The Natural Prostate Cure

"Before any man diagnosed with Prostate Cancer signs up for a radical localized procedure such as having their prostate removed, radiated, frozen or microwaved, he owes it to himself to read this short book. Its hopeful message and some further research have led me to adopt the program it proposes in leiu of more conventional radical localized prostate treatments. I feel good!"
~ Written on 2008-01-23

"This book is rich in useful facts, errors, and misguided opinions. If you have the technical expertise to separate out the "chaff from the grain", then you probably don't need this book. Useful facts include: prostate cancer is preventable and better treatable without castration or prostatectomy, diet plays a major role in the health of the prostate gland, testosterone is not the enemy in prostate cancer but rather the imbalance between estrogens and testosterone in the aging male.

Errors in the book include: lycopenes from tomatoes are useless for prostate health (p.17). The Mediterranean lifestyle, which incorporates abundant tomatoes, has been shown to help prevent prostate problems. Since Mr. Mason has no formal training in a health related field, he is overly confident in his opinions, like calling the Harvard study in a major peer reviewed journal showing the value of tomatoes in reducing the incidence of prostate cancer "asinine" and "paid advertisements". Another error is that flax oil is a reasonable substitute for fish oil in prostate health. In fact, flax oil is inefficiently converted to fish oil (EPA) in the human body. He says that you must cut fat in the diet to 10% of calories. Meanwhile, both Eskimos and Mediterranean people consume a diet of 60% fat and 30% fat respectively without any significant prostate disease. Mr. Mason tells us to stay away from nightshade vegetables, like potatoes, tomatoes, and peppers. Which is very disconcerting for the Inca civilization, the largest and most advanced civilization in the pre-Columbian Americas for 300 years, where potatoes are the staple of the diet. The descendents of the Incas today still live actively into their 80s off of nothing but potatoes. Mr. Mason cautions us to never take more than 250 milligrams per day of vitamin C (p.13). Which would make a fruit smoothie toxic and the thousands of doctors who inject up to 100,000 mg of vitamin C to help sick patients all wrong.

While conventional therapy for prostate cancer may be hazardous to your health, this book is wrong at least half of the time. For the sheer entertainment value of how opinionated an uninformed lay person can be, this book is worth the read.
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~ Written on 2007-12-23

"I ordered this book as an alternative source of information after being diagnosed with prostate cancer in late October 2006: However, it now has become my primary guide. It is well written using only natural approaches toward prostate health in clear, concise language. It is based on factual findings from hundreds of compilations & studies from the world's scientific journals over the past 35 years. And, it is updated and republished each year. Many, many references are made to such sources & studies from Harvard Medical School, Veterans Administration Minneapolis, St. Luke's Hospital NYC, Ruhr University of Germany, British Journal of Pharmacology, British Journal of Urology, National Institute of Health in Maryland, State University of NY, University Of Milan (Italy), University Of Tel Aviv (Israel), Hubei Medical University (China), and numerous others.

Before buying this book I had asked for a second opinion concerning my diagnosis and treatment options from a radiation oncologist (My urologist is a surgeon whose primary method is surgical removal of the gland). I was surprised by the radiation oncologist's list of treatment options; external radiation therapy, intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), internal radiation therapy (brachytherapy), AND DIET/SUPPLEMENT therapy! This was a refreshing surprise to me, and the oncologist spent well over an hour going over the diet regimen (which he PERSONALLY follows). It was this revelation that I would eventually read about in Roger Mason's book "The Natural Prostate Cure". Having an oncologist relate all this to me in ADVANCE of ever reading the book only served to reinforce the information contained in its very informative 73 short pages which I read in one afternoon.

After reading a booklet "Understanding Radiation Therapy" (a 40 page booklet from The American Cancer Society), I was sick in my stomach from the seemingly 'grotesque' procedures, and the strong possibility of horrible side effects! The bottom line (from reading it): No predictions or guarantees can be made as to outcomes regarding surgical or radiation procedures! It is just too full of "maybe's, if's, possibly's & unknown's". Even with my approach of seeking a natural cure, the responsibility is mine; the choice is mine & the decision is mine! And I must say that decision MUST be an individual one, and MUST be made on an individual basis by the individual, and FOR the individual. All doctors, surgeons, oncologists & therapists should honor that decision, and stay off the patient's back! All of the foregoing is strictly MY opinion based on what I've read, seen & heard. But, the radiation oncologist visit, and Roger Mason's book "The Natural Prostate Cure" weighed positively on my decision to go the natural route. I gave it a five star rating NOT because it was lengthy and full of multiple syllable words, but because it was short, factual, science-based and made a lot of common sense!
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~ Written on 2007-01-09

"DANGER - Read and follow this book at your own peril! Some of the things in this book will get you killed!!! Do not try to treat yourself alone with this book. Please follow this book only with the direct help of a qualified medical professional. I am in no way related to the writing, publishing or printing industries."
~ Written on 2006-07-31

"Three months ago I took a PSA test and it came back 8.79 ng/mL. I had no other symptoms and started looking for an alternative to what the doctors wanted me to do. I found this book and followed the instructions which include a strict diet, exercise and 20+ vitamins. I took another PSA test two weeks ago and just received the results today: 4.5 ng/mL. Still elevated but quite a remarkable improvement in just two months. It will be interesting to see what it will be six months or a year from now.

As an added bonus I haven't felt this healthy or had so much energy for quite a long time."
~ Written on 2005-12-21