Very interesting
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What these mice testes tell us about prostate cancer
Hey, Matt Cook here, and I’ve been helping men with their health and sex problems for close to 24 years now…
And if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s this:
Prostate cancer is an over diagnosed and overblown disease.
I know that may sound crazy, but there are thousands of men with prostate cancer who live to 90 or 100 years old…
And oftentimes, they don’t even know they have prostate cancer!
Of course, you don’t want to be one of the guys who develops a serious case…
…and you don’t want a diagnosis anyway as it can be stressful.
So it’s important to understand what triggers prostate cancer. Male hormones, particularly DHT, often shoulder the blame.
Research shows that other hormones – particularly estrogen – are far more influential.
In fact, high estrogen is essential for the development of prostate cancer.
These animal experiments were carried out at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. The findings were published in Endocrine-related Cancer.
The authors of this study carried out their experiments after noticing a particular pattern of hormonal interactions with the prostate.
“Previous findings suggest that alterations in local estrogen synthesis may have significant consequences and malignancy of the prostate.”
In other words, there are clues showing that the prostate had the ability to produce its own estrogen…
…which may not show up in the blood – and which is linked to prostate cancer.
To find out more, they carried out a number of animal experiments.
They looked at the effect of different hormones on the prostate of mice.
“Genetically modified mouse models were studied in order to evaluate the action of estrogen alone or in combination with androgens on the prostate gland.”
(Androgens are male hormones like DHT.)
Their experiments showed that mice with extremely low levels of male hormones, including DHT…
…developed cancer of the prostate when exposed to high levels of estrogen.
“Mice deficient in androgens showed direct proliferative responses to estrogen.”
Estrogen seems to initiate prostate cancer in mice with extremely low levels of DHT.
Estrogen is essential prostate cancer – DHT is not.
As those high-estrogen, low-androgen experiments continued, the mice showed more and more signs of prostate cancer.
“The responses were characterized by fibroblast proliferation, inflammation and epithelial cell proliferation and metaplasia.”
Then they carried out experiments in a different group of mice.
These mice were deficient in aromatase – the enzyme which creates estrogen from testosterone.
The researchers found an increase in prostate size in these low estrogen mice.
“Aromatase knockout mice, deficient in estrogens, developed prostate hyperplasia.”
These mice had higher androgens but lower estrogen – and the prostate did swell in the context of extremely high androgens.
But these low-estrogen, high-androgen mice did not develop any signs of prostate cancer.
“The estrogen deficient mice displayed no malignant changes in the prostate at any time.”
Though extremely high levels of androgens like DHT can cause prostate swelling…
…it did not cause prostate cancer when estrogen was low.
The combination of high estrogen with high androgens did cause prostate cancer.
High androgens can be protective against prostate cancer – but not when estrogen is also elevated.
“Combined androgen and estrogen treatment has been shown to induce prostatic dysplasia and adrenal carcinoma.”
High levels of androgens (testosterone and DHT) are essential for male health.
But high levels of estrogen inside the prostate offers no benefit.
“Malignant changes to the prostate gland are dependent upon both androgenic and oestrogenic responses.”
Reducing testosterone and DHT is always a bad idea. They have so many roles in health throughout the male body.
But it is essential to keep estrogen levels in the lower range – as it can predispose a man to many diseases, including prostate cancer.
Ideally, you want testosterone and DHT in the upper end of the normal range – and estrogen should be kept in the low-normal range.
In cases of prostate cancer, high levels of estrogen can be produced only inside the prostate gland and they will not show up in blood tests.
In cases like that, it’s important to take steps to lower estrogen inside the prostate gland.