Ask me why I drink Pomegranate juice for my prostate ?
February 20th, 2009 Posted in Uncategorized
There is nothing like a good kick in the privates to get your attention, or the words from a doctor…informing you that you have prostate cancer. Somewhere around two hundred thousand men will hear those words this year and about twenty eight thousand men will die of prostate cancer.
What’s a guy to do…?
Well, we have couple of options:
a) We can shrug our shoulders and say “Hey we got to die of something” (true, but this is a preventable cause of death)
Or,
b) We can become proactive and take preventative steps that are known to protect the prostate gland against cancer (I’ll take this option)
One promising new tool against prostate cancer is Pomegranate juice. Studies on the effects of pomegranate juice and prostate cancer have been steadily accumulating over the past decade and now the evidence is pretty remarkable and deserves attention.
Pomegranate juice displays both preventative and therapeutic activity against prostate cancer cells.
The latest study shows that pomegranate juice exhibits significant anti-cancer properties with prostate cells.
How does it work?
In simple terms, pomegranate protects the prostate in two ways:
1) Pomegranate prevents the expression (production) of genes that help to stimulate growth and proliferation of cancer cells, in other words it helps to prevent the onset of prostate cancer in the 1st place and therefore it may be considered as “chemoprevention”
2) Pomegranate causes prostate cancer cells to self-destruct a process known as apoptosis.
Pomegranate juice also, slows the progression of cancer in those men who have already been diagnosed with prostate cancer, including those who have had surgery or radiation treatments. In fact pomegranate has been shown to increase the time it takes for the PSA levels to double…Translation: Good News!
Why haven’t we heard more about this?
One reason is that Pomegranate juice/extract can’t be patented and therefore there is no pharmaceutical goldmine to be explored, another reason is that it cannot claim to be the absolute cure but…it is definitely a tool that should be part of our preventative regimen.
Prevention is best
Some other steps shown to be preventative in prostate and other cancers include;
- Reducing the intake of red meat & animal products in our diet (notice that I do not say eliminate…but only reduce these products to a minimum)
- Exercise regularly, which means…move your butt, get out of breath & sweat
- Reduce alcohol intake…once again, reduction not complete elimination
- Use a prostate supplement for added protection, one containing saw palmetto, pumpkin seed & zinc. Also, add Curcumin which has shown to possess anti-inflammatory and anti cancer activities.
So, ask me do I drink pomegranate juice? …You bet I do
I am going to add this guard dog to my layer of protection against prostate cancer.