What if, by making wise beverage and food choices, we could greatly reduce the incidence of prostate cancer, that scourge of all too many older men?
Well, the sound nutritional advice that physicians have been able to confidently give to men for many years, though most have failed to do so, is this: "Your prostate would rather be vegan."
And recently, results from yet two more studies have reinforced the wisdom of that dietary prescription.
In May, New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani became the latest well-known prostate cancer victim, joining a roll that includes former junk bond king Michael Milken, actor Charlton Heston, Bishop Desmond Tutu, ex-U.S. Senator Bob Dole, and many others. Overall, 180,000 new U.S. cases get diagnosed each year, and about 32,000 U.S. men die of the disease.
After lung cancer, it ranks as the second-deadliest cancer among U.S. men, killing one in 25. Urinary incontinence, sleep problems and impotence are among the side effects troubling some of those who do beat the cancer through such difficult and costly means as external radiation, radioactive seeding, surgery, freezing, chemotherapy and hormone therapy.
Previously, medical studies noted lower prostate cancer rates in countries with low per-capita consumption of meat and dairy products and also tagged high levels of a powerful bloodstream protein called Insulin-like Growth Factor-I (IGF-I) as an apparently important stimulator of prostate cancer (as well as breast cancer, colon cancer, pancreatic cancer, lung cancer, and many childhood-onset cancers).
We also knew that high IGF-I levels hit men older than 60 years especially hard. We knew that daily meat consumption triples risk of benign prostate disease, regular consumption of cow's milk doubles it, and failure to regularly consume vegetables almost quadruples it. And a major 1997 review specifically linked cow's milk consumption to prostate cancer risk.
Now, in a new study, scientists at England's Imperial Cancer Research Fund charity, studying 696 British men, measured IGF-I "biomarker" levels that were 9 percent lower in vegans -- vegetarians who consume no animal products -- than in non-vegetarians. IGF-I levels were 7 percent lower in vegans than in vegetarians who consume dairy and eggs, according to results published recently in the British Journal of Cancer.
In April, at the American Association of Cancer Research meeting in San Francisco, Harvard researchers reported data from the ongoing massive Physicians' Health Study that links high intake of milk, cheese, ice cream, and other dairy products with moderately increased prostate cancer risk. Additionally, men who reported drinking six or more glasses of cow's milk per week had lower levels of vitamin D -- regarded as a possible prostate cancer-fighter -- than did men drinking two glasses weekly or less.
Let us be clear: Detection by PSA tests or digital exams is certainly important, but should never be confused with true prevention. It's akin to relying heavily on smoke detectors instead of designing a fire-resistant building. Of course, actual cancer treatment is like the fire engines rushing to contain and extinguish a working fire before it spreads further.
We should do all we can to prevent prostate cancer "fires" from ever getting started, and a vegan diet with cancer-fighting nutrients -- such as lycopene-rich tomatoes and watermelons and phytoestrogen-rich tofu and other soy products -- can provide men's bodies with impressive "fire" resistance. As with any change for the good, the earlier done the better. And diet alone will not cure prostate cancer. But even men already fighting prostate cancer can ameliorate its impact by switching to a vegan diet.
