PROSTATE CANCER : THE BURDEN OF MEN. PART 6.

If you are a man, this could be the most important thing piece of information you will ever read today. 

If you are a married woman, this information certainly concerns your husband. 

If you are a single lady, what you will learn today from this article, could save your brothers, friends and associates who are men. 

I am here today to present to you with scientific evidence and the mechanism of the role diet plays in the formation of prostate cancer. 

As we have seen with other forms of cancer, large-scale observational studies show a link between prostate cancer and an animal-based diet, particularly one based heavily on dairy (cow milk). 

Understanding the mechanism behind the observed link between prostate cancer and clinches the argument. 

The first mechanism concerns a hormone that increases cancer cell growth, a hormone that our body bodies make, as needed. 

This growth hormone, insulin-like growth factor 1( IGF-1), is turning out to be a predictor of cancer just as cholesterol is a predictor for heart disease. 

Under normal circumstances, this hormone efficiently manages the rate at which cells “grow” – that’s, how they reproduce themselves and how they discard old cells, all in the name of good health. 

Under unhealthy conditions, however, IGF-1 becomes more active, increasing the birth and growth of new cells while simultaneously inhibiting the removal of old cells, both of which favor the development of cancer ( seven studies cited) 

So, what does this have to do with the food we eat? 

It turns out that consuming animal-based foods increases the blood levels of this growth hormone, IGF-1. 

With regards to the prostate, people with higher than normal blood levels of IGF-1 have been shown to have 5.1 times the risk of advanced-stage prostate cancer. 

There’s more :

When men also have low levels of a protein that binds and inactivates (renders ineffective) IGF-1, they will have 9.5 times the risk of advanced-stage prostate cancer. 

Let’s put a few stars by the numbers. 

They are big and impressive – and fundamental to this finding is the fact that we make more IGF-1 when we consume animal-based foods like meat and dairy. 

The second mechanism relates to vitamin D metabolism.