PSA elevations

An elevated PSA test can be a sign of prostate cancer, but as men age, their prostate size increases. This will increase the PSA. Also, inflammation of the prostate, prostatitis, will increase the PSA.

In mainstream medicine, when your PSA result is high, you are sent for a biopsy. But this is a pain in the butt and can miss a cancer. There is a better way that’s less dangerous and less painful than a biopsy to find out if the elevation in PSA is due to cancer or just inflammation. A recent study points this out.

The study looked at a group of men with elevated PSA tests. The overall average level of PSA was 7.3 ng/mL. Anything over 4 is considered abnormally high. All of the men had a prostate biopsy that was negative for cancer. But although the biopsies did not find cancer, they did find signs of inflammation in some of the men. So, the researchers divided the men into two groups depending on whether or not their biopsy showed inflammation. Then they gave both groups a combination of an anti-inflammatory drug called nimesulide, saw palmetto extract, a natural herbal enzyme called bromelain, and the bioflavonoid quercetin. After three months, they checked the PSA levels again. Here’s what they found.

The men whose biopsies had shown inflammation had a reduction in their PSA levels to close to normal – 4.6 on average. But those without the inflammation had no reduction at all. That should be no surprise. We would not expect an anti-inflammatory therapy to work in a prostate without inflammation. But that’s not the only thing the researchers discovered.

Besides checking the PSA levels after the anti-inflammatory therapy, they also repeated the biopsies and discovered an amazing thing. In the men whose PSA levels had reduced to below 4 ng/mL, there were no signs of prostate cancer on the second biopsy.

In many cases of an elevated PSA less than 10, there’s no need for an immediate biopsy. Many of these cases are simply caused by inflammation. The best thing to do in that case is to go through a trial of anti-inflammatory therapy. If the PSA significantly comes down, there’s no need for a biopsy. If it doesn’t, that means that there’s probably cancer present. And that’s not all.

The researchers in the study did not use the full anti-inflammatory herbal treatment that they could have used. Using the following combination of supplements would have given better results:

• Solaray Africanum Pygeum extract - 50mg - 2x/day.
• Quercetin 300 mg - 1, 2x/day.
• Zinc picolinate - 30 mg, 2x/day.
• Bromelain 500 mg – take 1, 2x/day.
• Iodoral 12.5 mg - take 1, 2x/day.
• Melatonin – take 1 mg per pound of body weight at bedtime.

Dr.Shallenberger is the doctor who taught me how to do this, had patients use this blend for three months, then recheck the PSA. He found that PSAs go down close to 90% of the time. This saves the need for a prostate biopsy. Once you confirm that the PSA has decreased, then continue the blend and continue to check the PSA every three months. Depending on how high your PSA was to start with, it may take more time to bring it into the normal range. If it doesn’t bring it down, it may be an unresponsive cancer. Then you can go the mainstream way with biopsies/chemo/radiation/surgery…..or there are alternatives that could be tried.