Your Cart is Empty
Two of my favorite prostate health specialists, Dr. Mark Scholz1 and Dr. Mark Moyad2, were recently on stage together at an annual prostate health conference in Los Angeles. Both doctors are strong advocates for patient empowerment. Ultimately, you are responsible for how to improve your prostate health so the better informed you are, the better you can engage your doctor or healthcare professional to ask the hard questions and determine the best path for you.
The two Marks were in the spotlight to answer spontaneous questions from an audience of several hundred men (and women) gathered for the long weekend. Each September, this conference is the largest national forum focused on patient concerns about prostate health. This is the place where doctors, nutritionists, patient advocates and counselors speak freely about their latest research and share the advances in our knowledge about your prostate health.
A theme repeated throughout the conference was that a heart-healthy diet and lifestyle is also a prostate healthy lifestyle. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is still the highest cause of mortality in men, so if you are looking at making some lifestyle changes because you are concerned about your prostate, don’t forget that your heart comes first. In fact, Dr. Moyad notes that CVD has been the top killer of men and women for the last 100 years. Keeping your LDL and HDL cholesterol in balance is an important component for heart health, and here is where Dr. Moyad tells us about useful lifestyle and nutritional choices we can make. Before turning to pharmaceutical drugs, consider the simple lifestyle adjustments that you can make to maintain your health through natural means.
Although Dr. Moyad has written at length about nutrition and supplements, he spoke about the three primary nutritional and supplement choices he recommends to support your prostate as well as overall health and wellness. He uses the acronym SAM as a brain teaser to get us thinking about: Statins, Aspirin, and Metformin. Dr. Moyad recommends Red Yeast Rice as the natural means to lower LDL, but as with all supplements, recommends you discuss your situation with your own doctor first. In his book, The Supplement Handbook: A Trusted Expert’s Guide To What Works and What’s Worthless For More Than 100 Conditions, Dr. Moyad tells the story of how Red Yeast Rice was first mentioned in Traditional Chinese Medicine in the year A.D. 800 and was, in effect, the first statin! For more of the story, and more useful daily adjustments you can make to improve your wellbeing, pick up a few of these books. They are well written, make an interesting read, and can inspire you to take charge of your health.
1Dr. Scholz is the co-author of the book Invasion of the Prostate Snatchers: No more Unnecessary Biopsies, Radical Treatment or Loss of Potency, and is in private practice in Marina Del Rey.
2Dr. Moyad is the co-director of the men’s health program at the University of Michigan, and the author of numerous books, including Complementary and Alternative Medicine for Prostate and Urologic Health, and Dr. Moyad’s Guide to Male Sexual Health: What Works and What’s Worthless.
