A study from Northwestern University announced a rather depressing statistic. The number of metastatic prostate cancer occurrences has increased dramatically over the last few years. The ‘dramatically’ stands for 72% within a decade. The researchers are relentlessly working to identify the reasons of this tragic development. A team from the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) succeeded with one of them. It turns out that fat in the traditional Western diet contributes to the increased occurrence of prostate cancer metastasis.
What Kind of Dietary Fat Affects Prostate Cancer Metastasis?
The study from BIDMC discovered and proved several very important things, the most pressing of which is that a diet high in saturated fats greatly contributes to the development of aggressive metastatic prostate cancer. It’s the traditional American fries and cheeseburgers, which are the main offenders. And their effect is so strong, the researchers currently consider a diet high in saturated fats to be the main environmental factor affecting metastasis.
This means that one’s diet is an essential tool in reducing the risk of metastatic prostate cancer. Cutting down on saturated fats, or eliminating them from the meal plan completely, is an effective method of prevention.
Replacing the traditional Western diet with a vegan or Mediterranean will also provide many other benefits to men’s health. One of them is a reduced risk of cardiovascular heart disease and lowering of blood cholesterol levels.
Such changes will have a positive effect on male libido as well, because lower cholesterol is associated with healthier blood vessels and better circulation. These factors contribute to improved virility and help maximize the benefits coming from new male enhancement pills. These contain maca powder (fertility booster and aphrodisiac) and serenoa serrulata (detox agent that helps reduce an enlarged prostate.
Supplements made from herbs do not reduce the benefits of a low-fat diet. In fact, they can boost it greatly if one of the ingredients helps bring down lipogenesis, the main factor responsible for prostate cancer metastasis.
Does the New Study Bring Humanity Closer to Curing Prostate Cancer?
Unfortunately, the BIDMC discovery doesn’t provide effective ammunition for fighting prostate cancer. However, it showed the way to significantly slow down and perhaps even cure prostate cancer metastasis, the deadliest variety of the disease.
This study discovered a so-called ‘lipogenic switch’ that allows to reduce or completely cut off the production of fats by the tumor. This particular study used an anti-obesity drug to achieve this result and the tests were successful. The positive development occurred because flipping this ‘switch’ forced the tumors to regress and literally eliminated metastases.
During the course of their research, the team from BIDMC made a discovery of tremendous importance. They identified the genes that the metastatic tumor cells were lacking. These are PTEN and PML, both are a type of gene that naturally reduces the rate of tumor growth. Localized prostate cancer tumors usually have at least PLM and often PTEN as well. That’s why they grow extremely slowly and in many cases do not become fatal. In fact, they might not be noticed until a patient passes away due to other health issues or even aging.
Metastatic prostate cancer, on the other hand, is aggressive and the worst of its kind lacks both genes. These tumors start producing large amounts of lipids when they metastasize, hence the researchers’ idea to use an anti-obesity drug to affect that process directly. The resounding success of this study offers a lot of hope to those suffering from this deadly disease.