One often is under the impression that the wealthy have the advantage of better access to health care. However, this is not always the case. Perhaps if Steve Jobs took better advantage of what alternative medicine has to offer he may have had a different outcome – it certainly could not have been worse.
Recently, Warren Buffett, 81, announced that he has prostate cancer. He is certainly in a position to obtain the best advice money can buy. He has a condition that can be approached from a number of different directions, obviously a situation that can benefit from expert opinion.
According to the information reported about his treatment, he has elected to have radiation. At best, this provides a 50% cure rate, and at the same time provides complications that are often severe. Diarrhea is almost a given, but there is a relatively high incidence of rectal carcinoma.
Interestingly, an option called “watchful waiting” has been found to be a viable alternative, which makes sense when you consider that only 7% of prostate cancers spread. This means that if you do nothing, 93% of men will die with prostate cancer rather than from it. Certainly at his age, I would expect that most experts would recommend this course. Except, perhaps, the high priced “experts”.
While we are on this subject, I have never been a proponent of prostate biopsies. I strongly suspect that this is when many of the cancers spread. By punching the prostate 12-24 times with a biopsy needle, it seems logical that a cancer could easily get into the blood stream at that time and spread.
What most men are not aware of, there is a test that can be done at the time they have a PSA test called a free PSA test. A value less than 10% can be a strong indicator of cancer, and a value above 20% can argue against it. Obviously this test could help men avoid a very uncomfortable procedure and provide important information without the danger of the cancer spreading. So raise your hands, how many men have heard of a free PSA test?
As most informed people realize, prostate cancer is caused by estradiol, the most potent form of estrogen. This is the same hormone that causes breast cancer in men and women, and uterine cancer in women. Men actually wind up with much higher levels of estradiol than women have when they are in midlife. At the same time, both sexes stop making progesterone, the hormone that prevents every cancer caused by estradiol.
Eventually someone will come up with the idea that women should be using natural progesterone cream rather than wearing pink ribbons to promote breast cancer awareness, which is unpaid advertising for the drug company who started it, who happens to produce chemotherapy for, you guessed it, breast cancer.
Many prostate cancer therapies involve the lowering of testosterone, which makes no sense at all. The end effect of this is the lowering of estradiol which is a hormone that is down-regulated from testosterone. This is good, but you are sacrificing testosterone which is an incredibly important hormone for men as they get older – especially for the heart.
Am I missing something, but would it not make more sense just to lower estradiol directly?
Of course, wouldn’t it also make even more sense to prevent prostate cancer in the first place?
Wait a minute, I forgot, that they do not allow preventive medicine in this country.
Those of you who know me, or who have read my book, “The Miracle of Bio-identical Hormones”, realize that I am not particularly thrilled with our present medical system. For those of you who wish to become proactive with your health, I am available for consults – either in person, by telephone or by Skype.
Call my office: 760-836-3232, or visit my website: www.plattwellness.com, or e-mail: questions@plattwellness.com
Important Note: All materials in these blogs are provided as opinion only and should not be construed as medical advice or instruction. No action should be taken based solely on the contents of this information; instead, readers should consult appropriate health professionals on any matter relating to their health and well-being.
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