Desperate measures
Many men battling prostate cancer find themselves between a rock and a hard place. Either the condition is slow-growing and doctors recommend a "wait-and-see" approach that leaves the patient feeling helpless and constantly scared that it may worsen at any time, or it's an aggressive case that doctors recommend treating with equal aggressiveness, despite the quality-of-life-damaging side effects involved. It's a situation where there's really no "lesser of evils" to be had. Which may be why a controversial new treatment called high-intensity focused ultrasound, or HIFU, has been increasing in popularity. While it's not approved here in the U.S., it is available in Europe and Mexico and more and more men are opting to go the "have cancer, will travel" route. HIFU promises to treat the cancer while preserving the patients' sexual function and urinary continence -- two things that the current treatment mainstays here in the U.S. often leave damaged, sometimes irreparably so. Instead of surgery or radiation, HIFU uses ultrasound to heat the prostate to extreme temperatures, attacking the tumor while leaving the surrounding areas intact and unaffected. At least, that's the idea. But there have been some mixed results. While the incontinence and impotence rates are lower for HIFU than they are for surgery and radiation, these problems do still occur in some patients. And HIFU isn't a cure-all: Many men who undergo this treatment find that their cancer returns or wasn't fully eliminated initially. If those drawbacks aren't enough to make you think twice about it, HIFU also costs between $25,000 and $30,000 per treatment -- and, since it's not approved in the U.S., none of it is covered by insurance. Now for the good news. Just because HIFU may not be the miracle treatment some men believe it will be doesn't mean you're without options. Back in November of 2005, Dr. Wright wrote an article about the prostate-cancer-crushing effects of a completely non- invasive treatment -- a combination of two simple nutrients: vitamins K3 and C. If you're a Nutrition & Healing subscriber, you can download that issue for free by visiting www.wrightnewsletter.com and logging on with the username and password listed on page 8 of your most recent newsletter. (And if you're not already a subscriber, the website offers complete details on how to become one so that you have access to this and all the rest of Dr. Wright's life-saving information.) Source:
"Despite doubts, cancer therapy draws patients," The New York Times (www.nytimes.com), 1/18/08 | 
