‘Standard’ prostate cancer treatment doubles risk of Alzheimer’s
It’s a junk science cancer treatment that’s being forced on half a million men a year!
Including maybe you or someone you love.
If you’ve been diagnosed with prostate cancer, there’s a good chance you were told that something called androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) would save your life. It slows your body’s production of natural testosterone down to a trickle.
But now some of the country’s top researchers are warning that ADT could actually double your chances of developing mind-mugging Alzheimer’s disease in just months.
And it may just turn your cancer deadlier than ever.
If you’ve ever gotten ADT, you know exactly what I’m talking about.
Once ADT basically flips the “off” switch on your testosterone, you feel tired, weak and irritable — and lots of guys even end up impotent.
But what ADT is doing to your sex life (which is bad enough!) may be nothing compared to the permanent damage it’s inflicting on your brain.
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and Stanford University studied the records of more than 16,000 men with prostate cancer — ones treated with ADT and ones who were not.
They found that men given ADT for just over 12 months had twice the Alzheimer’s risk as those who skipped the hormone therapy. It seems the longer men are on this therapy, the greater the risk.
And that just makes sense.
You see, the male hormones like testosterone that ADT suppresses may actually keep something called beta amyloid protein low in your bloodstream. But once ADT kicks in, these proteins can run wild and form the “amyloid plaques” found in the brains of those with Alzheimer’s.
The anti-hormone therapy might also harm blood vessels, leading to problems with brain function, researchers said.
The results were so dramatic that even the American Cancer Society — which has hardly ever met a mainstream cancer treatment it wouldn’t support — is beating a hasty retreat. It sure took them long enough!
“We know these drugs are harmful and we know that these drugs are overused,” said Dr. Otis Brawley, the chief medical officer at ACS.
Overused? You’d practically be better off treating your cancer with voodoo than this stuff!
I don’t know why the mainstream keeps pushing this notion that shutting off your testosterone will starve and kill tumors — but there’s plenty of science proving that they’re dead wrong.
For example, a study done nine years ago found the men with the lowest levels of testosterone appear to have a higher risk of prostate cancer.
Plus, research out of the University of Chicago nearly 20 years ago showed that testosterone may actually help you fight cancer. In the later stages of the development of prostate tumors, testosterone can actually cause the tumors to shrink and even stop growing.
At the time the researchers said that prolonged ADT treatments should “no longer be routine.”
But it’s really the entire routine in treating prostate cancer that should be making an about face.
I recently told you how well-respected experts, including Dr. Herbert Lepor, who is chair of the department of urology at NYU Langone Medical Center, are now saying that most prostate cancers would be best not even diagnosed!
That’s because the majority of prostate cancers are not serious enough to threaten your life, and the treatment a man gets might very well end up killing him long before the disease does.
Being told you have prostate cancer is scary, and I understand why any guy would want to act immediately.
But if you’re being pushed toward ADT, do yourself a favor and get a second opinion — or even a third.
Because you deserve better than a treatment that could steal your precious memories and independence — and maybe even make your cancer worse.
Sources:
“Common prostate cancer treatment may double risk for Alzheimer’s” Maggie Fox, December 7, 2015, NBC News, nbcnews.com
