The routinely used PSA blood test didn’t reduce the number of cancers or overall deaths, according to a review published today in the British Medical Journal of more than 380,000 men who participated in previous studies.

The study, led by Philipp Dahm of the University of Florida, adds to the evidence that while the PSA blood test detects cancer in its early stages, it doesn’t lead to reduced mortality. The American Cancer Society this year changed its guidelines to reflect the growing uncertainty over testing.

“If we pool together all high-quality studies that exist, rather than picking and choosing evidence, the conclusion is that there is no impact on mortality,” Dahm, an associate professor, said in a telephone interview yesterday.

Dahm’s research used information from six previous studies. While screening raised the chance of being diagnosed with cancer, it didn’t save lives. Finding more tumors early fails to cut deaths in part because prostate cancer grows very slowly, Dahm said.

The study is limited by the fact that it didn’t record the effect on the participant’s quality of life or information on the side effects of screening, Dahm said. The results don’t preclude that a longer follow-up could show some benefit, Dahm said.

Side effects of prostate cancer treatments include incontinence, erectile dysfunction and other complications, according to the National Cancer Institute.

‘Uncertain Benefit’

“In addition to the uncertain benefit on mortality, the human and economic costs associated with PSA-based screening are substantial, primarily as a result of overdiagnosis and overtreatment,” Gerald Andriole, chief of urological surgery at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, said in an accompanying editorial.

Additional research published today found one test at age 60 helped determine future prostate cancer risk. In a study of 1,167 60-year-olds, Hans Lilja of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York found 90 percent of all mortality in men with the highest levels of PSA, while men with low or average levels had negligible rates of prostate cancer or death by age 85.

In its revised guidelines, the American Cancer Society now says men should only be screened if they have been told of the possibility of misleading test results and side effects of treatments that in some cases may pose more harm than the disease itself.

Annual Test

Prostate cancer was the second-most common malignancy in U.S. men last year with 192,280 new cases, and the second- highest killer with 27,360 deaths, according to the society. About half of men who are 50 or older undergo an annual blood test, even after some studies found routine tests don’t increase survival.

Screening for prostate cancer is done by blood tests that measure levels of PSA, or prostate specific antigen, a protein that can increase because of benign prostate conditions or cancer, according to the National Cancer Institute.

To support your prostate health visit Prostacet.

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Active constituents: Maca contains substantial quantities of protein, fat, fiber, and minerals including iron, which also contribute to its nutritional value. It also contains glucosinolates, the strong-smelling compounds that are responsible for the pungent smell and taste of mustard family plants. Neither these nor any other constituents in maca have definitively been shown to contribute to its actions.

Preliminary studies have shown that maca can increase libido in healthy men. It does this without influencing levels of testosterone or any other sex hormones. Healthy men who take maca have also been shown to have increased semen volume, increased sperm counts, and enhanced sperm motility.

Numerous animal studies show that maca extracts can increase sex drive and improve fertility. Other studies support that it can relieve the negative effects of stress reactions. The red cultivar, though not the black or cream, also reduced enlarged prostates in rats.

For more information visit Natural Gain Plus – male enhancement formula.

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Our flight into Brazil put us into the Amazon city of Manaus, where we met with Antonio Matas, the most highly respected herbalist in that area. Antonio shared stories with us about his decades of healing work using rain-forest plants.

Catuaba and Muirapuama: Sex Enhancers?

“What about catuaba and muirapuama?” I inquired. “Are they really effective sex enhancers, or is that just a myth?” He laughed at the question and spread his hands wide open. “There is nothing that compares with catuaba and muirapuama together. I can tell you, I have used these plants with hundreds of people. The old become sexually young again. I have seen impotent men who can have sex for the first time in years. Even healthy couples find that these plants put extra fire in their sex life. These plants are good for men and women.”

I asked Antonio if he used these plants himself. He smiled again. “Sometimes. After all, I’ve been married to the same woman for 43 years.”

For more information visit Natural Gain Plus – natural male enhancement.

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There are several benign prostate problems that develop in men. Types of  non-cancerous prostate problems, or clinical conditions of the prostate gland  that are not cancer, including infections, inflammations, benign prostatic  hyperplasia (BPH) – an enlarged prostate These problems are quite common and may  happen to men of all ages. Specific Non-Cancerous Prostate Problems include  prostatism – this term describes any condition of the prostate that causes  interference with the flow of urine from the bladder. Prostatitis – an inflamed  condition of the prostate gland. It can be accompanied by pain, discomfort,  frequent or infrequent urination, and sometimes a low-grade fever. Prostatalgia  – a term that indicates pain in the prostate gland. Benign prostatic hyperplasia  (BPH)- the condition of an enlarged prostate. BPH is the main non-cancerous  prostate problem. It can cause discomfort and create problems urinating.  Although it is not cancer, BPH symptoms are very similar to those of prostate  cancer. These include impotence, or the inability to have or keep an erection,  and urinary incontinence, or the loss of bladder control.

The fear of having prostate cancer can be devastating to most men. Prostate  cancer is most successfully treated when discovered early. Consider these  statistics supplied from the American Cancer Society: Nearly 80 percent of all  prostate cancers is discovered while they are still localized, or confined to  the prostate. The five-year survival rate for men diagnosed with prostate tumors  that are discovered at this early stage is a whopping 100 percent. Testing  works!

In the past 20 years, the survival rate for all stages of prostate cancer has  risen due to early detection and treatment. Early prostate cancer often doesn’t  present any symptoms and can only be found with regular prostate examinations by  your doctor. These tests can help detect, or rule out, prostate cancer. Check  back with your physician if you have had an unusual DRE (digital rectal exam),  or if your PSA (prostate-specific antigen) level is high. Your physician may  order additional tests or suggest repeating the PSA tests if warranted.

To support your prostate health visit Prostacet.

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Researchers evaluated the association between dietary intake of ALA, EPA, DHA, linoleic acid (LA) and arachidonic acid (AA) and prostate cancer risk in a cohort of 47,866 men between 40 and 75 years of age who were free from prostate cancer at the start of the study. After 14 years of follow-up, 2,965 subjects developed prostate cancer–448 of which developed advanced prostate cancer.

The researchers found men with the highest intake of EPA and DHA combined had an 11-percent reduced risk of developing prostate cancer and a 26-percent reduced risk of developing advanced prostate cancer. Researchers also found while dietary intake of ALA was unrelated to the total risk of prostate cancer, its consumption significantly increased the risk of developing advanced prostate cancer. Specifically, non-animal ALA doubled the risk and ALA from meat and dairy sources increased the risk by approximately 50 percent.

To support your prostate health visit Prostacet.

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Conversely, if carriers of this genetic variant have low levels of these vitamins and minerals, their risk of aggressive prostate increases substantially, as great as 10-fold, over those who maintain higher levels of these nutrients, they write in today’s issue of Cancer Research.

“This large prospective study provides further evidence that oxidative stress may be one of the important mechanisms for prostate cancer development and progression, and adequate intake of antioxidants, such as selenium, lycopene and vitamin E, may help prevent prostate cancer,” said Dr Haojie Li, a researcher at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

The new findings are based on an analysis of 567 men diagnosed with prostate cancer between 1982 and 1995, and 764 cancer-free men from the Physicians Health Study.

The initial goal of this study was to assess the effect of aspirin and beta-carotene on men’s health. Li’s team decided to check for variants of the gene that codes for manganese superoxide dismutatase (MnSOD), an important enzyme that works as an antioxidant in human cells to defend against disease.

The MnSOD gene is passed from parents to offspring in one of three forms: VV, VA or AA.

“Compared with men with the MnSOD VV or VA genotype, people with the AA genotype seem to be more sensitive to the antioxidant status,” said Li. “Men with the AA genotype are more susceptible to prostate cancer if their antioxidant levels are low.”

The study’s results found that a quarter of the men in the study carried the MnSOD AA genotype, half carried the VA genotype, and the remaining quarter carried the VV genotype.

The results indicated that the VA and VV men were at equivalent risk for developing prostate cancer across all levels of antioxidants in their blood.

But compared to MnSOD VV or VA carriers in the lowest quartile of selenium levels, MnSOD AA males had an 89 per cent greater risk for developing aggressive prostate cancer if they had low blood levels of the mineral.

On the other hand, MnSOD AA carriers with high selenium – those men in the highest quartile – had a 65 per cent lower risk than the MnSOD VV or VA males who maintained low levels of selenium.

“The levels of selenium in the highest quartile of these men are not abnormally high,” Li said. “Our range is neither extremely high nor extremely low.”

While similar trends were observed for lycopene and vitamin E when tested independently, the contrast in relative risk was most pronounced for the men who had high blood levels for all three antioxidants combined, said the researchers.

“Among men with the MnSOD AA genotype, we observed a 10-fold difference in risk for aggressive prostate cancer, when comparing men with high versus low levels of antioxidants combined,”said Li. “In contrast, among men with the VV or VA genotype, the prostate cancer risk was only weakly altered by these antioxidant levels.”

“Our study, as well as many other epidemiological studies, encourages dietary intake of nutrients such as lycopene from tomato products, or supplements for vitamin E and selenium to reduce risk of prostate cancer,” said Li.

Prostate cancer is one of the biggest cancer killers in industrial countries and affects more than 500,000 men worldwide every year. This number is expected to increase with the ageing population.

Similar interactions between dietary antioxidants and the variations in the MnSOD gene have previously been linked to risk for breast cancer.

To support your prostate health visit Prostacet.

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Prostate cancer is the leading cause of cancer related death for American men who don’t smoke. It is primarily a disease of aging. Men in their thirties and forties rarely develop prostate cancer, but the incidence grow steadily after the age of fifty-five. About 80 percent of all prostate cancer cases occur in men over the age of sixty-five. By the age of eighty, 4 out of 5 men have some degree of prostate cancer. Many experts feel that all men will eventually develop prostate cancer if they live long enough. The three most common prostate problems are prostatitis or inflection, prostate enlargement, and prostate cancer.

Medical professionals recommend that men have annual rectal exams as part of a health checkup from ages 40 to 70, and those with high risk and all men 50 and over should add a PSA (prostate-specific antigen) blood test every year as well. When prostate cancer is detected early and treated it has a high cure rate. Men are encouraged to discuss the options with their doctor. Based on past screenings doctors have observed that in men ages 50 to 59, the prostate cancer detection rate was basically the same whether men were screened every year or every two years. Therefore normal-risk men in their 50s can to be safely screened every other year. Since there is no cure for advanced prostate cancer, early diagnosis and treatment are essential. Since early prostate cancer normally doesn’t have any symptoms, it is extremely difficult to detect without testing. Screenings using both PSA and DRE tests have proven to be the best and only reliable method of identifying the disease when it can be still be cured easily. Almost fifty-eight percent of all cases are discovered while the cancer is still isolated and at its most treatable stage. A doctor can detect prostate cancer by digital rectal examination and by a PSA (prostate-specific antigen) blood test.

To support your prostate health visit Prostacet.

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