There have been accounts throughout the site of people who got a high PSA, (score on the Prostate Cancer Screening test) and used lowcarbing to bring that score down. I’ve been reading stuff recently that puts this maneuver into stark terms. We have to practice Defensive Medicine Purchasing in this dark age of health misconceptions.

I’m currently reading The Great Prostate Hoax: How Big Medicine Hijacked the PSA Test and Caused a Public Health Disaster, by Richard J. Ablin. He was the scientist who discovered the prostate-specific antigen, though he also discovered it was not cancer-specific, and had no known use at that time.

But he wasn’t thinking like a venture capitalist. A company created the PSA test because it would bring in short term cash and have the easiest FDA passage of all. And so it was.

This led to what Dr. Ablin calls “the prostate cancer industry” which makes billions of dollars frightening men into taking steps which are uniikely to be really necessary, causes a lot of pain and worry, and leaves the person with serious quality of life issues afterward.

As discussed in this article from last year, Prostate cancer screening: massive study gets minimal coverage. Why?:



Because PSA is not a screening test! But it was conceived as one, sold as one, and our corrupted US FDA let it pretend to be one.

The more I read, the more I get all caveat emptor about medical care!

As a 72 y/o male I have managed to have only one PSA test. I tend to avoid getting much standardized, medical testing done - unless there is a valid reason. The more testing that is done, the more chance of finding an out-of-limits value that poses no health threat but 'must be treated' .

My doctor discussed the pros and cons about the PSA test, and we came to the conclusion given the data that it was not necessary. Many tests result in false positives, so what does that provide on which to make a decision? Slippery slope.

I get that PSA every year during blood screening. It goes up and down -- lots of things can affect it. There is a laundry list of things not to do before the test. I don't pay much attention to it.