Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men: from the age of forty, the risk rises sharply, and around 80 percent of men over 70 suffer from the tumour - although sometimes without knowing it: this estimate is based on data from autopsies. The frequent carcinoma is fortunately not the most dangerous type of cancer. It results in death in only about three percent of all men. Although surgical removal is successful in many cases, it is not without risk. It is not unusual for important nerves to be injured during surgery. In many cases this results in erectile dysfunction following prostate surgery.
Medical prevention is essential from the age of 40!
Advanced prostate cancer primarily causes discomfort when urinating. Metastases initially form in the spine and cause radiating pain. Damage to the spinal cord can cause signs of paralysis.
The disease usually remains completely without symptoms in the early stages - and is therefore often diagnosed too late. Health insurance companies cover the annual screening test for all men aged 45 or older. In case of familial predisposition, the cost of the test is already covered from the age of 40 and up. This only includes palpation, however, which can only effectively detect major changes. Many oncologists and urologists thus also recommend having your blood’s PSA value tested.
The PSA test - a useful screening test?
The prostate produces a protein, known as prostate-specific antigen (PSA), which is also detectable in the blood. When prostate cells mutate into cancer cells, they produce up to ten times more PSA, raising the blood’s PSA level. Elevated PSA levels, however, do not always indicate the presence of cancer. Even relatively harmless inflammations of the prostate and urinary tract or benign prostate enlargements can cause the PSA level to rise. Pressure on the prostate also plays a role: patients who ride their bicycle to the examination can trigger a false alarm.
The significant probability that an elevated PSA value has causes other than prostate cancer limits the diagnostic value of PSA testing in early diagnosis. Critics also emphasise that very few of the small malignant changes that the test detects actually develop into overt prostate cancer in the foreseeable future. You may thus be worrying without reason and burdening yourself and your wallet with unnecessary examinations and therapies. Proponents of the test counter that ten false alarms are still better than one missed diagnosis.
PSA values that cause your urologist to take notice
If a blood test detects increased PSA levels, this does not yet provide grounds to suspect cancer. The test is first repeated - usually after a few weeks or months, possibly up to a year later. Should the value remain high or even increase, a tissue examination can provide certainty.
In the past, a prostate biopsy was generally performed in the event of a PSA level of 4 ng/ml or higher. Today different limiting values apply based on age groups. Doctors take notice given the following PSA levels:
The progression of the level is also always important: A sharp rise in the PSA value, with annual increases of about 0.75 ng/ml or higher, is critical.
Prostate cancer prevention with dietary supplements
Naturopathy is your reliable ally when it comes to preventing prostate cancer and supporting therapeutic measures: pomegranate, green tea, red wine and many other medicinal plants and natural substances contain ingredients whose protective effect has been proven by scientific studies. These include polyphenols, a huge group of secondary plant substances, and vitamin K2.
Polyphenols: nature’s very own cancer prevention and cancer therapy
Many plant-based foods contain polyphenols as naturally occurring flavouring and tanning agents as well as colorants. The plants themselves use them as protection against pests, diseases and UV radiation. Their positive effect on people is undisputed. A diet rich in polyphenols protects against cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
In terms of human nutrition, about 8,000 different polyphenols play a role. A number of these substances have already been tested for their effect in the prevention and therapy of prostate cancer. The well-studied polyphenols include gallic acid, anacardic acid, ellagic acid, caffeic acid and various catechins.
On the one hand, these substances are highly effective antioxidants: they deactivate free radicals in cells and thus protect the genetic information from damage caused by these cytotoxins, which are capable of triggering mutation into cancer cells, among others things. Their preventive effect against cancer is based on their antioxidant properties.
On the other hand, many polyphenols have a specific impact on prostate cancer: some prevent the tumour-specific angiogenesis, the growth of small blood vessels that supply the carcinoma [1]. Others stop metastasis, inhibit cell division or completely eliminate tumour cells [2]. Polyphenols can thus potentially slow tumour growth or even contribute substantially to the remission of a tumour.
It is now also known that polyphenols are more effective in combination than on their own. Its combination of many potent polyphenols (including ellagic acid, gallic acid, various anthocyanins and flavonoids) makes the pomegranate (Punica granatum) such an effective medicinal fruit [3].
Pomegranate juice is not only suitable for the prevention of cancers, it has also proved its value in the treatment of prostate cancer. The same applies to catechin-rich green tea (catechins also belong to the polyphenol group).
Pomegranate extracts prevent prostate cancer and slow down tumour growth
In case of existing prostate cancer, the increase in the PSA value is an important indicator of the disease’s progression - and for the prognosis of patients.
In a study with 48 prostate cancer patients whose PSA levels continued to rise despite radiation or surgery, pomegranate extract proved very effective: the patients’ PSA levels had doubled every 15 months on average prior to the study. 570 mg of polyphenols from pomegranate extract extended this period to an average of 54 months, with 80 percent of study participants responding to the treatment. [4]
The first clinical trials were preceded by years of laboratory tests that tested the effect of pomegranate extracts on prostate cancer cells in test tubes. Encouraging effects were found throughout this time: active ingredients from the extracts intervene in the metabolism of cancer cells, inhibiting their growth and even leading to the death of cancer cells. [5,6,7]
In a so-called mouse model, using a genetically modified mouse strain that is particularly prone to the formation of prostate cancer, pomegranate extracts reduced the risk of tumours by up to 80 percent and greatly reduced the risk of metastasis in existing tumours. [8th].
Polyphenols extracted from green tea protect against cancer
The health benefits of green tea are numerous and well documented: the drink made from unfermented tea leaves protects against cardiovascular disease as well as helping prevent diabetes, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and chronic inflammation. Green tea also lowers the risk of several cancers, including breast cancer, colon cancer and prostate cancer.
Preventive effects of green tea:
A meta-analysis of 21 studies on the effect of tea on prostate cancer risk confirmed that the tea indeed has a protective effect. [9]
Therapeutic effect of green tea:
When it comes to the tea’s therapeutic effect, it was shown that catechins and theaflavin extracted from green and black tea are present in the human prostate after consumption and are thus readily bioavailable. [10] In mouse models, these active ingredients also inhibit the growth of prostate cancer cells. [11]
The vitamin K-family: the “miracle vitamin” K2
Plant-based vitamin K1, the blood clotting vitamin, is part of a family of structurally related fat-soluble vitamins that also includes vitamin K2 (Menochinon). Vitamin K2 is of animal or bacterial origin and has functions that are different from those of vitamin K1 - something that the German, Austrian and Swiss nutrition societies have not yet taken into account in their recommendations.
Vitamin K2 deficiency leads to decreased bone density and vascular calcification (the fact that calcium that is broken down where it is needed and ends up in places where it does harm, is referred to as the calcium paradox [12]). In connection with effect of vitamin K2 on blood vessels, experts even suspect that prostate problems could be understood as a kind of vitamin K deficiency disease. [13]
The most important forms of vitamin K2 are MK4 and MK7. While MK4 is found mainly in dairy products, MK7 is present in bacterially fermented foods like sour dough, sauerkraut or natto, a Japanese soy product. But please note: the MK4 in dietary supplements is synthetic, while MK7 is always of natural (bacterial) origin.
There is yet another reason why MK7 is preferable to synthetic MK4: according to a study conducted at the University of Maastricht in 2002, the bioavailability of synthetic MK4 is extremely poor. Subjects were given MK4 or MK7 once only or every day for a week in the same doses. Only MK7 was detectable in the blood, and that up to 48 hours after the one-time ingestion. [14]
Vitamin K2 is one of the reasons why traditional, fermented foods are very healthy - and one of the reasons for people’s excellent state of health in cultures where such products are still part of the diet on a regular basis (such as in Japan).
Preventive and therapeutic effects of vitamin K2 against prostate cancer
By the way, many varieties of vitamin K2 are effective against tumour cells. Vitamin K2 stops the growth of prostate cancer cells in laboratory experiments. [15]
A large European study that looked at the health and lifestyle habits of more than 24,000 participants for 10 years found a relationship between an increased intake of vitamin K2 (but not of vitamin K1!) in the diet and a significantly decreased risk of lung and prostate cancer in men. The authors of the study talk about a 35 percent reduction in prostate cancer risk given a sufficient intake of vitamin K2. [16]
Don’t waste any more time and start benefitting from the effects pomegranate, green tea and vitamin K2 on the health of your prostate
Longlife Granatum™ + Vitamin K2 and Green Tea Extract is a dietary supplement that combines the proven beneficial properties of pomegranate and green tea extracts with those of vitamin K2 to help prevent prostate cancer. Longlife Granatum™ + Vitamin K2 and Green Tea Extract is the only product on the market containing vitamin K2 in form of MK7 Vitamin K2 as microencapsulated MK7 with 100% biologically-active all-trans isomers.
Each gelatin-free capsule contains 200 mg of polyphenols, including ellagic acid from freshly squeezed and gently dried pomegranate juice and pomegranate seed and peel extracts sourced from certified organic fruits, as well as epigallocatechin gallate, the most valuable catechin from green tea extract. One capsule of Longlife Granatum™ + Vitamin K2 and Green Tea Extract also contains 37.5 micrograms of vitamin K2 that is protected from contact to external influences, through the use of encapsulation. This means that it is not damaged and its potency is not reduced.
By taking two or three capsules a day, you will absorb the medically recommended amounts of these ingredients (70-80 micrograms of vitamin K and 500 mg of polyphenols) and achieve the ideal preventive effect against prostate cancer. Longlife Granatum™ + Vitamin K2 and Green Tea Extract is also suitable for supporting tumour therapy.
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Anacardic acid (6-pentadecylsalicylic acid) inhibits tumor angiogenesis by targeting Src/FAK/Rho GTPases signaling pathway. Wu Y, He L, Zhang L, Chen J, Yi Z, Zhang J, Liu M, Pang X. J Pharmacol Exp Ther. 339 2011
2 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3551327/
Anacardic acid (6-pentadecylsalicylic acid) induces apoptosis of prostate cancer cells through inhibition of androgen receptor and activation of p53 signaling. Tan J, Chen B, He L, Tang Y, Jiang Z, Yin G, Wang J, Jiang X. Chin J Cancer Res. 24 2012
3 http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jf000404a
Antioxidant activity of pomegranate juice and its relationship with phenolic composition and processing. Gil MI, Tomas-Barberan FA, Hess-Pierce B, Holcroft DM, Kader AA, Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 48 2000
4 http://clincancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/12/13/4018.long
Phase II study of pomegranate juice for men with rising prostate-specific antigen following surgery or radiation for prostate cancer. Pantuck AJ1, Leppert JT, Zomorodian N, Aronson W, Hong J, Barnard RJ, Seeram N, Liker H, Wang H, Elashoff R, Heber D, Aviram M, Ignarro L, Belldegrun A. Clin Cancer Res. 12 2006
5 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960076014000351
Pomegranate extracts impact the androgen biosynthesis pathways in prostate cancer models in vitro and in vivo. Ming DS, Pham S, Deb S, et al. The Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 143 2014.
6 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2610864/
Pomegranate polyphenols down-regulate expression of androgen-synthesizing genes in human prostate cancer cells overexpressing the androgen receptor. Hong MY, Seeram NP, Heber D. Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry 19 2008
7 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1253570/
Pomegranate fruit juice for chemoprevention and chemotherapy of prostate cancer. Malik A, Afaq F, Sarfaraz S, Adhami VM, Syed DN, Mukhtar H. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 102 2005.
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Oral infusion of pomegranate fruit extract inhibits prostate carcinogenesis in the TRAMP model. Adhami VM, Siddiqui IA, Syed DN, Lall RK, Mukhtar H. Carcinogenesis 33 2012
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