By Michael Castleman

Prostate cancer is the Rodney Dangerfield of malignancies. It gets no respect, or at least a lot less than it deserves. The disease is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in men, accounting for more than twice as many diagnoses as male lung cancer. In terms of the number of new cases, and the percentage that prove fatal, the statistics are similar to those for breast cancer. But unlike with breast cancer, there is no sense of national urgency about the disease, no Run for the Cure to sign up for.

Still, a diagnosis of prostate cancer is just as frightening for a man as news of breast cancer is for a woman. And even when prostate cancer isn’t fatal, treatment for it can wreak havoc with the quality of a man’s life: The standard therapies often cause both impotence and incontinence.

The good news is that some simple preventive strategies—mainly dietary—can reduce your chances of getting the disease in the first place. “Without bending yourself out of shape,” says John Hibbs, a naturopathic physician at Bastyr University in Seattle, “I would estimate that you can reduce risk by as much as 50 percent.” (Keep in mind that we’re talking only about prostate cancer here; to reduce the symptoms of prostate enlargement—an unrelated ailment.

Preventive efforts are particularly important for those at high risk: men over 50, those with a family history (having a father or brother with prostate cancer doubles risk), and African-American men. For reasons that remain unclear, African-Americans are far more likely than whites to develop the disease. Here are your best bets for keeping it at bay.

Eat more fish (and omega-3s)…
Are there any ailments that omega-3 fatty acids aren’t good for? It now looks like these heart-friendly nutrients, found in cold-water fish like salmon and mackerel, may help prevent prostate cancer, too. In lab tests, they’ve been shown to stop prostate tumor cells from growing. And when Harvard researchers tracked 48,000 American men for 12 years, the men who ate fish more than three times a week were 44 percent less likely to develop metastatic prostate cancer than those who ate it less than twice a month.
What to do: Good low-mercury species include freshwater trout, wild salmon, and scallops. Or consider taking fish oil supplements, which carry a low risk of mercury contamination and are available at health food stores. Follow label directions. …and less meat and dairy

America’s cowboy heritage has made thick, juicy steaks seem manly. But if you want to avoid prostate cancer, steer clear of steer: Many studies suggest that a diet high in saturated fats can double or triple risk. Compared with American men, who chow down on pepperoni pizza and cheeseburgers, Japanese men, who eat a diet much lower in animal fat, have a lower risk of prostate cancer—until they move to this country. Once they adopt an American diet, their risk jumps, too.

Why is a meat and dairy-heavy diet so dangerous? Saturated fat contains compounds that spur inflammation, which promotes tumor growth, Hibbs says. And animal fat often displaces plant foods from the diet, so when you load up on it, you’re also cutting out cancer-preventing antioxidants.
What to do: Try substituting low-mercury fish or skinless poultry for red meat a couple of times a week. Cut back on whole-fat dairy products by switching to low- or nonfat versions. “And if you eat meat, don’t grill it,” Hibbs says. “Charring introduces more carcinogens.”

Put soy on your plate
It’s women who have been most often advised to load up on soy, for its bone-building and other benefits. But new research suggests that men would do well to incorporate it into their diets, too. Researchers tracked the health of 12,000 Seventh-Day Adventists for more than 20 years. Men who drank soy milk more than once daily were 70 percent less likely to get prostate cancer than those who drank none.
What to do: Soy milk is available in many flavors at health food and grocery stores. Substitute it for cow’s milk in cereal or coffee, or drink it by itself.

Eat your veggies
In 2000, University of Hawaii researchers examined the diets of 3,237 men, half of whom had prostate cancer and half of whom didn’t. It turned out that the cancer-free men were more than one and a half times as likely to report eating lots of vegetables and beans. A recent Canadian study shows a similar link.
What to do: Start counting the servings of vegetables you eat, and aim for at least five half-cup servings daily.

Stuff yourself with tomatoes
The vegetable with the most prostate-protective buzz, of course, is the tomato. It contains lycopene, one of the vitamin A family of carotenoid antioxidants. Recently, Yale scientists analyzed blood samples from 437 men with and without prostate cancer. They found that the cancer-free men were far more likely to have high levels of lycopene in their blood than those with aggressive, life-threatening disease.

Your best lycopene bet is cooked tomatoes. Cooking the tomatoes not only makes lycopene more available to the body, it gives you more tomato per bite.

Supplement companies now offer lycopene pills—but the evidence favors food sources. “Tomatoes contain many more carotenoids than just lycopene,” says physician William Dahut of the National Cancer Institute. “They all help.”

Still, for men who don’t like tomatoes, or who can’t eat enough to knock down their risk, supplements can be a good alternative. One version, Lyc-O-Mato, packs five tomatoes’ worth into each capsule.
What to do: Eat at least three servings of tomato-based foods per week. You’ll find Lyc-O-Mato in health food stores; follow label directions.

Supplement with selenium
Selenium became a cancer-prevention celebrity in 1996 when a study turned up an unexpected benefit. Researchers at the University of Arizona gave a daily supplement to people with skin cancer in hopes of preventing recurrences. It didn’t help with skin cancer, but after six years the men who took selenium was substantially less likely to develop prostate cancer. Several other studies have since corroborated those results.

Selenium is found in plant foods, but since the amount varies with the mineral content of the soil, it’s hard to know if you’re getting enough from food. So it’s prudent to take a supplement.
What to do: Try 200 micrograms per day.

Take vitamin E
Finnish researchers have discovered that vitamin E can reduce prostate cancer risk by as much as 32 percent. Problem is, it’s hard to get an adequate amount from the foods we eat. Vegetable oils are high in the vitamin, but processing removes much of it, and cooking even more. Nuts, beans, and dark leafy greens also contain it, but even if you’re a vegetarian you may not get enough to reduce risk of prostate cancer.
What to do: Take 400 IU per day.

Put an herbal combo to work
Last fall, Columbia University researchers announced that a supplement containing a combination of 10 antioxidant/anti-inflammatory herbs kills prostate cancer cells. The product, Zyflamend, contains ginger, rosemary, oregano, turmeric, and green tea, among other herbs. The researchers added it to culture dishes containing human prostate cancer cells, and three days later, 78 percent of the cancer cells were dead. Zyflamend still hasn’t been studied in humans. But antioxidants are good for health in general, and if you’re a man old enough to be concerned about prostate cancer, chances are you’ve got troubles that could benefit from Zyflamend’s other ingredients.
What to do: Zyflamend is available at supplement and health food stores; follow label directions.

Hopeful Herbal Treatment?
A potential new treatment comes from an unlikely source: red clover. The plant contains isoflavones, substances also found in soy foods that are thought to protect the prostate from cancer. Recently Australian researchers gave 18 men with prostate cancer a daily dose of a clover-derived isoflavone supplement while the men were awaiting prostate surgery. After the surgeries, scientists compared prostate tissues from the red clover group with those from a control group. They found that apoptosis—the natural cell death to which cancerous cells are so resistant—was substantially increased in cells from the pill-takers.

“The preliminary data are good, and the therapy is inexpensive and looks nontoxic so far,” says naturopathic physician John Hibbs of Bastyr University. The supplement used in the study, Trinovin, is available at health food stores. 
—Sierra Senyak

Hey, babe, how about you and me prevent prostate cancer?
Good news for frisky men: In a large-scale study, National Cancer Institute researchers found that the more often a man ejaculates, the less likely he is to get prostate cancer. The researchers followed 29,000 men aged 46 to 81 for eight years. Compared with those who reported an average of seven or fewer ejaculations per month across their lifetime, the men who averaged 21 or more were 33 percent less likely to develop the disease.

What to do: The choice is yours. (The study did not distinguish between ejaculations during sex or masturbation.)

When Bigger Isn’t Better: Prostate Enlargement
James Duke of Fulton, Maryland, is betting the health of his prostate gland on a mix of saw palmetto and pumpkin seeds. So far, he’s winning.

The 75-year-old botanist—who bears an uncanny resemblance to Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame—is the former chief of the U.S.
Department of Agriculture’s Medicinal Plant Laboratory. Fifteen years ago, when Duke first experienced symptoms of prostate enlargement—decreased urine flow and nightly wake-ups to urinate—his knowledge of herbs came in handy. He decided to take saw palmetto, which had a reputation among herbal experts for being helpful.

Duke’s choice was put to the test in 1996 when European researchers compared saw palmetto to the commonly prescribed drug Proscar in 1,098 men. After six months, Proscar reduced symptoms by 39 percent, and saw palmetto, by 37 percent. But the herb caused fewer side effects, notably erection impairment and libido loss. Several other studies back the findings. “I take the 320-milligram daily dose that was used in the study,” Duke says.

Another promising herbal treatment is pygeum, the powdered bark of an evergreen tree, Pygeum africanum. Analyzing 18 studies, researchers found that men who took it were more than twice as likely to report improved overall symptoms, like better urine flow and fewer nighttime wake-ups, than those who took a placebo. A typical daily dose is 100 to 200 mg.

Finally, pumpkin seeds, a traditional folk remedy, have been shown to contain compounds thought to reduce prostate overgrowth. German researchers gave pumpkin seed extract to 2,245 men with prostate symptoms. Twelve weeks later, the men’s symptoms had improved significantly.

Back when Duke first told his doctor that he planned to treat himself with saw palmetto, the doc was taken aback. Now that Duke has been symptom-free for 15 years, his doctor is a convert. “At my last checkup,” Duke says, “he told me, ‘Just keep doing what you’re doing.’”