Month: April 2024

As promised, the analyzed results of the MEAL study (2011-15) described below were finally published by JAMA in January, 2020.iIf the authors were hoping to show that increasing vegetable intake could slow progression of prostate cancer (PCa) among patients on Active Surveillance, they must have been... keep reading

Don’t read this blog if any of these statements describes you: • You don’t care if you ever get cancer • You don’t care about great health when you age • You don’t believe your lifestyle affects how long you live. In other words, if you’re a fatalist, this blog is not for you. A keep reading

Many symptoms, diseases or injuries are so clear-cut that diagnosing them is a no brainer. The body’s problem gives clear information and no guesswork is involved. Whether it’s a painful shingles rash, a rapidly swelling sprained ankle, or sudden crushing chest pain, a visit to your doctor or Emergency Department results in a rapid assessment, keep reading

More and more prostate cancer patients and their doctors are turning to Active Surveillance (AS). Data shows that for carefully chosen low risk patients, AS is a way to hold off on treatment like surgery or radiation without significantly increasing the chances of death from prostate cancer... keep reading

Before a prostate cancer patient makes a final decision to have focal laser ablation, I go over the details of MRI-guided FLA and what to expect after treatment. I remind each person that it’s important to monitor for PCa recurrence. After any focal treatment (cryo, HIFU, Focal Laser Ablation, MRgFUS, TULSA) PCa can either come back in the treatment site—called treatment failure, meaning the treatment did not destroy all the cancer at the site—or recur in a different location... keep reading

A January 2024 journal article begins, “Yoga is widely used as a therapeutic approach to enhance physical and mental well-being, addressing various biophysiological issues.”[i] It may sound rather generic, but the paper is actually about prostate health. Its authors call for new clinical studies on how yoga may help men with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) keep reading

Good detective stories may have crossed your early path in life. Perhaps you read vintage classics like the classic Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys books, or more recently Nate the Great and Encyclopedia Brown. If you got hooked, you advanced to classic tales about Sherlock Holmes, Miss Marple and others. Our TVs brought Sgt. Columbo keep reading

I was alarmed by a recent article about patients who feel like their doctors ignore or dismiss their symptoms or problems. Not only would this be frustrating—even infuriating—in some cases the patients come away wondering if they’re crazy. If so, it’s called medical gaslighting, a term that traced to a dark 1938 stage play (and keep reading

If the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning had been an exercise coach, she might have penned this: “How does exercise help thee? Let me count the ways…” It would have to extend beyond a 14-line sonnet, because vigorous workouts have so many benefits it’s mind-boggling. But before you think I’m going to bore you by repeating keep reading

The term “biochemical failure” means the presence of a rising PSA after any prostate cancer treatment. In fact, a rising PSA is the gold standard for suspecting prostate cancer recurrence (the cancer has come back). However, a precise, universal standard for defining biochemical failure is difficult because... keep reading