Mistaken Judgment:  Prostate Cancer Hormone Treatment (I)

I was at the WABER Conference for Academic writing and Publication at the University of Ghana and one of the participants chanced on me during the break; immediately, the conversation on the Balls in Danger began. She told me how the documentary portrays castration as the only option men have when diagnosed with prostate cancer and I said no. I explained that the documentary rather portrays the ordeal men go through when diagnosed with prostate cancer with treatment that has no evidence yet administered.

We all know that if the foundation of a house is strong, the house can easily withstand external sources of stress, such as a violent storm or even an earthquake. As we shall see, cancer is merely an indication that something has been missing in our body and in our life. Cancer reveals that some aspect of our physical, mental and spiritual life stands on shaky ground and is quite fragile, to say the least.

It would be foolish for a gardener to water the withering leaves of a tree when he knows so well that the real problem is not where it appears to be, namely, on the level of those withered leaves. The dehydration of the leaves is merely a symptom of lacking water in the less apparent part of the plant - its root system. By watering the roots of the plant, the gardener naturally attends to the causative level, and consequently, the whole plant becomes revived and resumes its normal growth. To the trained eye of a gardener, the symptom of withering leaves is not a dreadful disease. He recognizes that the dehydrated state of these leaves is but a direct consequence of withdrawn nourishment that they need to sustain themselves and the rest of the plant.

Although this example from nature may appear to be a simplistic analogy, it nevertheless offers a basic understanding of some very complex disease processes in the human body. It accurately describes one of the most powerful and fundamental principles controlling all life forms on the planet. However skilled we may have become at manipulating the functions of our body through the tools of allopathic medicine, this basic law of nature cannot be suppressed or violated without paying the hefty price of suffering ill-health on the physical, emotional, and spiritual levels.

I fervently challenge the statement that hormone treatment is the ideal to go for prostate cancer patient. Prostate cancer is not a killer disease.

Prostate Cancer Hormone Therapy:
Types
Orchiectomy (surgical castration)
Although a type of surgery, this method is used as a form of hormone therapy. The operation involves a surgeon removing the testicles where the body makes most of the androgens (testosterone). By doing this the prostate cancer will cease to grow or shrink for a period of time, however, the procedure is permanent.

Luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LHRH) analogs

These drugs are designed to lower the amount of testosterone made by the testicles and is commonly known as chemical castration because the lower androgen levels just as effectively as orchiectomy. The drugs allow the testicles to remain; however, they will shrink over time and eventually become too small to feel.

These drugs are the most popular form of prostate cancer hormone treatment and taken either by injection or as small implants under the skin. LHRH analogs include; leuprolide (Lupron, Eligard), goserelin (Zoladex), triptorelin (Trelstar), and histrelin (Vantas).

Prostate Cancer Hormone Treatment: Side Effects
The side effects that occur alongside hormone therapy for prostate cancer are unavoidable and irreversible, and have been recognized as such by medical professionals. “The side effects….are part and parcel of that particular approach to therapy,” said Durado Brooks, director of prostate and colorectal cancer at the American Cancer Society.

The most common side effects include:
Decreased mental capacity, feelings of depression and tiredness

Decreased bone and muscle mass
Weight gain
Hot flashes
Anemia
Sore breasts/ growth of excess breast tissue
On top of these side effects there is the loss of sex drive, erectile dysfunction and other general sexual problems. The effects of this can be destructive to your relationship, masculinity and overall happiness.

Prostate Cancer UK have provided answers to the questions most men ask regarding sexual problems relating to prostate cancer hormone treatment and although a positive spin has been put on the answers it is clear that the effects are devastating.

Urologist Accounts of Testosterone and Prostate cancer

I promised telling you about the work of international acclaimed urologist who demystified the testosterone and prostate cancer myth. I picked his work and some questions men asked him after his article was published in the Life Extension Magazine owned by Life Extension Foundation. All opinions are his professional one in this article.

Prof. Abraham Morgentaler, MD, is a leading international figure in the fields of testosterone therapy, prostate cancer, and male sexuality. Dr. Morgentaler was born in Montreal, Canada. He graduated from Harvard College in 1978, and Harvard Medical School in 1982. Dr. Morgentaler completed his residency in 1988 from the Harvard Program in Urology, and then joined the faculty of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School. He is currently an Associate Professor of Surgery (Urology), Part-time, at Harvard Medical School. In 1999 Dr. Morgentaler founded Men's Health Boston, the first Men’s Health center in the US, focusing on sexual, reproductive, and hormonal health for men.

Dr. Morgentaler is credited with shattering the decades-old belief that testosterone therapy is risky for prostate cancer, and pioneering the modern use of testosterone in men. More recently, Dr. Morgentaler has been a leading scientific figure in the global discussion regarding cardiovascular risks of testosterone therapy. Dr. Morgentaler has published over 130 scientific articles, including leading medical journals such as The New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, The Journal of the American Medical Association, and Cancer.

He has co-chaired the popular Endocrine Forum at the annual meeting of the American Urological Association for the last 12 years. Dr. Morgentaler has been an invited speaker in over 20 countries on five continents. He is the author of the best-selling books, The Truth About Men and Sex, Testosterone For Life, and The Viagra Myth.

Dr. Morgentaler has been featured on many national television shows and major popular publications, including The NBC Nightly News, The CBS Early Morning Show, CNN with Anderson Cooper, Time Magazine, The New Yorker, Newsweek, The New York Times, and The Wall street Journal.

Destroying the Myth About Testosterone Replacement and Prostate Cancer

This is his interview in the Life extension Magazine in 2008:

For decades, the medical establishment erroneously conjectured that testosterone replacement therapy increases one’s risk of prostate cancer.

Harvard-based Abraham Morgentaler, MD, FACS, has demonstrated this theory to be mistaken. Contrary to the notion that restoring testosterone to youthful levels is somehow risky, Dr. Morgentaler meticulously shows an increased risk of prostate cancer in aging men with low testosterone. This same information about the dangers of low testosterone was long ago uncovered by the Life Extension Foundation.

In this exclusive excerpt from his book, Testosterone for Life, Dr. Morgentaler recounts how it takes years, even decades, to correct a medical myth. In this case, the medical establishment’s misconception about testosterone and prostate cancer has condemned millions of aging men to suffer degenerative diseases caused by testosterone deficiency.

Until just a few years ago, it was almost universally believed that T [testosterone] therapy would lead to some degree of increased risk of prostate cancer. During that time testosterone therapy was seen to represent the proverbial pact with the devil, by trading short-term sexual and physical rewards for the ultimate development of a malignant cancer. Fortunately, this belief has been shown to be incorrect, and medical opinion has begun to shift quite dramatically, with good evidence that testosterone therapy is quite safe for the prostate. There is even now a growing concern that low testosterone is a risk for prostate cancer rather than high testosterone.

How the original fear about T and prostate cancer came to be is a fantastic story involving Nobel Prize winners, medical breakthroughs, and a critical paradox that took two-thirds of a century to solve. In the end, it is also a cautionary tale of how it may take years—even decades—to correct a medical “truth” once it has been established. I have taken great pleasure in participating myself in the evolution of attitudes regarding T and prostate cancer, and here describe how this all took place.

The relationship of testosterone to prostate cancer has undergone a significant reevaluation, and all recent evidence has reinforced the position that testosterone therapy is safe for the prostate. I’ve been fortunate to have participated in the evolution of this idea, which is of critical importance to anyone considering testosterone therapy.

Dr. Raphael Nyarkotey Obu: PhD is a research Professor of Prostate cancer and Holistic Medicine at Da Vinci College of Holistic Medicine, Larnaca city, Cyprus and the National President of the Alternative Medical Association of Ghana(AMAG). He is also the President of Men’s Health Foundation Ghana