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In response to your emails here below are reprints of all the articles on Quercetin which have appeared in the Prostate Focus

magazine over the past 13 years.  This will be in two parts, half in December and half in January. 

QUERCETIN

A powerful anti-inflammatory plant extract.

A COMPILATION OF ARTICLES FROM ‘PROSTATE FOCUS’.

PART ONE.

 QUERCETIN

Quercetin (pronounced  kwer-se-ten) is, yes, another plant extract.  It is naturally found in apples, onions, tea, green leafy vegetables, beans, citrus fruits and red wine and it appears to have unique properties.  Not a new product as it has been studied and used for over 30 years now. 

PROSTATE CANCER.

Quercetin is documented as being safe with a low toxicity and has been used to treat asthma, hay fever and eczema.  What alerted me to the product was its use in gout, arthritis, and pancreatitis as it is an excellent anti inflammatory - plus a recent trial in the USA which showed that it blocks the androgen (hormone) activity in human prostate cells.  Now these prostate cancer trials are in a laboratory on prostate cancer cells in dishes, not yet on humans. However, it is significant as it could be a method of stopping the growth of cancer cells without using the hormonal drugs currently used, such as Zoladex and Casodex.

The trials have led to newspaper articles which advise “an apple a day may help stop the growth of prostate cancer. A compound found in the apple called, surprise, surprise, Quercetin blocks the hormone that the cancer cells need to grow.  This blockage can prevent or stop the growth of prostate cancer say researchers”. 

It is early days yet but these trials have a great significance for men at the end of their hormone treatment because the cancer no longer responds to the lack of testosterone and begins to grow again.  The Doctor conducting the trial said he feels this natural product may inhibit the prostate cancer receptors and keep the cells under control.

Now, most early day trials such as this are on new drugs with names like xw/54055. These are unobtainable.  Well, not so with Quercetin as it is available over the counter.

PROSTATITIS

The trials for prostatitis are in a different league to those for cancer which is a turnaround as relatively nothing is spent on prostatitis here in the UK. A Dr Shoskes MD in the States has done a randomised, double blind, placebo controlled study, (yes a proper study, one even your GP or Urologist would have to admit has some authority).  His findings show that 82% of those patients who received Quercetin had at least a 25% improvement in their quality of life.  Dr Shoskes studies in the use of Quercetin are now of some four years standing so he has built up a good body of evidence.

With some 30 million men in the USA suffering from prostatitis, (UK numbers not known), this must be good news for a great many men.  So whilst not everyone benefited and not every one who did had a complete resolution of symptoms it is the first such randomised, double blind, placebo controlled study to show that a plant extract can truly have a positive effect on this debilitating disease. 

I emailed Dr Shoskes to establish the amount of Quercetin he gave, and continues to give to his patients and in what form. He has advised that pure Quercetin, while effective in many patients, can be improved upon by the addition of bromelain (a pineapple extract). He points out that the combination he uses may not be a ‘cure all’ for every man with chronic pelvic pain syndrome.  It appears not to be effective for instance if you have active infection or symptoms arising only from pelvic muscle spasm.  He stresses not to use it with Quinolone antibiotics (such as Trovan, Cipro, Levaquin, Noroxin, or Floxin) as it may interfere with the action of this class of antibiotics.

So here we have a plant extract which can help with both prostatitis and may also be of help if/when hormone treatment eventually fails. Now for any man with a prostate this is good news ! 

TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE?

Comments on a US Web site advises that a few patients who have taken the Quercetin on an empty stomach have reported mild nausea.  Also a few have reported a slight tingling in the extremities shortly after their first dose.

Cost and Green tea

Now to the cost.  I have seen one US site selling a Quercetin based complex at £37.00 for a thirty-day pack.  Luckily I have found a supplier here in the UK selling a similar Quercetin base, for approx half the cost of the American product. 

..NB…  The supplier mentioned above is no longer able to supply.  We have since sourced another supplier.  This is a quercetin/bromelain product with an addition of zinc.

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The Internet and E-mails.

An efficient method of communication, but be careful that the information is accurate.

I recently had an email from Mr J.  He has prostate cancer that has overcome the hormone treatment he is on.  Trawling the Internet, he came across this information about Quercetin.

“Quercetin … a ‘Star Nutrient’ in the Nutrition-against-Cancer Field”

“Dr Patrick Quillan of Cancer Treatment Centres of America has assembled some interesting data on Quercetin in cancer. Quercetin has ‘the potential to revert a cancerous cell back to a normal healthy cell’. Quercetin also induces apoptosis or programmed cell death in otherwise ‘immortal’ cancer cells. It inhibits inflammation by reducing histamine release and reduces tumour cell-proliferation. Dr. Quillan also refers to new studies that show that Quercetin ‘may be one of the most potent anti-carcinogens in nature’. Among the reasons for this may be the fact that Quercetin ‘competes with oestrogen for binding sites, thus defusing the damaging effects of oestrogen’ in breast cancer (Don’t forget that both breast and prostate cancers are hormone cancers, and there is a body of opinion that feels that it is oestrogen and not testosterone that is responsible for prostate cancer Ed.). Quercetin is also ‘a potent antioxidant.’ It ‘inhibits capillary fragility which protects connective tissue against breakdown by tumours, in angiogenesis and metastasis. Quercetin also interferes with metastasis by reducing cell aggregation or ‘stickiness’. It ‘helps to eliminate toxic metals through chelation’.”

Quercetin is a flavonoid which occurs strongly in apples and the white rind of citrus fruits. (An apple a day ?! Ed)

The above overall quotation is from pages 278-279 of  Living Proof: a Medical Mutiny, by Michael Gearin-Tosh (London: Scribner, 2002). Most of the quotations are from papers in Quillan’s symposium: Quillan, P. and Williams, R.M. Adjuvant Nutrition in Cancer, 1993. See also Quillan’s  Beating Cancer with Nutrition, 1998, and George Blackburn & ors. Nutritional Oncology, 1999. A useful website to visit in  respect of nutritional therapies in cancer is http://www.canceraction.org.gg (e-mail: canceraction@gtonline.net).

Our member feels that this information deserves wider dissemination and wonders why the makers of Conflam (Quercetin) do not  publicise the merits of their product in cancer treatment.

As I explained to him, here in the UK, it is against the law for anyone to advertise that their product however good it may be and however much they may feel it will treat or cure cancer.  It is just not allowed.  You could argue that this is all very nice for the pharma’s who sell their cancer treatments via medics as it takes away a product that could become a major competitor. 

The Internet comment above supports my article on Quercetin back in Oct 2001. Although that Newsletter must have been seen by at least 3,000 men, (many of them medics), only a couple of members, that I recall, have indicated they intended to take it to treat their prostate cancer or as a preventative.  It must be said that Quercetin is just one of many plant extracts that have such properties. 

Now it may just be possible that Dr. Quillan owns a Quercetin manufacturing factory; I’m sure he doesn’t, but with so much hype and untruths on the Internet, it is always wise to be very wary.  For readers information I will advise that although I have no BPH problems since my Gyrus treatment, I continue to take one beta-sitosterol and one Quercetin capsule per day, plus a sprinkling of ground apricot kernels. All of these as preventative treatment.

April 2003

Alternative treatments for

prostate disease.

What is the result of having written about prostate disease for ten years ?  I have read acres of newsprint about clinical trials in relation to drugs, surgical treatments and alternative treatments. I understand that no one treatment appears to be a guaranteed cure for every patient. I read that all the drugs have possible side effects, as do the surgical treatments.  And yet I have seen clinical evidence that some alternative ‘over the counter products’ help men in a similar way to drugs without, in most cases, side effects. 

Ten years worth of the magazine Prostate Focus and numerous articles later I still have only been able to channel this information to a small number of the men in the world whilst the majority remain in ignorance of prostate disease.  Most are so immersed in today’s medical world that they believe anything that their medic disapproves of must be bad for them.

Is it wise to have a shop and sell alternative products?  Now that sounds a great idea but is fraught with a major problem.  You see in the UK no one can claim that a product can treat a medical condition, unless that product is medically approved. (Such approval would cost over £100,000 and take at least three years).  You may already have discovered that in the case of disease of the prostate gland all that the label on a pack of capsules will say is that it can ‘maintain a healthy prostate’ or that it is ‘for men’. 

Not very informative is it ?  Certainly not the sort of information which would encourage you to spend £45 for a three month course if you suffered from the unremitting pain of prostatitis.

You can understand the reason why such restrictions came into force.  Anyone, once upon a time, could mix up a concoction, claim it cured prostate cancer, charge an exorbitant price and retire in splendour on the backs of the dying cancer patients.

This ‘protection’ of the man in the street by the authorities from being able to purchase a herbal or nutritional product  has consequences which were not dreamed of when the legislation was first drawn up.  You can find all sorts of cancer cures on the Internet and pay vast sums for them.  There is nothing to stop you doing so.  It means that much of today’s legislation can be avoided.  But what it does is make it difficult for law-abiding citizens to buy something as simple as a treatment for BPH

Many such treatments have had dozens of clinical trials around the world by urologists and medical researchers, at well known hospitals. Such trials have subsequently been published in internationally acclaimed  medical publications endorsing the herb or nutritional substance,  ‘..Condition… significantly improved after only 45 days  and after 90 days of treatment a majority of patients and treating physicians considered the therapy effective…’  to quote one such publication’s conclusions.

So what if you are diagnosed with a benign prostate growth (BPH)?  You wish to treat yourself via your health food shop with a herbal or nutrient capsule because you are not keen on the side effects which you understand are the possibility of your GP/MD’s prescription.  Well, you have a problem.

Faced with a range of, say, ten packages, on what do you base your choice ?  For not one of them is allowed to make any claim whatsoever.  Sometimes a pack will vaguely betray its use as the trade name of the product is Pro-gel, Pros-cap, or similar.  At least with these you have a sporting chance of buying a product which may help your ‘pro’ state.

But what the legislators did not realise was that the Internet and direct mailing would confound their efforts to ‘protect’ the general public from being able to purchase a product of their choice.  What is more sinister is that mail order and the Internet, (much of it from the USA and off-shore locations) target the vulnerable with weasel words which link BPH with prostate cancer to falsely indicate to the ‘victim’ that if treatment with their capsule is not started their BPH will turn eventually into a malignant cancer.  Most of these companies are based outside the UK and therefore not subject in any way to UK or EU legislation.

Why is this legislation in place over such a broad spectrum ?  Why isn’t it more precise to target those who abuse their customers and not those who, with knowledge and care, attempt to help ? If there have been medical clinical trials, surely that should call for some reassessment. 

Does the purchase of a saw palmetto based herbal capsule place your life or health at risk ?  Well apparently not.  Indeed on the continent saw palmetto based capsules and liquids are regularly prescribed by medics for prostate disease.  Not only that, but multiple clinical trials have shown that standardised saw palmetto based capsules perform just as well as pharmaceutical drugs with which your medic will be familiar. 

As to risk of life or health; again the worst side effect of such capsules is that some men found they had constipation. 

Compare that with the drugs which your medic would prescribe for you in the UK. Drugs such as alpha-blockers which relax the prostate gland and can alleviate urinary symptoms. These do not cure you must understand. What they do have is a range of possible side effects which include

dizziness, blurred vision, drowsiness, (i.e. don’t drive your car or operate machinery), dry mouth, headaches, palpitation, chest pain, fatigue, nasal congestion, weight gain and ejaculation failure.

Or 5-alpha inhibitors which can, in some men, reduce the size of the gland.  The possible side effects range across impotence, (nice !), decreased libido (great, who wants a libido if they have impotence !), testicular pain, breast tenderness and enlargement, and finally urticaria. (Urticaria is a skin condition characterized by development of itchy weals surrounded by an area of red inflammation).  I guess if you overcame the lack of libido and then eventually the impotence, your partner would run a mile at the sight of the urticaria !).

Having said that, I know which product I would want in a hurry if I found I could hardly urinate one morning at 2 a.m.  That would be Flomax, an alpha-blocker that works with some speed to relax the prostate and allow for some normality in urination.

As an aside, there are the potential future EU rules which may deprive you of even those products on your health food shop shelf.  But even if they are banned you will still be able to obtain them through the mail after ordering them on the Internet. What is the point of the legislation and hassle for the U.K. manufacturer, shopkeeper and customer  when such a loophole exists ?

So do we really need protection from these ‘alternate’ ‘over-the-counter’ prostate products?  Are they really just a rip off and do they have no effect on the prostate at all?   I have already explained that on the continent saw palmetto is one of the products that is available from a medic on prescription.  But there are others which have had multiple trials by medical men around the world.  Pages and pages of references are available of such trials that indicate that such plant extracts have improving benefits on the prostate as well as other parts of the body.

We have the plant extract **** ********** which cuts the formation of cholesterol, as well as reducing the problems associated with BPH.  Another plant extract which treats hayfever,  (as it is a powerful anti inflammatory), as well as reducing the pain of prostatitis.  This latter plant extract, *********, (sorry but as I say I cannot publicise it !) was clinically tested by a US medic who ran a double blind, placebo based, clinical trial on men with prostatitis. He found a high percentage received relief from their pain by taking the extract.

Such clinical trials, conducted by medical personnel are available to be read and acted upon, but in the main are ignored by GP’s and specialists.  Ignored, very pointedly, by pharmaceutical companies because they cannot patent them and charge exorbitant ‘mark-ups’ for their branded names.  Yet the cholesterol solution, although not taken up medically, has been used by food manufacturers. Available, (from your supermarket), as an expensive butter substitute, it contains a  plant extract, which lowers your cholesterol level.

So if this plant extract **** ********** can be marketed in large quantities by spread manufacturers I think we can be assured that it can cause no harm in the quantities used.  Conversely I have seen comment that it should not be used by anyone who has had organ or bone marrow transplants.  Diabetics should also monitor their blood insulin levels as it can reduce insulin requirements. Yet if I attempted to sell this product in capsule form and claimed on the pack that it could lower your cholesterol or treat your BPH I would no doubt be ordered by the MCA to withdraw such claims and my product. 

I must also add that this same extract which is the active ingredient in saw palmetto, nettle, African pygeum and a host of other BPH treatments is many hundreds of times more powerful than the saw palmetto, pygeum and nettle herbal extracts. 

So if you look hard enough, especially on the Internet, you will find clinical trials which support these ‘over the counter’ products.  Clinical trials undertaken by UK top medics such as Urologist Mr Buck who was so impressed with ********** , a pollen based product, that he prescribed it to his BPH patients.  Or reports in European Urology, the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, the British Journal of Urology, not to mention the Lancet all indicating that the active ingredient in many over the counter (‘mens health preparations’)  **** **********, had a ‘profound and beneficial effect on the prostate gland’.

So regardless of the fact that no one product, drug or alternative helps all men, be assured that there is probably one that will help you.  Be assured also that medically approved clinical trials have shown that alternates have helped a good percentage of those patients taking them. (PD)

Oct 2003