive prostate
cancer in those who took it. Similar results were
observed in a four-year study with Avodart.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has
required added warnings for labels of all 5-alpha
reductase-blocking drugs, noting that they may
increase the risk of advanced prostate cancer.
I see no reason to ever take these drugs — any
drug that increases your risk for getting aggressive
prostate cancer should be avoided. If you have BPH,
there are many safer drugs such as Hytrin.
Better yet, you can clean up your diet, exercise,
and optimize iodine levels, as this all helps alleviate
BPH.
You don’t have to suffer with prostate problems.
There are many options to improving prostate
health. Following the six steps outlined here will
help you achieve your optimal health and help the
health of your prostate.
References
1. National Cancer Institute. http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/types/prostate.
Accessed 2.15.13
2. Scandinavian Journal of Urologic Nephrology. 14 91):29-35; 1980
3. Practitioner. 2012 Apr;256(1750):13-6, 2.
4. Journal of the Nation Cancer Institute 97 (23): 1768-77, 2005
newsmaxhealth.com
Page 7
Ask Dr. B
Dear Readers,
I will try to answer as many questions as I can.
However, because of the volume of questions, I
cannot answer each letter personally. Please include
your full name, city, and state when submitting.
If you have a question for me, please email it to:
[email protected].
My employer is demanding that all employees get
the flu shot. Do you recommend that I get it?
— Mark H., Santa Barbara, Calif.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) claims that 3,000 to 49,000 people die from
the flu yearly. I say those numbers are hogwash.
Only a few hundred people die yearly from the flu,
and most of those people have complicated medical
conditions.
Most flu vaccines are preserved with mercury.
There is no excuse for injecting any living being
with mercury. Furthermore, the flu vaccine is not
very effective. Every vaccine that you take causes
inflammation of the brain. It is better to eat a
healthy diet, keep vitamin D levels optimized and
supplement with vitamin C.
Some employers are mandating the flu vaccine
even though it has not been shown to be very
effective at preventing the flu. We don’t need our
employers or Big Brother mandating that we be
injected with a vaccine that is ineffective for the vast
majority of people.
My husband takes Flomax for an enlarged prostate,
and our sex life has changed dramatically since he
started taking it. Is there a nutritional approach to
his prostate problem?
— Nancy E., Woodland Hills, Calif.
The prostate gland is an endocrine gland located
near the rectum and the urethra. As a man ages, the
prostate can enlarge and impinge on the urethra,
causing problems with urinary flow. Men with
prostate problems will often complain of urinary
frequency, difficulty in starting urination, and an
inability to empty the bladder.
Conventional medicine’s approach to these
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problems are to initially prescribe drug therapies.
Flomax works by binding to specific receptors in
the bladder neck which causes the smooth muscle
of the bladder to relax. This ultimately results in a
lowered resistance to urinary flow and an increased
ability to empty the bladder. As with all medications
that block important receptors, there are adverse
effects of Flomax including altering sexual function.
What options are there beside medications? If
the prostate is severely enlarged, surgery may be
warranted. A TURP procedure can open up the
urethra, which can improve urine flow.
My experience has shown that taking the
proper nutrients can improve prostate function and
minimize the progression of prostatic enlargement.
These nutrients include pomegranate extract, plant
sterols, boswellia, pygeum africanum bark, pumpkin
seed, flower pollen, and hydrangea root powder.
Eating a diet free of refined food supplies the
body with nutrients that support prostate function.
I have also formulated a product called Prostate
Revive that has been helpful for many men.
You have recommended taking vitamin E with
tocopherols, which contain soy. Can you please
explain why?
— Antonio P., Macomb, Mich.
Many vitamin E supplements are derived from
soy. In manufacturing vitamin E from soy, a multistep process removes soy proteins from the end
product. The goitrogens (substances that cause
goiter) in non-fermented soy foods (such as soy
milk, cheese, formula, etc.), which I wrote about in
the December 2008 issue of Natural Way to Health,
are removed during the manufacturing process.
Although the vitamin E product has to be labeled
as derived from soy, there should be no traces of soy
and no goitrogens in the final product.
drbrownstein.newsmax.com
To your good health,
David Brownstein, M.D.
Special Report