Dr. Raphael Nyarkotey Obu, The Author
‘Balls in Danger’ is an impressive and well-crafted documentary by the renowned multimedia journalist Seth Kwame Boateng. Immediately I saw the ad “Balls in Danger’, one thing was very clear to me; Testosterone and prostate cancer. In fact, listening to the Urological Doctors featured in the Documentary and their various philosophies on prostate cancer; I concluded that indeed,‘Balls are in Danger in Ghana’. I asked myself one very important question as the Urologists made as aware that hormone treatment is not a cure for prostate cancer and [ads1]others. The very moment they said it is not a cure for prostate cancer; I asked myself, where is the science supporting castrating men and prostate cancer?
During the analysis on Joy News Morning show, according to the Doctor, Africans have high testosterone level and therefore is the cause of prostate cancer. In the context of this discussion, I have decided to delve into this subject of testosterone and prostate cancer in this article.
The higher the testosterone levels the longer the men lived; the lower the testosterone levels the more quickly they died according to some studies…..follow me as I provide the analysis and you will realize that there is basically no science in castrating men as part of the fight against prostate cancer. I will also tell you more about one of the finest leading international figure in the fields of prostate cancer, testosterone therapy and male sexuality: Dr. Abraham Morgentaler; currently an Associate Professor of Surgery (Urology) at the Harvard Medical School who has done extensive research as an Urologist and have demystified this myth on testosterone as cause of prostate cancer. He is credited with shattering the decades –old belief that testosterone therapy is risky for prostate cancer, and pioneering the modern use of testosterone in men. So just follow me and be an open minded person because cancer treatment is not an academic exercise and no one is also immune or indestructible. It could be your brother, uncle, husband, boyfriend et al suffering or currently diagnosed with prostate cancer and his ‘Balls are in Danger’ now!
Testosterone Is Your Friend and that assertion is based on false premises.
The Doctors in the Documentary postulated that testosterone is our enemy. You see nearly every medical doctor in the world will tell you that testosterone is somehow bad for your prostate and makes pros-tate cancer grow “like throwing gasoline on fire”. This is Sacred Dogma and not to be questioned- even though the fall in testosterone as men age almost exactly parallels the rise in prostate cancer, BPH and prostatitis. This insanity started over 60 years ago when a doctor named Huggins got the brilliant idea to castrate men to cure their prostate cancer! The victims very temporarily seemed to get better, but the cancer soon returned with a vengeance and they died. Anyone who thinks you cure cancer by cutting a man’s testicles off is obviously wrong in the first place. This absurdity has continued to the present day, but now doctors use both chemicals and scalpels to castrate them.
The truth is that testosterone levels fall as men age, while estrogen levels rise. The testosterone dominance and testosterone to estrogen ratio is reversed, and prostate disease increases accordingly. Modern doctors are obviously unable to show studies demonstrating that testosterone causes prostate illness. Common sense tells you that testosterone is your friend, has always been your friend and will always be your friend.
The scientific literature is full of countless studies proving that testosterone is necessary for good prostate health and metabolism. When blood testosterone levels are low the prostate receptors must choose dihydrotestosterone (DHT) which causes disease. DHT binding to the prostate receptors is a basic cause of illness. Let’s take just some of the many dozens of published clinical studies from around the world to prove that high, youthful levels of the androgens testosterone, androstenedione and DHEA protect you from prostate illness, and supplementing low testosterone and androgen levels helps you cure your illness.
The Studies:
At the University of Washington a progressive and brilliant doctor named Richmond Prehn actually said that we should con-sider using androgen supplementation to reduce the growth of prostate cancer! He pointed out the declining testosterone levels contribute to carcinogenesis, and supplementing low levels would reduce cancer rates. He pointed to earlier studies that showed low testosterone levels in prostate cancer patients indicated a much worse prognosis. It is doctors like this that are going to lead us into the Age of Enlightenment and out of the Age of Darkness.
In just Africa here, at the University of Witwaterstrand in South Africa a study was titled, “Low Serum Testosterone Predicts a Poor Out-come in Metastatic Prostate Cancer”. They studied 122 patients and found the ones with the HIGHEST testosterone levels to have the least aggressive tumors and live the longest. The patients with the lowest testosterone levels had far more aggressive growth and died much sooner. They concluded, “Low testosterone seems to result in a more aggressive disease and a poorer prognosis in advanced prostate cancer.” This study is very clear.
At the Hubei Medical University in China doctors studied men with BPH and carcinoma (PCA). They found that, “The results showed that serum testosterone in patients with BPH and PCA was lower than that of control group” and further, “the ratio of testosterone to estradiol as decreased with the rise of the age. The results suggested that the imbalance of serum sex hormones (i.e. falling testosterone and rising estrogen) was related to the pathogenesis of BPH and PCA.” It is low testosterone and high estrogen levels that cause prostate problems.
At the famous Harvard Medical School a study was titled, “Is Low Serum Testosterone a Marker for High Grade Prostate Cancer?” They found men with lower testosterone levels had faster growing tumors, higher Gleason scores and shorter life-spans. The conclusion was, “In our study patients with prostate cancer and a low free testosterone had more extensive disease. In addition, all men with a biopsy Gleason score of 8 or greater had low serum free testosterone. This finding suggests that low serum free testosterone may be a marker for more aggressive disease.” Again, the lower the testosterone the worse the prognosis. This is directly from Harvard Medical School.
At the University of Vienna men with prostate cancer were compared to healthy controls. The men with cancer had decidedly lower testosterone levels than the healthy men. Again, we see the lower the testosterone the worse the disease and malignancy rates. They also found that the other major androgen, DHEA, did not affect cancer. They said, “These data are con-firmed by the present study; it can be concluded that DHEA or DHEA-S serum concentrations represent no risk factors for PC development.” This couldn’t be clearer either.
Again at the University of Vienna men with prostate cancer were studied for their serum testosterone levels. The doctors concluded, “Low serum testosterone in men with newly diagnosed prostate cancer is associated with higher tumor microvessel and androgen receptor density (note: both these make the malignancies grow faster) as well as with higher Gleason score, suggesting enhanced malignant potential.” In other words, in men with low testosterone the tumors grew faster, the cancer was more aggressive and the patients died sooner.
A third study from the University of Vienna was titled, “High Grade Prostate Cancer is Associated with Low Serum Testosterone Levels.” They found that, “Patients with high Gleason score prostate cancer have lower testosterone levels. The men with the lowest Gleason scores and slowest growing malignancies had high testosterone levels of 4.1. The ones with the highest Gleason scores and fastest growing malignancies had low testosterone levels of only 2.8 ng/ml. The men with almost 50% higher levels fared much better. They also found that DHEA-S levels were the same in both groups and that the powerful and beneficial androgen DHEA does not contribute to cancer as the mainstream doctors keep preaching.
Again at Harvard Medical School doctors found the cancer patients with the highest levels of testosterone fared the best and lived the longest. “A high prevalence of biopsy detectable prostate cancer was identified in men with low total or free testosterone.” They said further, “A low serum testosterone level in men is associated with a number of medical conditions, most notably sexual dysfunction, and is commonly treated with exogenous testosterone supplementation.” Again, from Harvard Medical School.
At the Memphis Veterans Administration Hospital the good doctors found that elderly veterans fared much better when they had higher testosterone levels. “Patients with a pretreatment testosterone level of less than 300 ng/100 ml had shorter intervals free of progression than patients with pretreatment testosterone levels of greater than 300 ng/100 ml.” They referred to earlier studies as early as 1971 that showed the same phenomenon. The higher the testosterone levels the longer the men lived; the lower the testosterone levels the more quickly they died.
In an impressive collective effort between six international clinics including UCLA and Columbia University scientists used the Norwegian Cancer Registry to study the frozen blood serum and medical records of approximately 28,000 men. The median age of the men at blood draw was 60 years old. They found out the healthy men actually had higher testosterone levels than the ones who developed prostate cancer. The concluded that the idea of testosterone increasing the risk of prostate cancer is completely unsupported in any way. Men, this study is the second largest ever done on testosterone and prostate cancer and was based on the blood serum of 28,000 men. You just can’t argue with it.
At the University of Chicago and three other clinics found the exact same results. “A separate analysis of serum testosterone levels revealed that the higher the pretreatment serum testosterone level, the greater the survival rate. Compared with patients with serum testosterone levels less than 6.9 nmol/L, significant differences in survival were observed for patients with serum testosterone levels of 10.4 to 13.9, 13.9 to 17.3 and over 17.3 nmol/L.” This means the higher the testosteone levels the longer the men lived and better they fared. “These results have important implications for the design and analysis of future clinical trials of hormone therapy.” Doctors should be giving men testosterone therapy rather than “androgen ablation”.
At the famous Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore more men were studied. One group was healthy; one had BPH and one cancer. The total testosterone (ng/dl) was measured over a five year period. The healthy men had average levels of 636.1, the BPH only 527.4, the men with local cancer 472.6 and metastatic cancer 567.7. Clearly the healthy men had much higher levels of testosterone. Strangely enough the conclusion was, “These data suggest that there are no measurable differences in serum testosterone levels among men who are destined to develop prostate cancer and those without the disease.” These doctors simply did not want to admit that low testosterone was found in the BPH, local cancer and metastasized cancer patients. A dramatic difference of 35% certainly proves the case decisively.
At the University of Utah researchers did a very unique study in that they compared 214 male twins. Using identical twins is a most effective means to demonstrate scientific validity. They found that the higher the testosterone levels the smaller the prostate glands. “Prostate volumes correlated inversely with age-adjusted serum testosterone.” The men with the smallest glands had testosterone levels of 17.7/7.9/17.9 nmol/L, while the men with the largest glands only had levels of 14.7/6.0/14.2. To pre-vent or cure BPH a man certainly wants to maintain a youthful testosterone level. Any man over the age of 40 should know his free testosterone level and supplement it if necessary.
At the Petrov Institute of Oncology in Russia men were divided into two groups of high and low blood testosterone. The first group was given 120 mg of oral testosterone undecanoate daily and the second group 80 mg. Their prostates were reduced in volume generally in six months. “These findings suggest that exogenous testosterone in middle-aged and older men with some clinical features of age-related androgen deficiency can retard or reverse prostate growth.” Everyone knows that the gradual decrease in male testosterone levels after the age of about 30 clearly coincides with the abnormal increase in prostate volumes (BPH). The need for testosterone supplementation is obvious, yet doctors somehow can’t see this. Using oral testosterone salts is a very bad idea, the doses were too high and they would have got-ten far better results with natural transdermal cream in much smaller amounts such as 10 to 15 mg daily.
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Raphael Nyarkotey Obu, PhD is a research Professor of Prostate cancer and Holistic Medicine at Da Vinci College of Holistic Medicine, Larnaca city, Cyprus and the National President of the Alternative Medical Association of Ghana(AMAG). He is also the President of Men’s Health Foundation Ghana.