What goes on with that, anyway? Well, in late 2005 I was diagnosed with prostate problems that included unusually high PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen) levels in a blood test, a lot of pain down in the nether regions, and (as a rather painful biopsy discovered) about 60% of the cells of my prostate gland were turning cancerous. The only remedies available at that time were chemotherapy or surgery. I checked out both, and discovered that they both had effects that I didn't care for, mainly that either method had an 80% chance of rendering the patient incontinent or impotent or both. And when that means it could happen to YOU, well you begin to freak out just a little bit. I did. I asked my urologist if there were other alternatives and he mentioned pomegranate syrup and tomato paste and red wine. It sounded a helluva lot better than impotence and incontinence. I discovered also that the pain had been due to prostatitis (general inflammation of the prostate, in my case a mild infection) and it was lucky that it had, because generally at my age they don't do PSA checks and I might have gone for a few more years before anyone found anything amiss. (One important thing comes out of this - DO have regular prostate checks, either by blood test or by examination, because if it's caught earlier, then you have a better chance of surviving.) And so, over the next few months, I scoured the Internet and my local Library for information on diet-related prostate cancer treatments. Since I am not a specialist, I read up everything I could find on the subject, and made a few discoveries that the specialists wouldn't even have thought to look for. As a result, my diet ended up being up to ten times more effective than just using the individual ingredients all together. For example, I found that if you use a particular oil with tomato paste, then you only need one tenth as much for the same effect. Or, the same amoutn could give you up to ten times as much benefit from the lycopene and other antioxidants. And in seven months, I went back for follow-up checks, and all the symptoms and indicators had gone. Just like that. Since it's not a very rigorous or difficult diet, I still use it to this day (over three years later at the time of this writing) and my PSA levels are still lower than a man half my age might expect, and show every indication of staying that way. The Body Friendly Zen Cookbook is the result of that research and trialling, and quite a few people have downloaded the e-book from the website now. I realise that there are now a range of drug and surgical treatments for prostate cancer which are much safer than what existed three years ago, but the fact remains that with just minor changes in your diet, you can avoid the harsh medical methods, and if you have as much success as I did, probably never have to worry about recurrences ever again. Also, the diet I've developed is less a stringent regime and more a good guideline for healthy living, so it's more beneficial overall than a single-purpose medical cure for one thing. I won't push for you to go look, but I will say that it's in general a very healthy set of guidelines for healthy living, so even if you don't have prostate problems or other genito-urinary problems, you may still want to obtain yourself a copy and read it. |
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What's With That Zencookbook Thing? |