Common prostate cancer treatment linked to later dementia, researcher says

Depends how soon the dementia follows. I'm not sure if living is so good with severe dementia. Actually, if it's very severe then you're probably OK - my mother has a complex dementia and her medical team have now found a drug regime that "works", unfortunately that makes her more lucid and aware, enough that she has become severely depressed. Looking in on her condition I think I'd find death a welcome end if it were me; there's a strong sense of being locked in.

Whilst our instinct is to live on I'm not convinced that is always right.

Hormone ablation is mostly to buy you maybe a couple years of 'life'. I put 'life' in quotes because having experienced it I found it more like a living death - but your mileage may vary.

People differ in how they prioritize length versus quality of life. Most people cling to life at almost any price, perhaps until the last few weeks they stop treatment. People even cling to the hope of life at almost any price. I have friends enrolling in "cancer trials" of some slight variation of a chemo drug that has very little if any chance of curing them.

A recent study found that most men who died of PCa had some major, invasive, 'unpleasant', difficult, futile treatment in the last six months of life. The price of 'hope' can be high.

People dying with cancer or other diseases often come under enormous pressure from the people around them to survive as long as possible. I have experienced this myself.

My first interesting job was in a nursing home so I've had ample exposure to end-of-life situations and living conditions. I've also had a disproportionate number of near-death experiences so this is a considered position rather than a mere posture.

The notion that monitoring PSA levels can per se increase the risk of metastasis is ridiculous. It's far more likely that some other factor caused the increased incidence of metastases.

The major problem is that they mixed patients with low risk (Gleason score of 6) and those with moderate risk (Gleason 7) and even some with high risk (8+).

When you look at the supplement the death rate for the Gleason 7's on active surveillance was 10X higher than for Gleason 6. Why on earth they combined the 7s and 6s together in the statistics would be a complete mystery to me if I had not been reading medical papers for 40 years and come to expect this sort of statistical idiocy as par for the course.

http://slatestarcodex.com/2013/12/17/statistical-literacy-am...

Progesterone USP is both a pro-hormone and a neurosteroid [1]. The science literature commonly confuses Progesterone USP with various "progestins" (xeno-hormones), so there is much confusion on the effects of this substance vs the fakes.

> I seriously think there should be some inquiry into whether it is a driver for the epidemic of post-transition MTF trans suicides

At one point I made a progesterone supplement, which I sold on Amazon - topical progesterone formulas are grandfathered as non-prescription because they are safe, and because the substance was available before the food & drug act was passed. My best customer was "Billie", whom I never met, but who I'm certain was MTF. SHe emailed me recently when she ran out of her last purchase - I told her what to buy instead.

MTF probably usually do poorly post-transition because they only supplement with "the heart attack hormone"/"The Cancer Hormone" - Estrogen. Progesterone USP is essential for balancing the toxic effects of any kind of estrogen/xeno-estrogen. Fertile women are protected from their estrogen load because their bodies produce large amounts of Progesterone during the second half of the cycle.

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11108866

edit: gender pronouns

Please see: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12708367

Leuprolide, goserelin, triptorelin, histrelin, Degarelix, flutamide, bicalutamide, nilutamide, Enzalutamide, Cyproterone acetate, Lupron, Zoladex, Trelstar, Vantas, Firmagon, Eulexin, Casodex, Nilandron, Xtandi, Nizoral, Androcur, Eligard, Cyprostat, Anandron, Flutamin, Cytomid, Cosudex, Calutide, Kalumid

So relax, finasteride does not seem to be on the list.

[1] http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaoncology/fullarticle/256... (probably paywalled)

And Finasteride is only kinda an anti-androgen itself. It blocks conversion of some Testosterone to DHT, which is another androgen which is more potent WRT hair loss, body hair growth, and prostate problems, but I believe less potent WRT other effects of androgens.

(It affects conversion of Test. in DHT)

Using a 5aR inhibiter mostly affects those organs alone. There would be a slight decrease in effective Testosterone levels and these drugs can sometimes affect libido and erectile function. But the reduction will be minor compared to hormone ablation (HAT), which takes you close to zero.

HAT affects you in many ways: mood, bone loss, muscle loss are the main ones. To which we can now add dementia.

A huge number of medical treatments and interventions have been developed - mostly over the last 100 years - that are way more beneficial than they are risky. Some treatments have side-effects. Some have unexpected, or long-term side effects. Some have awful life-altering side-effects. That's all true.

But to say "mother nature is an unstoppable force" to support the idea that all medical treatment does equal harm and good is crazy. Health interventions - from clean food and water to drugs and surgery - have improved and lengthened the lives of billions over the last century.