A small milestone

Monday I finished the course of Cyproterone Acetate tablets so now my treatment is just the Prostap. The only side effect I noticed from the tablets was some breathlessness. Hopefully, now they are finished, this will cease. There is also some potential for side effects from the Prostap. There are a couple that appear to be affecting me. The first is loss of sex drive and erectile dysfunction. This is not a big deal for me or my wife, fortunately. The other side effect is diarrhoea but this may be down more to my changed diet rather than to the treatment. Again, it is not a problem because it is not the sort of diarrhoea associated with food poisoning or a stomach bug where one dares not stray far from a lavatory. Rather it is just that when I move my bowels the stools are very loose.

Also on Monday I finished reading Professor Jane Plant's book Prostate Cancer: Understand, Prevent and Overcome. This is where the change of diet comes in. Mostly I am very sceptical of diets that claim to prevent disease or give one big health benefits. I've been of the opinion that a balanced diet is enough along with not consuming more calories than are burnt off. However, Jane Plant appears to have researched the subject of her book very thoroughly and has references to peer reviewed scientific research to back up her reasoning and conclusions. This is enough to persuade me that it is worth following her advice, even though, for me, it is too late to prevent prostate cancer.

I have also been perusing another of her books written jointly with Gill Tidey: The Plant Programme; recipes for fighting breast and prostate cancer. The diet is based largely on Chinese diets because in China (except in some cities where western diets are becoming more popular) prostate and breast cancer is practically non-existent. Dairy products are not used in China and animal protein is a very small amount of the total diet. The authors propose a scoring system for types of food ranging from 0 to 10. Those with active cancer (like me) should have a score of no more than 4 for any meal and no more than 15-20 for a day, averaged out over a week to allow for treats. Those on a prevention or maintenance programme should have only one meal a day scoring more than 5 and a total score per day of 30-35 averaged out over a week. The scores are as follows:

Fresh fruit and vegetable juices and salads	0
Soya "milk" and "yoghurt", nuts, dried fruits, uncooked grains and bean curd (tofu)	1
Mixed cooked and raw vegatables and fruit	2
Cooked vegatables, fruit, grains and cooked dried pulses	3
Canned beans, vegatables, Soya "cream"	4
Dominantly vegatables with eggs	5
Dominantly vegetables, with chicken, duck, fish, and seafood	6
Dominantly vegetables, with lamb, pork, rabbit, venison	7
Dominantly egg	8
Dominantly chicken, duck, fish, and seafood	9
Dominantly lamb, pork, rabbit, venison	10

The Plant Programme has a large number of recipe suggestions organised under meal types, breakfast, snacks, main meals. There is also advice about eating away from home. So far I am finding it quite easy to 15 points per day, especially averaged over the week.

Both books are well worth a read and should be readily available for purchase from the usual sources as well as for loan from your local library.