There is so much going on in November, not only the leftover pumpkin from Halloween and the dubious celebration of the gunpowder plot. It’s also International Men’s Day on Wednesday 19th November, and Movember throughout November.
In Movember, we are encouraged to consider the physical and mental health of our men folk, who are less likely to visit their GP, until they are so ill they can barely walk into the waiting room.
Movember means that more men sprout moustaches, to demonstrate solidarity with other men who may be struggling. The focus is on the key areas of prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and mental health, including suicide prevention.
Since its inception, the Movember Foundation has raised $837 million and funded over 1,200 projects in more than 20 countries. This is brilliant!
May I add though, that more widespread understanding of what can help prevent prostate and testicular cancer and support mental health is where I’d like to put the emphasis. Hence this newsletter.
Some of the best ways to prevent prostate and testicular cancer is to eat slightly differently food choices – adding some foods in; leaving some foods out.
Adding in more zinc-containing foods for example – pumpkin seeds, lentils, chickpeas, oats, oysters, seafood and meat.
Here’s an Easy, Fast Prostate-friendly Snack – Sizzled Pumpkin Seeds
You can knock this up in less than 5 minutes.
Dry-fry Pumpkin seeds, stirring regularly until they begin to brown slightly, then add a shake of soy sauce into the pan. Keep stirring until the moisture has sizzled off on the seeds. That’s it.
Tip the fried seeds into a bowl, let them cool a bit before eating – they’re hot! – and munch for a great snack. They are utterly delicious. I defy anyone to put this snack in front of a bloke and them not be eaten in minutes.
One other thing to prevent prostate problems is avoid lots of dairy. Why?
Cows’ milk is full of oestrogen, a powerful growth hormone. When we were tiny embryos, the prostate was derived from the same cell type as ovaries, and has oestrogen receptors.
If you don’t want your prostate to grow (benign prostatic dysplasia) then don’t feed it the natural growth hormones in milk.
Good for growing calves, but once you’ve reached an adult height, most of your cells simply need recycling, not growing.
An enlarged prostate affects half of all men by age 60. By age 85, the proportion reaches 90%!
As you age, your prostate can grow from the size of a walnut to about the size of a lemon, and this is very common in western countries where we consume a lot of dairy foods and don’t eat many zinc-rich foods such as seafood.
The other way to reduce oestrogen is to keep the fat off, especially round the middle, and this is even true in men.
That tummy is hiding visceral fat; which is fat around and within your internal organs such as your liver, pancreas and guts. That fat (as opposed to the inch you can pinch) is a hormone factory producing oestrogen – hello man boobs, as well as an enlarged prostate.
To make it even more likely that men will get prostate issues, guess what else also is another potent source of oestrogen?
Beer. Those delicious, hoppy bitters, plus your gut microbiome acting on them, can churn out powerful oestrogens for days. On top of the calories, alcohol and insulin surges stimulated by that malty sweetness, it makes sense of the beer belly too – it’s circular, you might say.
It’s worth remembering that oestrogen helps certain cancers to grow too, which is why it is blocked by drugs like Tamoxifen.
Benign prostatic dysplasia does not necessarily lead to cancer, but any unwanted growth means more cell division and the risk of damaged DNA.
Your innate immune cell foot soldiers are usually on the lookout for such damaged cells, and take them out, but without enough Zinc, those cells can become fewer, less observant and can easily miss something that is going rogue.
Zinc-containing foods or supplements help your immune cells function properly; not just fighting infection, but also tackling those cancer cells before they have a chance to cause trouble.
That’s true for anywhere in the body, not just the prostate. It turns out that the prostate and testes have the highest concentrations of zinc anywhere in the body, because there is so much cell division going on when making sperm cells – so those areas particularly need the protection.
Anyone who is worried about their prostate and family jewels, not just to reduce cancer risk but also to reduce the annoying and troublesome urinary problems that go with an enlarged prostate, I recommend this product, Saw Palmetto Complex.
Saw Palmetto itself is a herb that helps to reduce dihydrotestosterone that can lead to prostatic enlargement. It also contains Lycopene, the antioxidant compound in tomatoes, known to reduce cell damage; ginseng to help with energy, and Nettle root that helps to improve urinary flow.
Visit the Natural Dispensary now
Remember to use my LMCG15 code in the Promo Code box to get 15% off.
One of my more elderly clients began using this this supplement when he first came to see me, and went from getting up to wee three or four times a night, to needing to go only once.
He had been feeling permanently tired from such disturbed sleep too, so this was a massive benefit.
Mental Health
The mental health side is a different challenge. Sleep is a major factor and is often made much worse when people don’t have enough magnesium. About 1 in 3 people are already low in magnesium – it’s found in green, leafy vegetables, bone broths and nuts such as almonds, so with the average western diet, few folk have a hope of eating the amount of magnesium they need. How many of you know men who willingly munch their way through broccoli, cabbage and rocket on a daily basis?
You need a lot of magnesium, so just one capsule a day rarely suffices, and powders can be much better. They don’t often taste that great, so this is one occasion where I might suggest mixing it with some dilute fruit juice or cordial to get it down, drinking it throughout the day to aid absorption, or mixing it into food.
I like the supplement powder below as it contains lots of B vitamins and l-theanine, which is good for calming. The magnesium also helps to lower blood pressure and build muscle, so there’s a lot going for it, plus magnesium forms part of another nearly 600 enzymes and 800 metabolic processes in the body.
Visit the Natural Dispensary for your supplement powder
If you prefer taking tablets or capsules, don’t go for the cheap Magnesium oxide available on the high street, unless you also want a laxative and don’t mind absorbing only 10% of the magnesium you’ve paid for.
I recommend this one instead, Magnesium glycinate in a tablet form
Again, remember to use my LMCG15 code in the Promo Code box to get 15% off.
If your man is moody and miserable but macho, he could go for a blast of cold water at the end of his shower to help cheer himself up.
That boosts serotonin and dopamine, the happy hormones, faster and more thoroughly than any Prozac or Sertraline, and for much longer too. Many folk also swear by wild swimming to tackle depression and anxiety, but you don’t need to go that far.
A dip in your local pool will still help, and the exercise will also boost mood more effectively than any conventional anti-depressant.
Being outside in Nature, walking or simply relaxing, especially among trees, can be very soothing for your mental health, reduce your blood pressure, help to balance your blood sugar and boost your physical health too.
Looking for change this November?
Why not book a call? November is now under way, so why not book in a no-cost, no obligation, 30 minute mini-consultation with me? Just click here.
We can take a look at what’s going on for you, what you’ve tried so far, and what support you’re looking for. I’ll get you started with some simple tips, and we can look at options for us working together. Now is the perfect time!
