The prostate gland, which is found only in males, produces
seminal fluid, which carries and nourishes the sperm cells. The prostate is
found underneath the bladder, and it is wrapped around the urethra, which is
the tube that drains urine from the bladder. In a young man, the prostate is
normally about the size of a walnut. Unfortunately, the prostate can grow much
larger as a man ages. Thus, it can end up blocking the flow of urine from the
bladder. That's why so many elderly men often have so much trouble in emptying
their bladder completely, and why they often have to get up several times
during the night to pee. Fortunately, this enlargement is preventable.
The prostate is a sex gland, and its growth is driven by sex
hormones. The sex hormones in a man's body are made mainly by his testes but
also by his adrenal glands. If he eats dairy products and meat, he can also get
a dose of animal hormones in his food. Even meat and milk from organic farms
contains the animal's natural hormones. Dairy products are a particularly
potent source of estrogen because modern dairy cows are milked during their
pregnancies.
Plants also have hormones, but their hormones are completely
different from ours. Some plant foods, such as soybeans, contain estrogen-like
substances called phytoestrogens. However, the phytoestrogens tend to be weaker
than natural estrogens. Thus, they could end up reducing the effects of the
body's natural estrogens by competing with natural estrogens for the estrogen
receptors. A change to a plant-based diet helps to reduce a man's exposure to
sex hormones.
A diet based on low-fat, unrefined plant foods also helps
the body get rid of the hormones that the body produces naturally. In
particular, the fiber in unrefined plant foods helps to carry the excess
hormones out of the body.
The sex hormones are made out of cholesterol, which is a
waxy substance that does not mix with water. Nor do the active forms of the sex
hormones mix with water. To be carried around the body by the bloodstream, they
have to be bound to a special carrier protein. To get rid of excess sex
hormones, the liver converts them to an inactive, water-soluble form that then
gets passed out of the body through the kidneys or is carried by the bile into
the intestine. If the person is eating a high-fiber diet, the sex hormones can
bind to the fiber inside the intestine and be carried swiftly out of the body.
Unfortunately, if the man is eating the standard American
diet, he is eating way too much fat and not nearly enough fiber. When people
eat a fatty diet, their bowels tend to contain a large population of the kinds
of bacteria that can convert the sex hormones back to the active form. This
problem is compounded by low-fiber diet, which causes constipation. The low-fiber
diet passes through the bowels so slowly that there will be extra time for
those reactivated sex hormones to be reabsorbed. That's why people who eat
fatty, low-fiber diets have trouble eliminating sex hormones. As a result of
that problem, they end up with higher risks for hormone-driven diseases,
including acne, prostate enlargement, and prostate cancer. Not sexy.
When a man has benign enlargement of the prostate, he simply
has too many cells in the prostate. This problem generally results from a
hormonal imbalance: too much sex hormone and not enough vitamin D, which is
also a hormone. Most people know that vitamin D is important for maintaining
calcium balance in the body. However, it is also important for regulating the
immune system, and for keeping certain kinds of cells, including benign and
cancerous cells of the prostate, from growing out of control.
Most people of European ancestry who live in the northeastern
United States can get enough vitamin D through getting a few minutes' worth of
midday sunshine on the face, hands, and arms in the spring, summer, and fall. But
since the melanin that makes dark skin dark is a form of sunscreen,
darker-skinned people need to spend a lot more time outdoors to get enough
vitamin D.
African-American men have the world's highest risk of
prostate cancer. Yet prostate cancer is rare among black men in Africa. That's
because black men in Africa generally eat a diet that is far lower in fat and
higher in fiber, and they get plenty of exposure to strong sunlight. In
contrast, black men in the United States tend to eat the rich, fatty standard
American diet, and they are at particular risk for vitamin D deficiency because
of our relatively weak sunshine and their relatively dark skin.
A low-fat, high-fiber, plant-based diet is a promising way
to prevent prostate cancer. It can even provide benefits to men who already
have prostate cancer. A study led by Dean Ornish, MD, found that this kind of
diet could help men with early-stage prostate cancer avoid or delay
conventional treatment for at least 2 years. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18602144
This article was originally posted on www.wheredogorillasgettheirprotein.blogspot.com
