Dr. Brownstein Hails Gov't Advice to Nix PSA Test
For years, getting a PSA test for prostate cancer was a routine part of a physical exam for middle age and older men. But last week a federal government panel sparked controversy and confusion by recommending that the PSA test no longer be given to otherwise healthy men.
Newmax Health contributor Dr. David Brownstein, one of the nation’s top holistic physicians, says he “absolutely agrees” with the new recommendation. Dr. Brownstein has for years opposed the routine testing of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and says the evidence that the practice saves lives is just not there. Now his long-held view is being cited as the reasoning behind the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force decision.
Dr. Brownstein, author of the Natural Way to Health newsletter, points out that a major study looking at prostate cancer between 1930 and 2005 showed that the routine PSA testing as well as the common therapies to fight the disease — radiation, surgery, chemotherapy, and hormonal blockage — have been ineffective.
Editor's Note: Prostate Size Can Greatly Affect Quality of Life and Sleep. What Size Is Yours? See This Photo.
“The latest data clearly shows that age-adjusted mortality rates for prostate cancer have not declined at all,” he says. “Whatever we’ve done has not changed the mortality rate. This dovetails right into the task force recommendations.”
He also points to England, which doesn’t practice routine PSA testing. A comparison study of prostate cancer in England and the United States showed a higher incidence of the disease here, but no significant change in death rates between the two countries. That study appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2005.
“We definitely need a new model and a new direction when it comes to testing for prostate cancer,” he says.
Testing and treating prostate cancer has long confounded the medical community. The disease is common, striking one in six men. However, its mortality rate is only 3 percent. Most prostate cancers are slow growing, and it is difficult to determine which ones are more aggressive. What’s more, an elevated PSA result does not automatically mean a cancer diagnosis. An infection or enlarged prostate can also give a high reading.
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) is the most recent well-known man to announce his diagnosis of the disease. A representative of the senator said Tuesday that Coburn was recovering from surgery for an “early-stage incidence” of the disease. Sen. Coburn did not disclose whether a PSA test was used in his diagnosis.
“We’ve built up this whole medical industrial complex of treating everyone with prostate cancer when only 3 percent are going to die of it and the other 97 percent are subjected to the side effects of treatment,” such as impotence and incontinence, Dr. Brownstein says.
He says he agrees with statements made by Richard Ablin, a research professor of immunobiology and pathology who denounced routine PSA screening, despite the fact that he pioneered it. In a commentary published last year in the New York Times, Ablin called the test a “profit-driven public health disaster.”
Dr. Brownstein says each man much decide for himself after consulting with his doctor whether to have a PSA test. If the test shows an elevation of the enzyme, he recommends a diet free of hormones and refined foods, drinking lots of water, and correcting nutritional imbalances.
This regimen is something everyone should practice anyhow, he says. With it, “men will give themselves the best chance of not getting sick,” he says. “That’s the best we can do right now.”
Editor's Note: Prostate Size Can Greatly Affect Quality of Life and Sleep. What Size Is Yours? See This Photo.
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