Sympathy for England
Yesterday, the attacks which took place in London left the city grieving and shocked the world. I can express nothing but sympathy for the families and friends of those who lost their lives or were badly injured in the blasts. Events like these remind us of how fragile life is and how little it takes to destroy it. Let's hope that we all live to see the day when terrible acts like these are a thing of the past.

Diet vs. Supplement part 2
When you consider the relationship between the nutrients you consume and the health of your prostate, you have to think about something more than the sheer numbers, although the numbers are still important. But once you know that you are getting the right amount of everything, you also want to consider the combination in which you take them. For example, think about how your body gets all of the nutrients I mentioned in my last entry. When you get things like vitamins, minerals, and carotenoids from your diet, you get them in a mixture, not one by one.

We know for a fact that nutrients routinely effect the way we can absorb or use other nutrients. Without vitamin D, you can’t make use of calcium. Magnesium and Potassium work together in the body. Your body expects to get these things in combinations with each other and will respond positively when it gets things the way it expects them.

This is another reason why I recommend taking a carefully-blended compound supplement. The right blend of nutrients in a pill will mimic the amount and distribution of nutrients from a very good meal.

One particular example that I like is black pepper. There’s a brand name product called Bioperine, which is reported to make other nutrients you consume more biologically accessible. This means that your body is able to use the nutrients you take in more effectively. This is actually better than taking more of the nutrients. For example, you could take 1,000 mg. more calcium, but without more vitamin D, it all simply passes through your system. So, unless you are absorbing and using the nutrients you consume, taking more is a complete waste.

So the moral of the story is that, while it is important to make sure that you get enough nutrients, it is also important that you get your nutrients in the right proportion to each other. The best way to make sure of this, as far as I know, is to select a carefully-blended supplement which covers all of the relevant essential and non-essential nutrients. It’s either that or else carefully tailor your diet to consistently provide you with enough vitamins, minerals, non-essential nutrients, and trace minerals. Frankly, I think we all have better things to do with our time.

Diet vs. Supplement part 1
We often hear about the different nutrients we need. Aside from the obvious vitamins, minerals, essentials fats (like omega-3), carbs, and protein, there are literally dozens of other nutrients you probably never think about.

Some of these are called trace minerals. Like the usual minerals we need, such as zinc, iron, and potassium, there are several minerals which we require in far smaller amounts. Among them are the elements molybdenum and selenium which we require in amounts measured in micrograms, an amount which is 1/1,000 of a milligram.

And then there are compounds which come from plants, such as carotenoids. Carotenoids are plant pigments which vary in colour between yellow, orange, and red. We used to think that all carotenoids were vitamins, like beta carotene. Of course, we still consider beta carotene a vitamin (it’s actually provitamin A), unlike other carotenoids like quercetin and lycopene.

However, even though they’re not vitamins, studies indicate that the consumption of several carotenoids can improve overall health. First, they’re antioxidants. This means that they help reduce the daily wear and tear on cells which is associated with cancer, heart disease, and rapid aging. Quercetin is an anti-inflammatory. Lycopene is thought to fight or prevent numerous forms of cancer. However, some especially interesting studies have also linked these compounds to prostate health.

There was one study out of Harvard which studied the diets of about 47,000 men for the consumption of fruits and vegetables. They looked at 46 different foods, but only tomatoes showed a strong correlation with reduced risks of prostate cancer. Tomato happens to be especially high in lycopene, which is not surprising, since lycopene is actually a red pigment.

Now, here’s the point: You pick up a package of something and read the label. On that label, you find all of the obvious nutrients, vitamins, minerals, carbs, calories, but you don’t find things like trace elements or carotenoids. And you shouldn’t find those, either. Can you imagine trying to keep track of everything you already know you need plus all of these other things, some of which you need in tiny amounts and others which aren’t actually essential? Do you even try to keep track of the things you read on the label now?

I’m going to guess that you don’t spend a lot of time calculating how much potassium you get in a day. In fact, I tend to think that it’s hard enough to count carbs or calories without having to remember if I’ve gotten enough vitamins from my diet. This is why I tend to think that a multivitamin and mineral supplement is a good plan, just to make sure. I don’t go overboard, but it makes sense to me to add a little extra just to make sure that I am not lacking anything important.

The same thinking applies to the stuff you can’t find on labels. Of course it’s always best to get carotenoids and trace minerals from your diet, but how often do you eat tomato sauce? How many apples or carrots do you eat? Brazil nuts are very rich in selenium, but how often do you eat those? If you can manage to consistently get enough nutrients from your diet, then you’re in good shape. However, it’s usually not that simple. I approach trace and non-essential nutrients much like vitamins and minerals. Our bodies expect them in a steady supply, mixed together with the other nutrients we consume.

So, this is the position I recommend taking when it comes to supplements. Never take mega-doses and try to avoid taking supplements which only have a few ingredients. You’re looking for something which can simply boost your normal dietary intake. Remember that these are things which you already get in your food, although you probably get a lot less from processed foods. Given how many processed foods we eat, it seems to make perfect sense to boost your intake of nutrients which can keep your prostate healthy, not to mention the rest of you.

Happy Birthday AMERICA!
Today, I'd like to take a moment to express my deep personal pride at being able to live in this country.

If you think about it, our freedom and innovation is what allows for people like me to do what I do, getting information out to people like you through the web. It is this freedom which allows me to find real, uncensored information. It is this freedom which allows me to write about what I find and which allows you to read what I write and judge for yourself.

Because anyone is free to say when they disagree with a study or with the way someone's interpreted their findings, it is also freedom which keeps the information strong and true.

So thanks for reading my blog and please continue to help keep freedom healthy.

An Article on Flower Pollen Worth Reading
Some supplements are easy to understand, others are a bit more confusing. Some have a lot of reliable information relating to them online, others do not. Swedish flower pollen, while a common ingredient in prostate remedies, has relatively little information relating to it online. It's hard to find good independent information, but I've just read something which I think makes a good introduction to flower pollen's benefits:

http://prostate-health-treatment.blogspot.com/

The Deal with Soy, part 2
Phytoestrogen and BPH

As a man, the last thing you would think that you want is estrogen. As the poster-child female hormone, estrogen is more commonly-known as an ingredient in birth control pills or else as a controversial treatment for menopause. With this in mind, I'd like to take a moment to clear up this misconception before moving on to talk about the health benefits of soy.

First of all, let's remember that hormones exist in a balance within the body. Everyone, men and women, has some estrogen and some testosterone. It's not that men have testosterone and women have estrogen. Rather, the way that hormones work is according to a relative balance between different hormones. So, for example, men have more testosterone than estrogen and women have the reverse proportion. The proportion of one to the other is what allows hormones to do their work in the body.

Now, several years ago, researchers discovered that estrogen has a beneficial effect on the symptoms of BPH. The reason for this appears to be that estrogen stops the conversion of testosterone into a chemical called dihydrotestosterone. Within the prostate, an enzyme called 5-alpha reductase transforms testosterone into dihydrotestosterone, which then stimulates the growth of the prostate. Of course, prostate growth is what causes BPH. Now, I don't want to overload the scientific jargon here, but the point is that estrogen appears to interfere with this process, and therefore to stop BPH.

In their experiments, researchers tried both pharmaceutical (synthetic human) estrogen and phytoestrogen (plant estrogen). Men getting the pharmaceutical estrogen saw an improvement in their symptoms of BPH. Unfortunately, they also experienced impotence, loss of muscle mass, and a generally terrible feeling. However, when they got the phytoestrogen, the symptoms of BPH again improved, but this time there were no nasty side-effects.

Phytoestrogen is weaker than pharmaceutical estrogen, and hence has a more gentle effect in the body. Remember about the hormone balance. If you take pharmaceutical estrogen, then you will probably throw off your whole body's hormonal balance. This is why the first group of men felt terrible after they got their estrogen treatments. However, phytoestrogen does not so easily throw off the body's hormonal balance. Remember that hormones occur in very small amounts within the body and as a result it takes very little to upset the body's hormonal balance.

Examining societies where the rates of BPH are lower, such as Japan, supports this research. In Japan, soy plays a major role in the average diet and soy is a very good source of phytoestrogen. Looking at the rates of BPH, we can see that Japanese men see a much lower rate of BPH than American men, whose diet contains far less soy than the Japanese diet.

Understanding this, it seems that any man concerned about prostate health ought to consider adding some form of soy to his diet. There are many soy products (and no, soy sauce on your Chinese food won't do the job) on the market and many of them are actually quite tasty. The technology has improved over the past few years and it's not just tofu any more. However, probably even better is to look at a soy phytosterol complex or else a supplement containing a soy phytosterol complex. I've previously mentioned Provelex and it's worth mentioning it again now, since it contains a soy phytosterol complex as one of its key ingredients. There are many other products on the market, but I would tend to say that this is the most well-formulated and reputable one that I know.

The Deal With Soy, part 1
Lately, a new word has entered the food industry’s vocabulary: nutraceutical. The roots of this new buzzword are “nutritional” and “pharmaceutical”, which is actually a bit misleading. You see, I would say that a pharmaceutical product is a synthetic drug like Vioxx or Zoloft, not a natural component of our everyday foods like lycopene (which is abundant in tomatoes) or beta sitosterol (found in soy, oils, and nuts). Here’s the difference: pharmaceuticals are special molecules made by big companies in controlled conditions to fit into special regions of the body or brain and make something very specific happen. Nutrients are also special molecules but, rather than being tailored to do something special, they occur naturally and fit into the whole systems of our bodies and support a number of processes.

For example, let’s look at soy. Now, it’s easy to roll your eyes when someone says “soy”, but let’s see if we can’t get past the stereotypical idea of soy as food for tofu and sprout eaters so that we can talk nutrition. You may have heard of soy phytosterols, which are getting serious attention regarding blood-cholesterol levels, cancer, and even prostate health. As with anything, some of these claims may be exaggerated, but there is serious evidence mounting in soy’s favour regarding prostate health.

First, I should mention that a soy phytosterol complex will contain a number of plant sterols, which are hormones from plants which help to balance the body’s hormones when consumed in healthy amounts. The American diet is mostly deficient in phytosterols, which can lead to an imbalance in the body’s hormones. Such an imbalance may cause any number of problems, possibly even cancer. But non-cancerous prostate conditions can also result. After all, the prostate is a gland very closely connected to the reproductive system and the male reproductive system deals with a lot of hormones. If there is an imbalance, then the parts of the body which deal in the most hormones are the most vulnerable.

For example, imagine that you have two plants, a cactus and a violet. Now imagine that you forget to water them for a few months and, once you go to water them again, you notice that the violet has died but the cactus remains basically healthy. That’s because the cactus doesn’t need a lot of water to survive and be healthy, while the violet needs regular watering or else it will get stressed and eventually die. Now, what does this have to do with soy or prostate health? Basically, the prostate is like your body’s violet. If you have a hormone imbalance, the prostate will suffer faster and worse than most other parts of your body.

Soy phytosterol complexes typically contain a good balance of these chemicals, such as quercetin and beta sitosterol. The reason for including them into nutraceutical products is not as much that they are good for the prostate, but more that they are good for the blood and the heart and health in general. Now, this may be a good time to pause in case you need a bit of time to absorb the information or else to do some searching on your own. Next, I’ll continue talking about soy and why everyone seems to be looking specifically at soy phytosterols.

Some Links to Good Prostate Information
There is a lot of discussion going on over the web, but not much of it is very visible because the big commercial sites dominate every search. I don't mean to complain, since the commercial sites need to make their sales, but I'm not interested in that. I'm interested in finding the best way to improve and sustain men's health. With that in mind, here are two websites which feature good discussions:

http://prostate-health-treatment.blogspot.com/
http://spaces.msn.com/members/prostalk/

Considering the Surgical Options for an Enlarged Prostate
You could always get surgery for BPH, but now you can get that surgery with a laser. At first pass, this seems pretty good, which is why I was so intrigued when I heard about it. With a TURP, which is the traditional surgical option, you can expect to be in the hospital for about 4 days, you can expect the swelling to mean you need a catheter, and you can expect pain. There are other less common side-effects, most of which are different kinds of sexual dysfunction. However, the surgery can also cause things like a frequent need to urinate, painful urination, or even blood in the urine, but these are supposed to go away in a couple of weeks.

The laser surgery seems to offer a better set of outcomes. First of all, it’s less invasive. They insert a laser tip through the urethra and laser the prostate from the inside. Once it’s burned off by the laser, the body just disposes harmlessly of the excess prostate tissue. Second, the side-effects are supposed to be less severe. I have found nothing that says to expect sexual problems, but apparently the laser surgery also results in a frequent need to urinate, burning feelings while urinating, and some blood in the urine, but I get the sense these are less severe than from a TURP.

But remember, this is still surgery. Just because it’s less invasive than a TURP, that doesn’t mean that it’s non-invasive. It’s still just a procedure to destroy the excess prostate tissue, it just enters the body through an existing opening rather than carve a new one. Of course, nobody wants a new opening carved into them if they can avoid it, but I still think it’s better to avoid any kind of surgery if we can.

The different clinics and articles which talk about laser prostate surgery manage to make some of the details about this surgery pretty confusing too. For example, an article featured on ABC’s Chicago affiliate says that there’s no swelling from the procedure, which means that most patients go home without a catheter. At the same time, laserscope.com, a site dedicated to promoting a brand of laser prostate surgery, tells patients that they may need a catheter depending on how much swelling they get. So the people selling the surgery say that there’s swelling and the journalist says there isn’t.

It’s also unclear how much anaesthetic and recovery are required. The University of Missouri Health Care website describes the recovery period as lasting only an hour, since the surgery only takes a local anaesthetic. But Laserlight is quite clear that their surgery takes a general anaesthetic, which means that you may need to spend the night and that you can expect to be groggy for a couple of days after. Either way, it’s probably no loss, since you aren’t allowed to move for 2 days and can’t resume strenuous activity (including sex) for 2 weeks.

All in all, I think that I'll avoid laser surgery the same as traditional surgery. There are other options, supplements in particular, which can actually control the prostate without cutting any away. Right now, I'm on Provelex and finding it very effective. It took a few days to notice the difference, but it works and instead of having to recover from surgery I feel great. Hope someone tells the surgeons before Provelex takes all their business away!

True, Some Commercial Sites Are Excellent
I've looked at many of the commercial sites out there and have come to various conclusions about them. I probably have as many opinions on commercial web sites as the number of commercial web sites I've seen. Provelex.com, the site that Hank mentioned in his comment on my last entry, is definitely one of the good ones.

First of all, it looks good. This may seem a stupid point to look at, but I tend to think that I'm only going to trust someone whose site looks like they've put some money into it, since that means they likely put some money into developping their product too.

But anyone can put together a site that looks good and says nothing. Swanson Vitamins' site is one of these. Sure, it looks good, but it doesn't tell you anything useful, like why you want to look at Saw Palmetto, Quercetin, or Flower Pollen. They try to reel you in with "testimonials" but this is pretty thin stuff when it comes to convincing me.

Provelex.com, on the other hand, actually has some good information. If you look at their page on Quercetin, you'll find a lot of information on what it is, what is the supporting clinical data, what other effects are known, and what kind of a dosage is good. To me, this is useful information no matter what product you decide to try.

So thanks to Hank for the heads up on that, and actually I think that I am going to try Provelex out. If anyone has tried or is trying Provelex, then let me know about your experience.