Conventional Treatment for Prostate Cancer Is More Dangerous Than the Disease

Here’s something that’s sure to raise more than a few eyebrows if it ever gets enough attention.

The most common conventional treatment for prostate cancer has now been shown to be more dangerous than the disease itself. Why?

Because the treatment removes the hormones that men need to stay healthy. And in addition to that, the treatment is shortsighted and incomplete.

The most common non-surgical treatment for prostate cancer is something called androgen deprivation therapy. This refers to various drugs that either cause a deficiency of the male hormone testosterone or block it from working. But testosterone is critical for a man’s health. So why would anyone want to block it? The reason is that a man’s healthy tissues are not the only ones dependent on testosterone. Prostate cancers are dependent on it as well. So when you deprive a man with prostate cancer of his testosterone, you hurt his body, but at the same time you hurt his cancer. But is it worth it? A new study says no. At least not the way it is commonly done.

To see how much harm is done by these androgen deprivation drugs, scientists recently reported on a group of men with prostate cancer. The cancer had spread throughout the body of 9.3% of the men. It was limited to the prostate in the rest. Their doctors treated a little more than half of them (57.7%) with androgen deprivation. They treated the others with either radiation or surgery. Then they waited for 10 years to see who died from causes other than prostate cancer. Here’s what they found.

The overall death rate from causes other than prostate cancer was 40.1% in the men who took the drugs. It was a full 25% less (30.6%) in the men who opted for the surgery or radiation and avoided the drugs. The authors of the study had this to say, “In patients with prostate cancer, treatment with medical androgen deprivation therapy may increase the risk of mortality due to causes other than prostate cancer.” So does this mean that androgen deprivation therapy should not be used for prostate cancer? Definitely not. It can be very effective when used properly.

But a man’s body needs testosterone to be healthy. A man’s overall health depends on the hormone. As you can see from the study, when you take testosterone out of the equation, men die 25% more in the next 10 years. So if you’re a man and you suspect you may be deficient in testosterone, remember that it’s much more important than just your mental and sexual function.

The usual treatment of men with androgen deprivation therapy involves the continued use of the drugs until they stop working. Why do they stop working? It’s because when you expose a cancer to the same treatment day after day with no break, it often becomes resistant to the treatment. On average, most cancers become resistant to androgen deprivation therapy after only 20 months. But what if you don’t give it continuously? What if you pulse it?

Several studies have shown that giving androgen deprivation therapy in a pulsed or intermittent fashion might be a better way to go than the continuous method. By pulsed, I mean given for several months and then stopped for several months. One animal study in particular found that when researchers pulsed the androgen deprivation therapy, the animals lived three times longer than the ones who got it continuously.

This is why I never recommend that a man with prostate cancer be treated on a continuous basis with androgen deprivation therapy.

But pulsed androgen deprivation therapy is not where I stop. There are many other safe and effective ways to hit this cancer that can be combined with androgen deprivation. One of those ways is by using the hormone melatonin in high doses. This simple therapy lengthens the time that it takes for a prostate cancer to become resistant to androgen deprivation therapy. In some cases, when they use melatonin, resistance never happens! The studies show that an effective and completely safe dose is in the order of 20-40 mg per day.

Next, is the use of estradiol-reducing agents. Besides testosterone, the hormone estradiol also stimulates prostate cancer. I’ve reported to you before about this problem, which is virtually always ignored by strictly conventional docs. The medication I use is called anastrozole. I recommend one-half tablet one to two times per week. It’s just enough to keep the serum estradiol level between 10-20. And unlike testosterone, men do very well with lower levels of estradiol. This therapy works best when combined with resistance training for one hour, three times a week.

And, finally, I cannot discuss prostate cancer treatment without also mentioning progesterone and iodine. These treatments are also important for a successful outcome. Progesterone cream should be used at a dose of 10-20 mg per day. And for iodine, I recommend Lugol’s, 12.5 to 100 mg per day.

So if you have prostate cancer, please don’t go for the conventional continuous androgen deprivation therapy in the absence of all of the other treatments I have just mentioned. Find yourself a doctor who is well versed in all of these things and uses them along with pulsed androgen deprivation therapy.