Broccoli May Help Cut Prostate Cancer

Broccoli May Help Cut Prostate Cancer

Broccoli, Cauliflower May Make Aggressive Prostate Cancer Less Likely
By Miranda Hitti WebMD Medical News
Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

July 24, 2007 -- Men who often eat broccoli and cauliflower may be less likely to develop aggressive prostate cancer than men who skimp on those vegetables.
That news appears in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

The finding comes from a study of more than 29,000 U.S. men aged 55-74 who were followed for an average of four years.

When the study started, the men didn't have prostate cancer. They completed surveys about the foods they typically ate.

During the study, the men were regularly screened for prostate cancer. A total of 1,338 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer, including 520 men with aggressive prostate cancer.
The men who reported frequently eating cruciferous vegetables -- which include broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, mustard greens, and turnip greens -- were 40% less likely to be diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer during the study than men who rarely ate those vegetables.

Cauliflower vs. Prostate Cancer?

Overall, the men's reported consumption of fruits and vegetables didn't appear to affect their chances of developing aggressive prostate cancer or less-aggressive prostate cancer.
But cruciferous vegetables were an exception.

Eating lots of cruciferous vegetables was linked to a lesser likelihood of being diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer. Broccoli and cauliflower were the standout vegetables.

Men who reported eating cauliflower more than once per week were 52% less likely to be diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer than men who reported eating cauliflower less than once a month.

Men who reported eating broccoli more than once per week were 45% less likely to be diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer than men who reported eating broccoli less than once a month.

What's so special about cruciferous vegetables? They're rich in compounds that may help protect cells from DNA damage, note the researchers, who included Victoria Kirsh, PhD, of Cancer Care Ontario in Toronto.

Prostate Cancer Diet: No Promises

The researchers aren't promising men that eating those vegetables prevents aggressive prostate cancer. Scientists don't yet have a diet guaranteed to prevent prostate cancer.
However, there's no reason not to eat a diet rich in vegetables, as many health experts have long recommended.

The men in Kirsh's study weren't assigned to change their diets to directly test cruciferous vegetables against aggressive prostate cancer.

Kirsh's team considered many prostate cancer risk factors when they analyzed the data. But the researchers couldn't control for every possible influence. In addition, some men may have misreported their vegetable intake.

By Mort Fertel
Jul 18, 2006
If a marriage has problems, the chances are good that trust has been broken. And yet, trust is a central component for a successful marriage. So how do you restore broken trust? And how do you do it without spending months in marriage counseling?

Trust can be broken in so many ways. The most common culprits are an affair, hidden addictions, lying, and financial secrecy.

But if you look deep into the heart of a distrusting spouse, it goes beyond the usual trust busters. Trust is weakened in a relationship when a spouse is frequently late, unreliable, or insensitive. Hiding a few empty beer cans can damage trust between you. It doesn’t take much to shake trust.

But it sure takes a lot to rebuild it!

We live in a microwave world of fast food, express delivery, and speedy-print. And so we figure, if we lost trust in an instant, there must be a way to rebuild it in an instant too. NOT!

Trust is built one small step at a time. There’s no other way. There’s no Herculean event that can deliver instant-trust. In fact, by definition, trust is about CONSISTENCY. That’s what it means to trust someone…to be able to PREDICT their behavior. Predictability is a function of repetition. Repetition comes with TIME.

Think about it. When you trust someone, it means you can RELY on them. But before you can rely on someone, you must depend on them time and again and NOT be disappointed. If you’re disappointed, even once, the trust is broken.

I often compare the building of a relationship to the building of a house…both happen one brick at a time. And every brick is significant because it strengthens the foundation. The stronger the foundation, the more room you have for error. For example, how damaging is it to ruin one brick when you’re working on the 3rd floor of a house? It’s no big deal, right? You have a strong foundation, the house is in tact, you clean up the mess, and you build on.

It’s like that in a relationship. If you have a strong foundation, you can make a mistake without ruining everything. It’s no big deal. You can move on.

But trust is DIFFERENT. One mistake kills you. Because trust is about CONSISTENCY.

Building trust is NOT analogous to building a house; it’s more like climbing a ladder. You don’t have a foundation to support you. If you slip, you fall all the way to the bottom.

That’s how trust works. It’s unforgiving.

So if you’re trying to restore trust in your marriage, and you’re expected to meet your spouse for dinner before your marriage counseling appointment at 6:15PM, don’t arrive at 6:19PM. For you, 6:19PM might be a matter of 4 minutes and no big deal. But to your spouse it might be about reliability, and you may have just slipped all the way to the bottom. You just broke whatever pattern of consistency you built prior to arriving late. And now you have to start all over again.How do you rebuild trust? You make and keep promises. Make and keep. Make and keep. Make and keep. Over and over again.

AND DON’T MISS! Nothing destroys trust faster than making and BREAKING a promise.To be consistent (to build trust), you need lots of opportunities to come-through. So create them for yourself.

“Honey, I’ll pick up some milk before I come home.”

And then do it!“I’ll meet you at our marriage counseling appointment at 9AM.”

And then do it!“I’ll read it by tomorrow.”

And then do it!“I’ll say it differently next time.” And then do it!Look for opportunities to make and keep promises.

That’s your opportunity to build trust. Like a ladder…climb one rung at a time. It takes time. There’s no short-cut. And you can’t slip. You have to stay focused. And just to be clear, the little things count big. If trust is about consistency, then it doesn’t matter what you promise.

Just promise and come through. Don’t think that just because trust came crashing down in one dramatic event (an affair or whatever) that you have to reestablish it with one dramatic event too. You can rebuild trust by making and keeping SMALL promises over an extended period of time.