We should all trust a good medical book, trust medicine and doctors.

A book that can only be described as the “Bible” for all medical professionals is: “Davidson’s Principles and Practice of Medicine”; over 1300 pages that cover anything from Acne to Yellow Fever, from Diabetes to Prostate (cancer).

More than two million medical students, doctors and other health professionals around the globe have owned a copy of “Davidson’s Principles and Practice of Medicine” since it was first published [The whole of UK has approximately 150,000 doctors].

Many medical institutes and charities are promoting awareness, but it is all a big con; here and now you can decide.

There is an awful amount of information based on medical research that Davidson’s offers, however, strangely so, most doctors fail to pass such information to their patients.

Davidson’s 22^nd Edition, page 518: “About 40% of patients with a serum PSA of 4.0-10 ug/L, will have prostate cancer on biopsy, although 25% patients with a PSA of less than 4.0 ug/L may also have prostate cancer”.

The PSA test is a blood test to help detect prostate cancer. But it’s not perfect and won’t find all prostate cancers. [Source: NHS]

A raised PSA level may suggest you have a problem with your prostate, but not necessarily cancer. [Source: Prostate Cancer UK]

What should really happen is that men should be informed of and understand the complexities of screening, which include the known risks and the potential for benefits, before they undertake screening. Men really should have a good conversation with a physician who understands the issues, and then make a decision for themselves about screening. Most professional organizations discourage mass screening as the necessary teaching and understanding cannot be assured. [1]

Some of the risks of prostate screening include the false positive rate. The false positive rate is the number of men with an abnormal PSA, who do not have cancer. There is also the false negative rate; that is men with high PSA that have cancer but biopsy has failed to find (many have been given a false and deadly reassurance).

So, in reality, what is PSA test for? We have false and negative rates and, at least, 25% of patients with even a low PSA, have cancer.

On top of the above we have to consider two other aspects.  1) According to Stanford University researchers, the PSA test indicates nothing more than the size of your prostate gland. (The false positive rate is high, and the bulk of the harm is a result of subsequent unnecessary treatments). 2) Dr. Farid Fata, a haematologist/oncologist who ran seven cancer centres in suburban Detroit (USA) was sentenced to 45 years in prison for his role in a health care fraud scheme that included giving chemotherapy to 553 patients who DID NOT have cancer. (Not a unique case, I may add, where doctors give wrong diagnosis. Dr. Ian Paterson is another one. Worth adding that in 2018, the NHS has paid out £2.2 billion on negligence claims).

Today, many experts agree that PSA testing is unreliable at best and useless at worst for accurately diagnosing prostate cancer. Many also agree that routine PSA blood tests often lead to over-diagnosis of prostate cancer, resulting in unnecessary treatments [2].

Which brings me to comments that I have read on Facebook on various “charities” or else.

“I was diagnosed 3 years ago” – The question you should ask yourself is – diagnosed with what!? How sure are you that it was cancer!?

“Our specialist nurse are here to help” – In reality, their nurse hasn’t got a clue. She has never read Davidson’s or similar and she only goes by what she has been told (mainly lies), by her superiors / oncologist Dr. Feta.  

“I have a PSA test every 6 months” – I hope you understand that it doesn’t mean anything and causes more harm than benefits.

“Once a year I have a biopsy” – I forgot to mention that if the needle finds a cancer cell, once the needle is taken out, the cells will spread. This means that the more often you do a test, the more chances you will have that the cancer will spread within your body. Not to mention the high risk of body infection and side effects on taking antibiotics.

“Thank you – I survived” & “The problems with Radiotherapy didn’t affect me till four years later” – here we have the 2.9% survivors that, within a five years period, are still here to tell us their story. I would like to stress that 2.9% are here while the 97.1% have gone! Chemotherapy and Radiotherapy don’t work but they make Dr. Fata and many like him, loads of money.

Basically, don’t be a muppet; find out as much as you can about your condition but do not jump to conclusions [3].

An underlying issue that needs to be addressed is that both breast- and prostate cancer screenings (mammography and PSA testing respectively) fail to address prevention.

In a Swedish study of 60,000 women, 70 percent of the mammographically detected tumors weren’t tumors at all. These “false positives” aren’t just financial and emotional strains, they may also lead to many unnecessary and invasive biopsies. In fact, 70 to 80 percent of all positive mammograms do not, upon biopsy, show any presence of cancer.

When it comes to prostate cancer, a 20-year study from Sweden suggests that screening for prostate cancer does not reduce the risk of death from the disease. In fact, many men receive false-positive results and overtreatment, adding an element of risk to widescale screening, researchers report in the March 31 online issue of the BMJ.

Prevention can be found in exercise, nutrition and supplements. Don’t panic and stop supporting charities that achieve absolutely nothing apart from giving wrong information, useless advice and taking money away from you for own benefits (directors).

Article by A B M Procaccini – Psychologist, Hypnotherpist, Naturopathist.

NOTES:

[1]. Many organisations receive financial subsidies, without these they would not exist. To promote their work and receive funds, they must show that they are pro-active in what they are doing. In some cases, the more tests they carry out, the more funds they will receive. In other words – many of you are just part of their “experiment” and own ‘business survival’.

[2] “The trouble is most men who get treated didn’t have a cancer that needed treating. So while a given man may believe fervently that early treatment saved his life, there’s a better than even chance that he would have been fine even if his cancer had been left well enough alone. [Shannon Brownlee, author of Overtreated, recently wrote an insightful article for Time Magazine on this topic as well].

[3] “If a biopsy finds seemingly malignant cells, as happens to 120 in 1,000 screened men, about 90 percent of men opt for surgery, radiation or hormone-deprivation therapy. Up to five men in 1,000 opting for surgery will die within a month of the operation; 10 to 70 more will have serious cardiovascular complications such as a stroke or heart attack. After radiotherapy and surgery, 200 to 300 of 1,000 men suffer incontinence, impotence or both. Hormone-deprivation therapy causes erectile dysfunction in about 400 of 1,000 men.”