Nutima Integrative Medicine Blog
Should I Have a Prostate Biopsy?
An extremely common scenario these days is that a screening PSA blood test is elevated, and a patient is told they need a prostate biopsy. However, up to a third of these biopsies do not find cancer, presumably because both benign enlargement of the prostate (BPH) and inflammation of the prostate (prostatitis) can both raise the PSA test. Luckily there are now a couple of ways to decide more accurately who should get a prostate biopsy after an elevated PSA.
PSA Screening Fails Miserably
© Eric Yarnell, ND, May, 2010.
Two large randomized trials published in the New England Journal of Medicine dealt two further devastating blows to the idea of using the total prostate-specific antigen (tPSA) blood test to screen for cancer. I say tPSA to differentiate it from the less-commonly tested free PSA (fPSA) or complexed PSA (cPSA).
Chemical-Free Lifestyle
In our modern world we are surrounded with synthetic chemicals that have essentially never been tested for safety in humans. We accept an enormous number of products and chemicals as normal yet they are practically unknown from an evolutionary perspective. Given the fact that so many synthetic chemicals are ultimately shown to be toxic, often in totally unexpected and unpredictable ways, and the poor history of the chemical industry in terms of telling the truth about its products, this has to be rethought. I firmly believe we must greatly reduce our exposure to these chemicals if we want to seriously reduce our risk of many diseases, most notably cancer. Here are some links to help understand this process and to switch to a chemical-free lifestyle.
PSA Insufficient By Itself
PSA Test Mostly Useless Without Prostate Ultrasound
© Eric Yarnell, ND, February 1, 2005.
For decades now the prostate specific antigen (PSA) blood test has been considered the best way to determine if a man has prostate cancer. There has long been concerned voiced about the overly simplistic idea that more PSA automatically meant dangerous forms of prostate cancer were present. A series of large clinical trials has now confirmed that in white men at least, a PSA less than 10 essentially cannot tell one anything about whether dangerous prostate cancer is present or not.1
Vioxx Taken Off the Market
© Dr. Eric Yarnell, October 1, 2004.This article may be reprinted in any non-commercial forum as long as it is not altered in any way
Merck’s voluntary removal of Vioxx (rofecoxib) reveals the serious problems with the pharmaceutical model of medicine and highlights the safety of natural medicines.
This “wonder drug” for arthritis has since 2000 been strongly suspected of increasing the risk of heart attacks and strokes, now confirmed by a large study conducted by Merck (see www.vioxx.com for more information).