Monday, December 10, 2007

Protein & Prostates

Gray Iron Newsletter reader, John C., says an annual physical examination revealed a steep rise in his PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen) test. As you know, an elevated PSA can lead to more expensive and invasive tests. Before having those, he decided to examine his dietary habits and realized his only recent change was adding a daily protein shake. (I do not know how many total grams of protein he was ingesting daily. He is not a regular exerciser.) He eliminated the protein shakes and says his PSA gradually returned to a normal range. I had never heard of anything like this before. Have you?

The debate among bodybuilders, lifters and other athletes about the amount of protein needed while training is ongoing. It won’t be settled today. PSA tests aside, certainly there is a protein upward limit that when exceeded it becomes unhealthy. If you have any experience or knowledge of elevated PSA as related to protein consumption, please comment below. As I said, I have never heard of this before. I didn't come with anything doing a Google search.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

i have a psa twice a year, never even thought of this but will sureally keep it in mind. had an elevated psa about 3 years ago, dont remember if it was after i had started the exersize & proten shake. did have the biopsy, hurt like heck & ruined my sex life. biopsy was negitave.

Grayiron said...

Suggest asking your doctor if he or she has heard of this.

Anonymous said...

I have never heard about any link between protein intake and higher psa score. A lot of hmo's and doctores do not believe in a psa test' I myself did not any of the signs that something was wrong except that my psa score kept going up. I was first treated for an prostate infection, but my psaas still going up. Next I had a biopsy test and of the 10 taken 4 had cancer.

Anonymous said...

There is the possibility that it was some other ingredient in the protein shake that was the source of the increased PSA, not the protein per se. Reading the label on some of these "body builder" shakes requires a degree in biochemistry!

Anonymous said...

The following item on Medscape says a large sample, case-controlled research study found no relationship between protein intake and the incidence of prostate cancer but other dietary factors which increased the risk were identified.

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/503920

Bobblom@pacbell.net

Anonymous said...

I had prostate cancer surgery in Oct 2002. I’ve had a PSA test every year since. The year before my PSA was .014 and last year it was .017, that is 5 years after surgery. Now Tiger Woods, the professional golf champion’s father who was Special Forces in Vietnam had prostate cancer come back after 6 years to kill him. I mentioned it to my doctor at the VA and he said he would continue to check my PSA every year that he had read about Tiger Woods’ father in the newspaper.
I also use EAS 100% Whey Protein post workout only. I use EAS because it does not contain other supplements. I talked it over with my doctor. We haven’t seen any significant increase in my PSA with my protein use.