Does The Prostate Exam

Increase The Risk
of
Prostate Cancer?


A prostate exam is recommended these days for all men over 40 to check for prostate cancer. But, is it really necessary? Or, just another medical revenue source?

The exam itself is quite benign though rather humbling.


prostate exam



If you've never had one, all it entails is dropping your trousers and underwear, bending over, and having your doctor put his lubricated finger up your anus and probe your gland to feel it's shape.


the digital prostate exam



During the prostate exam the doctor feels for lumps (tumors) or abnormalities in the shape of your gland. That's all there is to the actual prostate exam.

If he feels nothing irregular you're done. Except for the PSA Test he will want you to have.


The Dangers Associated With Your
Prostate Exam

If during your prostate exam your doctor does feel a lump or irregularity, he will immediately call for a PSA test to see if you possibly have cancer. If everything feels OK, he'll ask you to have a PSA test anyway, because they like to run the test.

The problem with a PSA test is that a PSA test really has no significance or validity. The medical community themselves attest to this. They just love to run it. The simple prostate exam is actually more revealing.

PSA test levels alone do not give doctors enough information to distinguish between benign prostatic conditions and cancer. So why do it?

A PSA test can give a false positive, a false negative, or a high reading for a number of reasons other than cancer. Reasons such as: benign enlargement (BPH) , inflammation, infection, a urinary tract infection, age, and race.

Age is the most common risk factor for prostate cancer. Almost 70 percent of this cancer occurs in men age 65 and older. *

* {ref: Ries LAG, Eisner MP, Kosary CL, et al. (eds). SEER Cancer Statistics Review, 1975–2001, National Cancer Institute. Bethesda, MD, 2004 (http://seer.cancer.gov/csr/1975_2001).}

But, age itself is not toxic. Age itself does not cause cancer of any kind. Ever. More age simply means a man had more time to poison and break his immune systems down. The man had more time to chip away at his immune system with toxic living.

Also, "Even though the PSA test can detect small tumors, finding a small tumor does not necessarily reduce a man’s chance of dying from prostate cancer."**

**{ref: National Cancer Institute } So, why subject yourself to such a bogus test that serves only to frighten you?}

Most men with an elevated PSA test turn out not to have cancer; only 25 to 30 percent of men who have a biopsy due to elevated PSA levels actually have prostate cancer.***

***{ ref:: Keetch DW, Catalona WJ, Smith DS. Serial prostatic biopsies in men with persistently elevated serum prostate specific antigen values. The Journal of Urology 1994; 151(6):1571–1574.}

The PSA test may detect small cancers that would never become life threatening. This situation, called "over diagnosis", puts men at risk for complications from unnecessary treatment such as surgery or radiation. This happens all the time.

Also a negative prostate exam (normal feeling prostate) and positive PSA test (no matter what caused the high reading) will lead to a prostate biopsy.


The Great Possible Danger
with a
Prostate Biopsy

A PSA test will lead to a medical recommendation for a prostate biopsy. The procedure used to diagnose cancer (prostate needle biopsy) may cause many side effects. Bleeding and infection are the least of these.


The worst danger with the needle biopsy is this:
if there actually is cancer in the gland,
the needle biopsy is the most effective way to spread the cancer by releasing otherwise contained cancer cells into the blood stream.


Also the needle biopsy can, and often does, miss the area with cancer. So the biopsy falsely comes up negative.


What The Statistics Say

Most of this type of cancer is slow growing, contained, and not life threatening. Most old men that die with it, never knew they had it and it never caused them a problem. Even if they had it for 20-30 years.

Most older men with prostate cancer are never actually bothered or threatened by it. They usually eventually die of some other cause.

The prostate exam and PSA test, more often than not, seem to cause a lot of unnecessary worry.

For the men with fast growing prostate cancer here are the statistics:


  • The survival rate for those who underwent surgery, radiation and chemo therapy is no greater after 10 years than for those who did nothing at all. It's a fact.
  • The greatest amount of new prostate cancers is found in men who underwent surgery, radiation and chemotherapy and have past the 5 year survival mark.

The reason for this is that you just do not make a body healthy by poisoning it. Ever. You may kill the present cancer cells, but cancer will just come back even stronger because the body is weaker and even more compromised.

Prostate cancer treatment may also cause incontinence (inability to control urine flow) and erectile dysfunction (erections inadequate for intercourse). For these reasons, it is important that the benefits and risks of diagnostic procedures and treatment be taken into account when considering whether to undertake prostate cancer screening.

If cancer exists, you must consider this:


Cancer Is Not A Localized Condition

Cancer is a condition of the entire body. If you just cut it out, or burn it out, or poison it to death, it will almost always come back. Almost always. Your chances are better on the lottery.

Cancer is caused. It does not just happen.

Lifestyle and environmental pollution cause cancer. If you clean up and normalize your internal environment, your body will clean up and heal itself. People do this successfully year after year. It is not highly publicized because there is no profit to be made from doing it.

Learn about the results of The Primitive Diet and the works of six time Nobel Award Nominated doctor Johanna Budwig. You can learn how to achieve real health and banish all disease from your life.


Do You Need a Prostate Exam?

Probably not every year. Maybe not at all. It doesn't hurt to know what is going on inside.

But, should you worry about the results of all these prostate exams and tests if the procedures that follow put you at a possibly greater risk of dying?


What Is The Real Answer?

We must learn to be responsible for our own health and well being. The weakest link fails first. In men this weakest link is often found during a prostate exam.

Take care of your health now. From this day forward. Then, a prostate exam will just become another meaningless exam.

Remember, there is no pill or drug that will ever compensate for a lifetime of abuse or negligence.

An unnecessary prostate exam, in my opinion, is possibly interesting. It can be a wake up call about your general health. But, it can also lead you down a road that could cause you more harm than good.

Be Well.....

~ William


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