Dr. Donald Abrams, cancer and integrative medicine specialist at the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at Mount Zion was on CureTalks and during the talk he outlined diet and supplementation advice for prostate cancer patients.
Dr. Abrams provides integrative medicine consultations for cancer patients and has completed research in complementary and alternative therapies including mind-body treatments, botanical therapies, medical use of marijuana and traditional Chinese medicine herbal therapies. In addition to his role at the Osher center, he is chief of Hematology and Oncology at San Francisco General Hospital.
What to Eat if you are a Prostate Cancer Survivor.
- Prostate cancer survivors, first of all benefit from not being obese and not having a body mass index greater than 25. If they do, then it is recommended that they go on a reduction diet.
- Diet that Dr. Abrams recommends for everybody is organic, plant based, antioxidant rich, anti-inflammatory whole food.
- For prostate cancer, lycopene or the active ingredient in tomatoes is good because it has been shown to be beneficial. Lycopene needs to be oil extracted, so tomato paste or tomato sauce is the best source as opposed to eating raw tomatoes. Water melon and grapefruit also have lycopene.
- Dr. Abrams also favors soy for prostate cancer patients.
- Deep cold water fish that are rich in omega-3 fatty acids is the next item on Dr. Abrams’ prostate cancer plate. There is just a bit of controversy about omega-3 fatty acids that it may increase risk of prostate cancer. But, Dr. Abrams says that think salmon, black cod, albacore tuna, herring, mackerel, and sardines are all good fish, rich in omega-3’s and should be consumed by prostate cancer patients. And since these may not be available to eat every day, an omega-3 fatty acid supplement should be consumed.
- Pomegranate is also something that has been shown to slow PSA rises.
- And there was a recommendation that 8 ounces of pomegranate juice should be consumed.
Now, here is again another one of those situations where I am concerned about the amount of sugar in pomegranate juice without the fiber that’s associated with eating a pomegranate. So, that’s one time where I prefer that my patients actually might take one of those pomegranate capsules as opposed to drinking that much sugar.
- Green tea is something he recommends for most of his cancer patients, but it particularly has been shown to be of benefit in men with prostate cancer.
- As far as supplements are concerned,
I measure all of my patient’s 25-hydroxy vitamin D levels to make sure that their vitamin D is normal. Low vitamin D has been associated with increased risk of a number of cancers, including breast, prostate, colon, and pancreatic and in some of those cancers, it’s been demonstrated that patients with low vitamin D levels have outcomes that are not as good as patients whose vitamin D levels have been normalized. So, I do recommend vitamin D supplementation.
- Calcium is interesting because calcium and prostate cancer is a little controversial. There is some suggestion that calcium may increase the risk of prostate cancer. Some people think that dairy products increasing the risk of prostate cancer and not calcium per se. However, in Singapore where they don’t consume a lot of dairy because they are lactose intolerant, it was demonstrated that calcium content of vegetable intake was associated with a greater risk of prostate cancer.
- Some sort of a mushroom blend can help all cancer survivors.
- There is some evidence that turmeric again may be useful in prostate cancer patients and one particular proprietary supplement called Zyflamend – which is a 10 botanical cox-2 inhibitor, has been demonstrated to reverse early prostate intraepithelial neoplasia.
- Also, physical activity is very important. You know we tend to think in our western pharmaceutically dominated paradigm that if you take something and swallow with a glass of water, that’s easier than making a lifestyle change. Of course, it’s very difficult to implement 30 to 60 minutes of physical activity daily into our busy schedule, but that is something that has a very positive effect in breast, prostate, colon, and a number of other malignancies.
Catch Dr. Abram’s complete recommendations HERE.
