About Cancer

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in the United States and it is the second most common cause of cancer death in men over age 55. The incidence of prostate cancer increases dramatically with each decade after 50. Fortunately, prostate cancer tends to be slow-growing compared to many other cancers - the majority of prostate cancers either do not spread or cause any significant harm for decades.

In general, men run a 1-in-6 chance of developing prostate cancer at some point in their lives. More than 230,000 new cases are expected this year in the United States, with about 27,000 deaths.

Most men will choose conventional treatment, often surgery or radiation, but there are life-changing potential side effects they need to be aware of, and discuss with their doctors.

Surgery, called a prostatectomy for the surgical removal of the prostate gland, means impotence for about 75% of the men choosing this path, according to a September 2004 study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Also, about 14% of the men were incontinent - could not control their bladder - five years after the operation.

With standard radiation therapy, the odds of impotence are about the same, 73%. The incontinence rate was much lower, just under 5%. There are new radiation therapies we discussed in the new guidebook How To Beat Your Prostate Cancer that have better outcomes.

No matter what conventional therapy a man chooses, if he does nothing else there is a 30% to 40% chance that his cancer or another cancer will recur. That's because his immune system was not strong enough to protect him from the first cancer, and if he does nothing it will be no stronger the next time it is needed. In addition, radiation and chemotherapy depress the immune system, leaving it weaker than it was before you got treatment. Finally, any cancerous cells that survive the radiation and chemotherapy treatments, or escape the surgeon's knife - and a few ALWAYS do - must be cleaned up by the immune system. Yet those cells that survived radiation or chemotherapy are, by definition, the strongest mutant cells. Cells that survive chemotherapy even have their own name: Multi-drug resistant. All of this means that if a man's cancer recurs, the cure rates the second time around are much, much lower - on the order of 5% survival.

So even if a man chooses conventional treatment, the information and advice on alternative treatments in How To Beat Your Prostate Cancer is very important for his recovery and continued good health.

Here are 5 of the 10 important steps covered in a Free Report by the authors of How To Beat Your Prostate Cancer that have worked for others:

1. Pick a doctor carefully. The numbers above on impotence and incontinence are pretty scary. Top surgeons who perform hundreds of these operations tend to have better numbers, and you should ALWAYS get the statistics in advance from any doctor before you let them treat you. Remember that if you are talking to a surgeon, he probably will want to operate. If your doctor is a radiation oncologist, don't be surprised if he pushes radiation. A clinical oncologist might counsel chemotherapy. Always consider the source. If you want to try alternative therapy first, since you really are not pressed for time, choose an alternative doctor or health care practitioner just as carefully.

2. Boost your immune system. If you're going to undergo conventional treatment, you need to boost your immune system to deal with the impact of chemotherapy and radiation. You also need to clean up the remaining cells after therapy, and then build back your immune system so cancer does not recur. If you are going to pursue an alternative treatment path while you have the time, boosting your immune system is Job #1. Several chapters in How To Beat Your Prostate Cancer show you how to do that.

3. Alkalize your internal environment. Cancer cells are highly acidic, and cancer can't live in an alkaline environment. You can test your pH level with test strips from the pharmacy or health food store. It should be over 7.0, preferably in the 7.2 to 7.4 range. If your internal body environment is acidic, it makes it much easier for cancer to grow and metastasize. Prostate cancer often metastasizes to the bones, making it much harder to beat.

4. Get more oxygen to your cells. Cancer hates oxygen. In the lab, when they are doing an experiment where they want cancerous cells to grow quickly, they simply turn down the oxygen. When they want to stabilize the experiment, they turn the oxygen back up. The same is true of your body.

5. Take vitamins and supplements. If you eat the Standard American Diet, you are eating fruits and vegetables grown on depleted soil, picked too early so they won't ripen and spoil while they're in the distribution chain, and then probably overcooked. Even if you are eating organic fruits and vegetables, grass-fed pastured meat and raw milk, you still can't get the massive amounts of vitamins and supplements you need to let your immune system overcome a cancerous tumor that has become established. You must take high-quality vitamins and minerals, digestive enzymes and specific anti-cancer supplements like those recommended in Chapter 7 of How To Beat Your Prostate Cancer.