Prostate cancer is second to lung cancer as the most common kind of cancer. It afflicts man only because only man has the prostate gland. It is a dreaded disease because of its nature and is not known when it strikes. The cause is not yet completely understood. So ways of preventing it, treating it, and curing it are not yet established.
The prostate is a gland between the bladder and the urethra. The cancer partially blocks the flow of urine through the urethra. It may cause bloody urine, pain in hips and back, weight loss, and paleness.
Prostate cancer can be detected by prostate specific antigen (PSA) and by digital rectal examination (DRE). This cancer typically takes a long time to develop which gives an opportunity to stop or cure it.
Germ theory of disease
In conventional medicine, one of the frameworks being employed in dealing with prostate cancer is the germ theory of disease. This framework was inaugurated by Louis Pasteur, a French microbiologist and chemist, in 1881-84. He transformed the belief that bacteria that cause infection comes out spontaneously. He was the first to vaccinate sheep successfully against anthrax, a highly infectious, and often fatal, bacterial disease of mammals, especially sheep and cattle, that is contagious to humans. In 1882, one of his renowned experiments resulted in the prevention of rabies. “Louis Pasteur brought about a veritable revolution in the 19th-century scientific method”, (Encyclopedia Britannica 2009). The process of ‘pasteurization’ was coined from his name.
Pasteur’s method is now embodied in a standard procedure, namely:
“1. Establish a constant association of the organism with the disease.
2. Isolate the organism from the diseased plant and grow it in pure culture.
3. Inoculate healthy plants of the same species or variety with the organism from the pure culture to reproduce the disease.
4. Re-isolate the same organism from the inoculated plants as was present in the pure culture.
In other words, the artificially-produced disease should yield the same pathogen upon re-isolation,” according to Dr. Eusebio in his work with plants. (Eusebio, M., Ph.D. 2000. Pathology in Forestry, page 27).
In order to be applicable to people, in Item 2, one may substitute “sick person” for “diseased plants”. In Item 3, substitute “healthy person” for “healthy plants” and in Item 4, substitute “inoculated person” for “inoculated plants”.
Robert Koch was a German bacteriologist and physician who discovered the bacterium that causes tuberculosis. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1905. The following are Koch’s postulates:
“1. A specific microorganism is always associated with a given disease.
2. The microorganism can be isolated from the diseased animal and grown in pure culture in the laboratory.
3. The cultured microbe will cause disease when transferred to a healthy animal.
4.The same type of microorganism can be isolated from the newly infected animal.” (Encyclopedia Britannica 2009).
Sometimes prostate cancer is referred to as non-communicable disease. Clearly, this concept is valid with the assumption that a microbe causes it; but prostate cancer has a cause other than microorganisms.
Shift in strategy
If we are to lick prostate cancer, there should be a shift in strategy. It is well known that prostate cancer is caused by a mutation. But conventional medicine would stop there, or it would say further that mutation is a change in the chromosome or gene, the functional entity. The ultimate treatment it recommends is chemotherapy.
Cummings has a long discussion on how cancer starts with a genetic change. He also discusses how environmental factors initiate mutation. However, he does not elaborate on how free radicals cause a mutation in genes (Cummings, M. 2009, Human Heredity Principles and Issues).
Recently, scientists at the University of the Philippines Manila found out that “noni juice has cytotoxic effects both on normal lymphocytes, mouse myeloma, and human colon cancer cell lines that were used”, (De Guzman, T; L. R. Embuscado, B. Monte, Valdez, Ma. T. 2004. “A Preliminary Study on the In vitro Anti-Cancer Potential of the Commercial Preparation and Decoction of Morinda citrifolia.” The UP Manila Journal, vol. 9, pages 42-53). Tested were commercial capsule, tea, and fresh fruits. All three extracts at 5% concentration down to 2.5% were effective on normal lymphocytes; all three at 5% down to 1.25% were effective on colon cancer; capsule extract at 5% down to 2.5% was effective on mouse myeloma cells. Lymphocyte is an antibody, a defense against foreign body invasion; myeloma is malignant tumor of bone marrow.
“The results showed that particular concentration of noni juice extracts could kill cancer cells in vitro”, the scientists in the journal article concluded. (In vitro means via test tube). Such a low concentration is already strong enough; a higher one would be more effective.
The researchers admit that boiling could have reduced the anti-cancer activity of noni juice. The next step, they said, is to isolate the active ingredient of noni against cancer. Their assumption is reductionism, one of the mainstays of conventional medicine.
Framework shift
Suppose a crash research project on prostate cancer with free radical theories of disease as the premise were conducted. It appears that advocates of this framework are very busy in their clinical practice in cardiovascular chelation therapy.
An article recently published reported of one possible link to prostate cancer being that the prostate gland has the highest concentration of zinc among all organs of the body. Why? A similar question has been answered elsewhere. The heart has the highest concentration of coenzyme Q10 of all organs of the body. The reason is that CoQ10 is involved in the production of energy. A step in the cytochrome system in the metabolism of glucose has obiquinone, a common name for CoQ10, as the recipient of an electron cascading down the system, as it were. One glucose molecule yields 38 molecules of adenosine triphosphate, the currency of energy. The other steps have iron. The heart needs energy the most because of its non-stop pumping (Bliznakov, E., M.D. and G. L. Hunt. 1986. The Miracle Nutrient Coenzyme Q10).
Zinc guards against prostate cancer. It is concentrated in semen and the prostate gland (Ulen, A., MD. 2000. Dr. Art Ulene’s Complete Guide to Vitamins, Minerals and Herbs, page 205).
How does zinc do this? Zinc is a component of superoxide dismutase, an enzyme antioxidant, built-in in the body. It is part of the body’s arsenal in its battle against free radicals and is mainly responsible for our body’s survival from free radical attack.
The discovery of superoxide dismutase only in 1969; it had scientists asking: what it’s doing there and why. The discovery also led to another discovery of superoxide in the cell that validated the free radical paradigm of diseases (Sharma, H. MD, Freedom from Disease, pages 31-32).
The free radical concept has an explanation for spontaneous mutation. The helical structure of the DNA, component of the chromosome, has several hydrogen bonds. There are three kinds of bonds that bind together atoms and molecules: ionic bond, covalent bond, and hydrogen bond. Hydrogen bond is the weakest, being only 5 percent as strong as a covalent or ionic bond, according to Gerard J. Tortora and Joseph F. Becker in the book “Life Science.” That is why the electron of a hydrogen atom is easy prey for a free radical to grab. A hydrogen atom is hard to repair, if at all, because it has only one electron and one proton. So free radical attacks on hydrogen bonds of the DNA result in injury that trigger a spontaneous mutation.
The cell has a built-in repair system like apoptosis or programmed cell death. For example, hemoglobin of the blood has a lifespan of 140 days; that is, it is replaced every 140 days. Any defect it has sustained will be thrown away with its ejection. But sometimes the repair system fails and defects pile up that the tissue is unable to throw away a defective cell. A cancer cell is like that, a defective cell that could not be repaired or thrown away and grows uncontrolled. Free radicals can injure the switch (gene p53) of the repair system. They can also damage cell receptors that result in mutation.
It is interesting to find the extent by which free radicals cause so-called spontaneous mutation. A focus on medical research employing the free radical theories of disease will find that. Then counters to free radicals will cure the manifestations of spontaneous mutation in the body — cancer in particular, including prostate cancer.
Pragmatism in curing prostate cancer
There are three phases in the trial of a new drug before its approval for public consumption. These phases take a long time, and they are expensive. As a shortcut, pragmatism is employed. For our purpose, pragmatism is simply: If it works it is true.
Pragmatism was utilized in vaccination. Pasteur controlled rabies by vaccination. Koch controlled tuberculosis by vaccination. What they did was to take a small amount of microbes from an infected person, then weaken the microbe so that when injected into a healthy person, it would not result in disease. That way the healthy person becomes immune to the same disease.
The mechanism of vaccination was not understood. However, it prevented infection. In another article, I will explain the mechanism of vaccination, although you can access that information from the Internet.
Pragmatism was also employed in the use of nitroglycerin in the alleviation of angina or chest pain in a person afflicted with heart disease. During an episode of angina, a patient was given tablets (Isordil, Imdur) or patches of nitroglycerin. Angina subsided. The reason was that the arteries dilated, allowing more blood flow.
However, it was not known how nitroglycerin dilated arteries. It was only recently that the mechanism became known with the medical research of Robert Futchgott, Ferid Murad, and Louis Ignarro. Futchgott observed that the inner wall of the artery (endothelium) produced a relaxing factor called endothelium-derived relaxing factor (ERDF). Murad found that nitroglycerin produces nitric oxide, a gas free radical. Ignarro found that ERDF and nitric oxide are the same. So, the endothelium produced nitric oxide that dilate the artery. The three were awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine in 1998.
Pragmatism can be employed in the case of noni juice, tea or capsules. The mechanism is not known. However, application of noni formulations result in death of colon cancer cells.
Elements from plants can be used to prevent, treat, and cure prostate cancer. Zinc, selenium, vitamin B2, glutamate, cysteine, cystine, and lipoic acid are the components of the antioxidant glutathione peroxidase. All the elements, except lipoic acid, are available in plants. For example, we get zinc from amaranth, selenium from cashew nuts, glutamate from starch (cereals, potato), and we get cysteine and cystine from garlic and onion. Some plants give us B2. The body produces lipoic acid. In short we can counter prostate cancer with medicinal plants.