As a preface, I understand everyone is different and what may work for one, may not for others. Still, this story seems appropriate for this group and timely as well. I am 72 and was diagnosed a year ago with prostate cancer. Though the recent June 2020 reading was relatively low at 6.8, up from 6.4 and 5.7 in 2018 and 2016, malignant lesion was on edge of prostate. This made migration beyond prostate a concern. Doctor offered two choices only: Radiation and Surgery (watch and wait risky due to migration and PSA trend consistently upward for 8 years). With 2 options, I chose radiation and was not fearful in least. I am convinced there are no coincidences in life. Two days prior to first treatment my Chinese daughter in law asked if I had heard of The China Study. She did not explain the topic. Out of respect to her, I downloaded what I thought was the history of China and left audiobook aside without investigating. Went to first radiation appointment two days later and… A sign on the door said that 6 feet of water had flooded office the night before. Everything lost. Office shutdown for foreseeable future and radiation rescheduled with new doctor two weeks later. Frustrated, decided to listen to Chinese history. Whoops. A guide to healthy diet and purported effect on prostate cancer and other maladies. Eighteen hours of listening and a few days later, I told my family I wanted to try to steady my prostate cancer with a vegan diet prior to committing to start of radiation. This was based upon the book’s positive view. My family was terrified at the crazy person that had overtaken my body, but only agreed on grounds that weekly PSA be taken. Any PSA rise would trigger immediate radiation treatment. That way, any potential PSA improvements would only be due to diet/exercise, not radiation at same time. My doctor said that there is no correlation between diet and Prostate Cancer and that it was a waste of time. He said there would be no change in the PSA scores since my trend had been up for almost ten years. Even if there was a change, it would be two or three months before it would be noticed. Still, he agreed with the plan since it included a weekly PSA bloodwork to ensure stability. After one week of vegan diet, my PSA had fallen slightly from 6.8 to 6.6 (June/2020 to 8/15/20 reading). Doctor said within statistical error and it would go back up. After two weeks it had fallen to 5.3, below 2016 level. The third week, it remained at 5.3 and I thought I had reached my new norm. The fourth week it fell to 5.0, then 4.7 and now 4.4 in this sixth week. Many weeks remain but the start is obviously encouraging. My further research points to animal protein as being a potential culprit in the cause of many of our diseases. This would not be a popular view of the Beef, Chicken, Pork, Fish, Dairy and Egg industries, or the Pharmaceutical Industry, and push back would be expected. Still, my personal experience with weekly blood test data from the lab, shows something that my doctors insisted would not occur. Happy to answer any questions. I’m not selling anything here, folks, just trying to get out information which might be helpful. For people in the watch and wait” phase, prior to a Radiation or Surgery choice, I wish doctors would at least offer this diet as an option, even if they called it a “Hail Mary” option (to use a football term). I also fully understand that my situation could go to Hell in a hand basket at any point. But for now, this is an exciting development I wanted to share. Hoping this information may be additionally helpful to this group. Today I received my results on my latest tests. My PSA went from 4.4 to 4.6 but still is a 30% drop in 7 weeks.
Thanks for reading.
–Ron Gaus, St. Louis