November is Prostate Cancer Awareness month. As we head into the holiday season, with Thanksgiving only weeks away, we’d urge prostate cancer patients to become more aware of holiday health pitfalls – especially the impact of holiday menus.
An article that will appear in the December issue of the International Journal of Cancer that highlights these health pitfalls. Investigators in Italy and South Carolina evaluated the effects of anti-inflammatory diets on the survival of 726 prostate cancer patients, first studied between 1995 and 2002, during their hospitalization for prostate surgery when they completed food intake questionnaires. Since then, their survival has been fully monitored.
Analyzing the questionnaire results using a “Dietary Inflammatory Index,” or DII revealed that the higher the score, the more pro-inflammatory the diet, and visa-versa. Some of the pro-inflammatory foods in the index include saturated fat, iron, certain proteins (for example, the inflammatory properties of red meat and poultry), and refined carbohydrates. Some anti-inflammatory foods include omega-3 fatty acids, monounsaturated fats like olive oil, ginger, turmeric, vitamin D and garlic.
What did these investigators find? The DII did not show a statistically significant benefit only for the low-risk patients — probably because most were still alive during the 10 years. But importantly for the high-risk patients, the survival data was very different.
The researchers calculated two different mortality figures: mortality from all causes, which would include, for instance, deaths from heart attacks and strokes in addition to prostate cancer, and mortality due only to prostate cancer. For all-cause mortality, men with the highest DII’s had nearly 3 times the mortality risk of those with the lowest DIIs — most anti-inflammatory food intake. 78% of the low DII men were alive after 10 years, whereas only 58% of the high-DII men were alive.
For deaths specifically from prostate cancer, the results were even more stark. Men with high DII’s were 4 times more likely to die of prostate cancer than those with the lowest DIIs. Only 7.4% of the men with low DIIs had died of prostate cancer after 10 years. Yet 21.7% of the men with high DIIs (eating high inflammatory foods) had died of prostate cancer.
Why would inflammation worsen cancer outcomes? Inflammation causes oxidative stress that promotes dangerous genetic instability in cancer cells, it reduces apoptosis (or normal programmed cell death), it stimulates growth of blood vessels in new tumor sites, it increases cancer-promoting insulin, and on top of all these cancer-promoting factors, it stimulates resistance to cancer therapies.
Since Thanksgiving to the New Year’s is when dietary over-indulgence really takes a toll on our health. Therefore, if you have high-risk prostate cancer, we encourage you to arrange a consultation at the Block Center as soon as possible so you can get a customized dietary plan. Our nutritional program is designed to be anti-inflammatory and focused on the needs of each individual cancer patient. In fact, we run a rather unique panel of blood tests to determine then monitor the actual status of inflammation in your body — information that enables our registered dietitians to develop a personalized anti-inflammatory dietary plan and supplement strategy. However, if you can’t make it to the Center until after the New Year, we’d strongly suggest that you start by reading Life Over Cancer (Keith I Block, MD) which explains in detail our dietary recommendations. But don’t worry — a healthy diet does not mean sacrificing food pleasure. Our dietitians and other professional staff can provide many delicious recipe and menu ideas for celebration meals and holiday treats.