Cancer Society Deleting Posts On Cancer and Diet

Well this is interesting. I was doing some research on prostate cancer and ran across the American Cancer Society’s prostate cancer support forums. I decided to search for any mention of the Dean Ornish study where he reversed prostate cancer in a group of patients by putting them on a vegan diet, along with an exercise and mediation program. No posts on the subject came up, which surprised me, so I decided to make a post to share the information.

After posting my message, I decided to hang around and refresh the forums for a bit to see if anyone replied. I noticed that the post got deleted after 5 minutes. So I posted it again, and again the post got deleted after about five minutes. I haven’t received any warnings from the moderators, so I’m not sure what is going on.

Below is an exact replica of the post I made, which I happened to save to my clipboard before hitting the submit button:

PSA Levels Reduced With Intensive Lifestyle Changes – Ornish Study

I was poking through the forums and noticed that Dean Ornish’s studies on prostate cancer were not mentioned on these boards, which seems remarkable to me given that he reversed or halted prostate cancer in a group of 44 men. The study was published in the Journal of Urology, Vol. 174, 1065–1070, September 2005. You can find a free copy of the study online by searching for “INTENSIVE LIFESTYLE CHANGES MAY AFFECT THE PROGRESSION OF PROSTATE CANCER.”

Basically Ornish put a group of men on a whole food vegan diet, which eliminated as much saturated fat and cholesterol as possible from the diet. He also put them on an exercise regimen of 30 minutes of vigorous walking six days a week and three hours of mediation a week. He also had a control group that were ordered to follow their doctor’s advice. At the end of the trial, none of the 44 men in the experimental group had undergone treatment for the advancement of their disease and their average PSA score dropped from 6.23 to 5.98, which indicates a regression of the disease. In the control group of 49 men, 6 ended up undergoing treatment for advancement of their disease and their average PSA score increased from 6.36 to 6.74 (and the people who underwent treatment were not included in that average, otherwise it would have been much higher).

Another interesting side note, Ornish took blood from the participants and dripped it over a culture of prostate cancer cells. The growth of prostate cancer cells was inhibited almost 8 times more by serum from the experimental than from the control group. That’s 800% more cancer fighting power on the vegan diet. I’ve looked at other studies that suggest the diet+exercise combo is critical, because the exercise helps work the blood into the tumor structure where it can destroy the cancer cells. Ornish also found a relationship existed between compliance and results, so the people who better stuck to the diet and exercise plan had greater reductions in their PSA levels.

It is important to do your research on your own FIRST before radically changing your diet! Vegan diets require B12 supplementation and can produce massive changes in blood chemistry. People who are on insulin or taking blood pressure medications may hurt themselves because the diet can lower insulin resistance and blood pressure so much that medications may need to be lowered to compensate.

For people who are interested in learning more about treating their prostate cancer with a vegan diet, I highly recommend looking up the work done by Dr. Michael Greger, Dr. John McDougall, Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, Dr. T. Collin Campbell, Dr. Michael Klaper and Dr. Neal Barnard. All of them have numerous lectures on YouTube, most of them also have books published and have been featured in documentaries like “Forks Over Knives”.

A great resource for nutrition information is the website nutritionfacts.org. Several videos and articles cover all sorts of research linking prostate cancer to lifestyle, and the changes that can be made to prevent and reverse the disease.

Perhaps 3rd time’s the charm. Here’s a link to the 3rd post. I’m going to keep trying until I get banned or they say something.

Update: Just received this email from the mods:

Hello Michael,

I’m writing to let you know that I removed your most recent post to the Prostate discussion board. CSN doesn’t allow solicitation of any kind, no matter how worthy the cause may be (such asking members to vote for something or someone in a cancer-related cause).

Your post seemed to be primarily focused on sharing medical information and resources with other members. Are you a caregiver or a survivor or are you in a medical or scientific field? It is important that members who are active in the community share their personal experiences with one another. Many members are medical professionals or work in related fields, but we ask that they only wear their survivor and/or caregiver hat when in CSN. Members naturally share medical information and resources with one another, but CSN is not a medical site. Its primary purpose is offer a welcoming place for survivors and caregivers to share their personal experiences and practical tips and support one another.

Are you comfortable sharing your personal experience with cancer?

Best regards,
Lena
CSN Support Team

My emailed response:

Solicitation? What exactly do you think I’m soliciting? I’m trying to share a study that demonstrated a reversal of prostate cancer through diet. Do you think I’m a broccoli salesman or something? Don’t you think this kind of information might be worth sharing?

Update: Looks like they banned me for the above post. Here’s the latest message from the mods:

Hello michaelsuede,

I apologize for the multiple emails. CSN is a site for cancer survivors and cancer patients, as well as caregivers and for those affected by cancer. Members on this site do share nutritional information as well as information on their treatment and side effects and what to do about those side effects. The key here is that are writing in reference to their own experiences and the experiences of their loved ones. Your posts are informative, but come across as a solicitation, because you jumped right in with links and websites and shared nothing about how cancer has affected you. For this reason we have blocked your membership. I hope you understand, but our members are very sensitive to this.

Best regards,
Jeff
CSN Support Team

I guess that’s what you get when you try to tell people with prostate cancer where they can find information on how to treat it without first sharing “how cancer has affected you.” FYI, my grandpa recently died of the disease. And people wonder why we have an epidemic of prostate cancer in this country.

A little info on prostate cancer: It’s the second leading cause of cancer related death among American men behind lung cancer. American men face 1 in 7 odds of developing prostate cancer, and a 1 in 38 chance of dying from it. In countries where meat and dairy consumption is low, the odds are massively reduced. Take this study from Japan for example:

Subjects completed a food-frequency questionnaire at baseline (1963, 1965 and/or 1979) and were followed for incident prostate cancer until the end of 1996. During this time, 196 incident prostate cancer cases were identified after 252,602 person-years of observation.

I remember seeing another study that was done prior to this one that showed virtually zero incidences of prostate cancer in Japan on average for the entire country! Obviously this was prior to the introduction of the western diet prior to WWII.

Oh by the way, here's an excellent article published by the UCSF Medical Center on diet and prostate cancer that covers numerous studies. It's packed with great information. The only thing they get wrong is the fish for omega 3 recommendation, as the Japan study I noted above found a significant correlation between fish consumption and prostate cancer risk. Stick with walnuts or a few tablespoons of ground flax seed daily for your omega 3s.

I honestly see everything their way on this one.

The forum is for people dealingwith cancer, and while informative, your posts did SCREAM;

Hey go vegan it will cure your cancer click here now to reverse your life!

I can see how that could be a problem and even borderline insulting to some people.

a reply to: Psychonautics

Just because it's information that some people might not want to hear doesn't make it any less valuable a message to those who are open to hearing it.

Science is science.

If eating nothing but meat reversed prostate cancer, I'd be posting that information as well. For every person who might be offended by science, there's another who could massively change the course of their life for the better.

If I had this information a few years ago, perhaps my grandfather would still be alive today. People need to hear it.

Such BS. The person or people deleting that valuable post needs a karate chop to the throat.

Food is Medicine medicine is food.

Thanks OP. Id be outraged if I were you. Not that this is surprising at all.

a reply to: GoShredAK

Yeah, it's very frustrating to see such valuable information being withheld from people who are suffering because a few blow-hards are offended by vegans for some bizarre reason.

originally posted by: Psychonautics
I honestly see everything their way on this one.

The forum is for people dealingwith cancer, and while informative, your posts did SCREAM;

Hey go vegan it will cure your cancer click here now to reverse your life!

I can see how that could be a problem and even borderline insulting to some people.

Why? The cancer should offend them, not the potential cure.

OP and others like them are stepping up and doing humanity a service. Sorry folks you might have to cut down on the bacon......don't shoot me.

originally posted by: AnarchoCapitalist
a reply to: Psychonautics

Just because it's information that some people might not want to hear doesn't make it any less valuable a message to those who are open to hearing it.

Science is science.

If eating nothing but meat reversed prostate cancer, I'd be posting that information as well. For every person who might be offended by science, there's another who could massively change the course of their life for the better.

If I had this information a few years ago, perhaps my grandfather would still be alive today. People need to hear it.

Well, from his quoted material, it didn't completely reverse anything and it was a sample of 44 men.

6.23 to 5.98 PSA is not a complete regression and we're talking about 44 men.


It's not exactly proven science here.

I'm not going to read too much into it because, I don't have cancer, but I'm willing to bet eating vegan wouldn't cure it if I did

originally posted by: Psychonautics

originally posted by: AnarchoCapitalist
a reply to: Psychonautics

Just because it's information that some people might not want to hear doesn't make it any less valuable a message to those who are open to hearing it.

Science is science.

If eating nothing but meat reversed prostate cancer, I'd be posting that information as well. For every person who might be offended by science, there's another who could massively change the course of their life for the better.

If I had this information a few years ago, perhaps my grandfather would still be alive today. People need to hear it.

Well, from his quoted material, it didn't completely reverse anything and it was a sample of 44 men.

6.23 to 5.98 PSA is not a complete regression and we're talking about 44 men.


It's not exactly proven science here.

I'm not going to read too much into it because, I don't have cancer, but I'm willing to bet eating vegan wouldn't cure it if I did

It absolutely can though. What would be your first option? Chemo and meds? Yeah that's working alright.

There's a few things that come with various anti cancer qualities and they are all plants.

Kratom, chaga, turmeric, cannabis, ect.........

a reply to: Psychonautics

Well, you're wrong. It did completely reverse the disease in the entire group of men. It didn't cure them, but I never claimed that it did.

Ornish actually replied to your criticism in the study itself:

Changes in diet and lifestyle are of profound interest to many
patients with prostate cancer. A large number of patients make such
changes, often independent of doctor advice or knowledge. Quantitative
information about their effects are lacking and more trials
need to address such issues.

While many people believe that changing diet and lifestyle decrease
the quality of life—“am I going to live longer or is just going to
seem longer?”—patients in the experimental group reported marked
improvements in quality of life.1,2 In contrast, many patients report
a decrease in quality of life, including impotence and incontinence,
following conventional treatments. Six patients in the control group
received conventional treatments because progression of prostate
cancer was evident.

All of the PSA tests were performed in the same laboratory at
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center using a precise procedure.
These results are accurate and precise with day-to-day coefficients of
variation of less than 4.2%. A mean difference in PSA of 10% is
different than the individual variation in a given patient. Regarding
the sample size, Maseri et al stated, “The larger the number of
patients that have to be included in a trial in order to prove a
statistically significant benefit, the greater the uncertainty about the
reason why the beneficial effects of the treatment cannot be detected
in a smaller trial.”3 In other words, a treatment needs to be potent for
its effects to be statistically significant in a smaller sample. While
there is not a direct correlation between change in PSA and differences
in progression or survival, PSA is used as a primary end point
meausre of virtually all standard treatments of prostate cancer. Also,
it is unusual for prostate cancer to metastasize if PSA levels are
decreasing.

Dude, we can both quote internet articles all day.

A VEGAN DIET won’t help during chemotherapy treatment for cancer – and could even do more damage to patients’ fragile health, doctors have warned. A group of Irish nutrition and cancer organisations hit back at what they claim have been a “number of inaccurate articles and commentary” recently about diet and its role in beating the disease. It said it was “deeply concerned” that patients undergoing chemotherapy would follow restrictive diets that could harm their recoveries like cutting all animal products out from their food. Irish Nutrition and Dietetic Institute chairman Dr Declan Byrne said there was no truth to the claim that a vegan diet helped people getting the cancer treatment. “In fact, a vegan eating plan which removes dairy and animal protein from the diet is highly likely to lead to insufficient oral intake of protein and will further exacerbate muscle loss, as well as exposing patients to inadequate levels of many vitamins and minerals vital for health,” he said.

Let's just be frank, if just eating healthy and jogging a little every day would cure cancer, cancer wouldn't be cancer.

Let's not get carried away.

a reply to: Psychonautics

See the big difference is that I'm quoting from a peer reviewed medical journal. Not just any medical journal, but from a randomized control trial study, which is as good as it gets when it comes to medical science.

Obviously no one dropped dead of a protein deficiency. In fact, I challenge you to find me ANY case study example of someone dying from a protein deficiency that was related entirely to their diet. It's virtually impossible to be protein deficient from diet alone without also starving to death.

a reply to: AnarchoCapitalist


It's probably more about content on their website, in relation to sponsors that worry them. Not so much the information you were presenting.

That and cancer patients are more likely to be dupped by charlatans pushing miracle cures. When their mods tell you that people are sensitive, it's to that they mean.

So yeah, I can see their hard stance on anything that looks like solicitation and if you aren't a cancer survivor or patient and don't really meet their forum requirements, I can't really blame them.

~Tenth

doctors have warned

Shocking.....

I'm going to go out on a limb and call the Article total BS.

There is plenty protein to be had outside of animal flesh.

originally posted by: tothetenthpower
a reply to: AnarchoCapitalist


It's probably more about content on their website, in relation to sponsors that worry them. Not so much the information you were presenting.

That and cancer patients are more likely to be dupped by charlatans pushing miracle cures. When their mods tell you that people are sensitive, it's to that they mean.

So yeah, I can see their hard stance on anything that looks like solicitation and if you aren't a cancer survivor or patient and don't really meet their forum requirements, I can't really blame them.

~Tenth

Oh, I totally understand if I was on there pushing supplements or telling people to get quack therapy with no basis in medical science, but I'm quoting from a peer reviewed medical journal that showed a freaking reversal of cancer through harmless dietary changes! I find their behavior to be unconscionable.

a reply to: Psychonautics

Let's just be frank, if just eating healthy and jogging a little every day would cure cancer, cancer wouldn't be cancer.

I bet that lifestyle would go a long way in preventing it though.

Ok Im outta here. I wasn't meaning to hassle you physconautic. Just am pretty darn opinionated when it comes to health.

originally posted by: GoShredAK

doctors have warned

Shocking.....

I'm going to go out on a limb and call the Article total BS.

There is plenty protein to be had outside of animal flesh.

Yep, you're right, just another conspiracy to keep all us cancer sheep coming in for chemo!

Veganism will not cure cancer. Do we need to start posting links to articles and obituaries covering life long vegans who died of cancer?

They won't be peer reviewed....

originally posted by: GoShredAK
a reply to: Psychonautics

Let's just be frank, if just eating healthy and jogging a little every day would cure cancer, cancer wouldn't be cancer.

I bet that lifestyle would go a long way in preventing it though.

Ok Im outta here. I wasn't meaning to hassle you physconautic. Just am pretty darn opinionated when it comes to health.

Hey man, I'm all for health and especially organic medicine, I'm just trying to keep everything real here lol.

originally posted by: Psychonautics

originally posted by: GoShredAK

doctors have warned

Shocking.....

I'm going to go out on a limb and call the Article total BS.

There is plenty protein to be had outside of animal flesh.

Yep, you're right, just another conspiracy to keep all us cancer sheep coming in for chemo!

Veganism will not cure cancer. Do we need to start posting links to articles and obituaries covering life long vegans who died of cancer?

They won't be peer reviewed....

You're right, veganism will not always cure or reverse all types of cancer. However, if you read that UCSF article, you'll see that cancer progression is almost always slowed substantially by such a diet. Further, in the particular case of prostate cancer, we can see a dramatic reduction in the risk of acquiring prostate cancer by eating a vegan diet.

So what's your point? We shouldn't tell people about it?

originally posted by: GoShredAK

originally posted by: Psychonautics
I honestly see everything their way on this one.

The forum is for people dealingwith cancer, and while informative, your posts did SCREAM;

Hey go vegan it will cure your cancer click here now to reverse your life!

I can see how that could be a problem and even borderline insulting to some people.

Why? The cancer should offend them, not the potential cure.

OP and others like them are stepping up and doing humanity a service. Sorry folks you might have to cut down on the bacon......don't shoot me.

c'mon....do you think cancer survivors or people with cancer are so stupid that they HAVEN'T researched or been told about dietary affects on their health?...do you think their doctors haven't given them this information?....I've had 3 heart attacks, and I'm a diabetic, diet has always, always, been in the forefront of any doctor that has treated me, regardless of it being my cardiologist or primary.....