Exploring Strategies for Prostate Health and Cancer Prevention

#221

I’ve been taking glycine before bed for a long time (currently 5g/night) but have never personally seen an effect on night time urination. What HAS been a godsend is Gemtesa (vibegron), a highly selective beta-3 agonist which relaxes the bladder and has no effect on my blood pressure and no other stimulant effect. I only have to get up once per night, and that’s been life-changing from 2-3 times/night.

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#222
#223

Some good news for the new year!

Study reveals how many times a month men need to ejaculate to help prevent cancer

Turns out letting things build up too much might actually be bad for you

according to a study published in European Urology, it’s 21 times a month.

The study followed 32,000 people over the course of 18 years and found that those who reached the vinegar strokes more often had a lower rate of developing prostate cancer.

And while they arrived at the number 21, it turns out that there’s no upper limit to this, other than the limits imposed by human endurance and scheduling conflicts.

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#224

So how is your estrogen level? And did you ever check thyroid? The high TSH, normal free T4, high SHBG, low T thing is super common with aging.

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#225

TSH is 3.49 and SHBG was 27 - both seem in range. Think I’ve atrophied my testes through 15 years of dutasteride

#226

To be fair, you are in your 70s. Could be more of an age-related than drug-related issue.

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#227

well according to the two ai agents I consulted my T should be closer to 400 at my age - it is half that

#228

After one year of daily 0.5 mg Dutasteride, my prostate has shrunk from 54 2 years ago to 40 today. Thats a 26% decrease in size!

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#229

Hi, DeStrider. How was the side effects on Dutasteride compared to Finasteride? I am using 5mg of Finasteride every other day (I get to much side effects if I do every day) I get the same side effects of 1mg and 5 mg it does not make a difference of the dose, but every other day seems to make less side effects. Thinking about dustasteride, but nervous about side effects.

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#230

I had far worse side effects with Finasteride. It made me very negative/depressed. Dutasteride had no effect on my mood. However, it does lower my ability to stay erect during sex.

However, beng married for as long as I have, the former is worse than the latter, IMHO. I am taking Tadalifil to counteract that and it helps.

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#231

This is interesting and surprising…

Diabetes drug metformin may echo the benefits of exercise in prostate cancer care

A new study has found that metformin, a widely prescribed diabetes drug, may mimic one of exercise’s core biological effects in men with prostate cancer, raising levels of a molecule tied to energy balance and weight control even when patients are inactive. The findings suggest that metformin could help counter the metabolic strain of hormone therapy, when fatigue and other side effects often limit physical activity.

Exercise is one of the most reliable ways to support health during cancer treatment. It helps regulate weight, blood sugar, and cardiovascular health—factors that shape how patients feel during therapy and how well they recover afterward.

For many people with cancer, however, regular exercise isn’t always feasible. Fatigue, hormone therapy, pain, or advanced disease can limit physical activity precisely when metabolic health becomes most important.

That reality has led researchers to ask a practical question: If exercise confers its benefits through specific biological signals, could some of those signals be activated in other ways?

According to the research, the answer may be yes. Sylvester investigators report that metformin raises levels of a naturally occurring molecule involved in how the body manages energy and weight in prostate cancer patients.

The finding does not suggest that a pill can replace physical activity. Instead, it offers insight into the internal pathways that underlie exercise’s metabolic benefits—and how those pathways might still be engaged when movement is limited.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-diabetes-drug-metformin-echo-benefits.html

Paper:

The anti-obesogenic metabolite, Lac-Phe, is elevated by metformin treatment in prostate cancer patients, EMBO Molecular Medicine (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s44321-026-00408-6

Journal information: EMBO Molecular Medicine

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#233

A paper out of India (caution, low impact paper):

Trial Design & Interventions

  • Participant Cohort: 95 men aged 45–80 years with clinically and radiologically confirmed moderate benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), defined by a baseline International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS) between 8 and 19. (88 participants completed the study per protocol).
  • Intervention: 1,000 mg/day (1 g/day, administered as two 500 mg capsules) of high-purity Undaria pinnatifidafucoidan (UPF; extract manufactured by Marinova Pty Ltd) versus a matched placebo over 90 days.

Primary Clinical Findings

  1. IPSS Reductions:
  • Total IPSS Improvement: The UPF arm demonstrated statistically significant improvements compared to placebo by Day 60 (p=0.0234) and Day 90 (p=0.0015).
  • Mean Change at Day 90: Total IPSS score decreased by –3.40 points in the UPF group compared to –0.93 points in the placebo group.
  • Composite Sub-scores: Statistically significant improvements were observed in both voiding (incomplete emptying, intermittency, weak stream, straining; p=0.0006) and storage (frequency, urgency, nocturia; p=0.0150) composite sub-scores.
  1. Minimal Clinically Important Difference (MCID):
  • At Day 90, 51.1% of participants in the UPF group achieved an overall clinically meaningful IPSS reduction (≥3 points) compared to 28.9% in the placebo group (p=0.0314).
  1. Quality of Life (QoL):
  • Urinary symptom-related QoL scores improved continuously and significantly in the UPF group relative to placebo at both Day 60 and Day 90 (p<0.05).

Secondary Outcomes & Biomarkers

  • Objective Urodynamics: Peak urinary flow rate (Qmax​) increased by 1.13 mL/s in the UPF arm versus 0.09 mL/s on placebo, while post-void residual volume (PVR) decreased in both arms. However, the between-group differences for these urodynamic endpoints were not statistically significant.
  • Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA): Serum PSA levels remained stable in both arms without significant between-group variance, demonstrating that the extract did not interfere with standard PSA monitoring.
  • Tolerability: The extract was well tolerated with no serious adverse events reported.
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#234

I searched for Pluvicto on these forums and found no mention. I think targeted radiation is one of the most exciting developments in cancer treatment. Here’s a podcast

https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/caretalk/how-targeted-radiotherapy-is-vxJITsgMwQY/

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#235
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