Happy Holidays

Wishing you and yours a great

holiday. I wanted to share one of my favorite John Muir words of wisdom:

"Keep close to Natures heart....

And break clear away, once in awhile,

& climb a mountain or spend a week

In the woods.

Wash your spirit clean".

Photo is on the Cataract Trail on Mt Tamalpais in Marin County, CA

Maca and Prostate Cancer

The PAF conducted an anecdotal trial on Maca Root extract in 2005. We wanted to see if Maca would have an effect on men's libidos who had with prostate cancer. Some of the men were on ADT therapy which means they were using pharmaceutical drugs to block their bodies ability to produce testosterone. They were chemically castrated (testosterone level under 20). We were surprised to hear that one of the three men on ADT reported that using Maca helped him retain sexual interest and achieve an erection. This was pretty profound. Of the 10 men in the trial, 6 reported improved sexual energy and libido. 2 reported a reduction. Six reported an improvement in mood and feeling of well being while 1 reported a diminishment. It would appear this root from the high Andes has endocrine system modulating capability for some men and requires further studies. 

It should be noted that the price of maca is increasing dramatically lately due to a cornering of the market by Chinese interests selling it as an aphrodisiac!

Below is a picture of Walter Radtke PAF's   

Videographer, UTube expert and regular hiker on the Mt Whittenberg trail in Pt Reyes Natonal Park.

What did you eat for Thanksgiving dinner?

I haven't eaten turkey since 1995 when I was diagnosed with prostate cancer and became a fish eating vegan. 

We had a Field Roast brand Hazelnut & Cranberry Roast. This company makes a tasty line of sausages so thought we would try the roast. Made from wheat gluten, surrounded by a pastry crust like a beef Wellington and stuffed with the hazelnut & cranberry dressing. Yummy. We also had wasabi mashed potatoes and a side of Brussels sprouts, string beans & mushrooms. Gail made a pumpkin cheese cake and a chocolate cake. Everything vegan and delicious. See below:

Pre-Thanksgiving hike -- Muir Woods

Mother Nature smiled on us the day before Thanks giving. Here's our gang starting off for a 10 mile , 6.25 hour cruise thru Muir Woods on Mt Tamalpais in Marin County, CA

Glucose Is Cancer's Favorite Meal

A common thread between advanced cancer patients who had "Radical Remissions" was the elimination of sugar and high glycemic content foods from their diet. Come to the December 4th discussion group meeting in San Francisco and find out the other eight factors most common to all. The PAF hiking group will do Muir Woods the day  before Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving.

A Son's Moving Tribute to His Father with Prostate Cancer

In 2012 the annual Cancer Climb & Trek for Prostate Awareness expedition attempted the summit of Mt Shasta, a 14,000'+ technical climb in the Cascade Range in Northern California. Quincy Zlotnick, a fifteen year old freshman in high school at the time was one of four climbers who reached the summit. Quincy was climbing along with his mom & dad. His father Jan, a member of the PAF board of directors and a long term prostate cancer veteran is now fighting for his life with advanced prostate cancer.  Go to the Success Stories section of www.prostateawarenessfoundation.org to read Quincy's brief moving description of his experience. You can also view a video of the Climb on the home page by clicking on the Cancer Climb Information section.

Quincy and Jan 2014

Radical Remissions

This is the name of an important new book by Kelly Turner, PhD. It tells the stories of volumes of people diagnosed with terminal cancer who made "miraculous" recoveries without conventional treatment. John Bohan (pictured below) will do A recap of the book at PAF's December 4th meeting in San Francisco. Checkout the Success Stories section at www.prostateawarenessfoundation.org for "radical Remissions" from PAF members with documented prostate

cancer.

A Prostate Success Story - Tom Lennon

Tom Lennon on Barnaby Peak in Marin

Tom recently had a re-biopsy at UCF Medical Center. He didn't want to do it! Like most of us with prostate disease he was not looking forward to the experience and it's potential for infection and side effects. But then came the good news - no Gleason score, no cancer. Just some undifferentiated cells, what layman sometimes call "fence sitters", cells that are not sure which way to go! So what is Tom doing? The doctors didn't ask which is pretty typical. Tom eats a Prostate friendly diet, gets lots of physical activity, practices stress management and has a zest for life. He's taking the PAF proactive approach to Prostate cancer. He tells us he is cautiously triumphant. Bravo Tom.

Carrageenan Alert

Carrageenan is a widely used food additive extracted from red seaweed and used as a thickening agent.

We were surprised to read in an article by Andrew Weil, MD that it has inflammatory qualities and is actually used on lab animals to stimulate inflammation. Since Prostate cancer is an inflammatory condition this is a good substance to avoid. We found it in many dairy substitutes like non-dairy yogurts, non-dairy creamers, ice creams and milk substitutes. Read your labels!

Pole Mtn., Sonoma Coast

We did the 1st "official" Land Trust guided hike of 2200' Pole Mountain on the Sonoma County coastline in late September. Spectacular views & scenery and a lot of nice people.

California Prostate Cancer Coalition Meeting

I attended this annual meeting a couple of weeks ago in San Francisco. I helped found this group of Prostate support group leaders way back in the mid-90's when the tenants of the Prostate Awareness Foundation were very far from mainstream. I'm proud to say a noticeable difference was apparent in 2014 - diet, exercise, stress management   and a zest for life are now concepts that are  now more mainstream options. I somehow feel vindicated. The keynote speaker was Max Roach, MD the chief of radiology at UCSF Medical. Dr Roach discussed his recent successes with salvage radiation after failed radiation treatment.

 

Butano State Park Hike & Camp

We did our last PAF camping trip of the year last week to Butano State Park in the Santa Cruz Mtns not far from Pescadero (Fish Town). This is one of the least visited state parks. Hardly anyone there. Great hiking and camping in the redwoods.

Cancer Climb, Trek & Gathering - 2014

Eleven men with an average age of  68 participated in this years annual fundraising expedition. The men either have prostate cancer themselves or have close friends or family that does. We started with an urban hike in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. Walter Radtke, Santa Rosa, CA. Rick Mohovich, NJ & Ralph Lake, TX are shown below at one of the parks windmills.

Napa Valley Pre-Climb Tune-Up for the Yosemite Climb

 Five PAF climbers on the Yosemite Cancer Climb, Trek and Gathering for Prostate Awareness expedition in August did a three day hike and camp in the Napa Valley in late July. The highlight was an 8 hour hike thru some of the most rugged terrain we have ever hiked in. The temperature was over 100 degrees and we were confronted by rattle snakes along the way. 
Looming over the town of Calistoga located at the North end of California's Napa Valley vineyards is a rugged volcanic escarpment known as The Palisades. The center of the 3 parts of the trail, winds along the base of the rocky outcroppings, dipping into 3 large "amphitheaters" or scallops shaping the Palisades' 3.6 mile length. The trail is not for the faint-hearted, particularly in Summer where 90* + temperatures are common. It is narrow, somewhat level, with rock steps frequently encountered, and frequent sections where the trail is little more than footholds in the hillside. This video will give you an indication of what you will encounter if you are planning a Palisades hike."

Here's the edited version of the Palisades hike.   It gives a sense of trail conditions for anyone wanting to do the hike and will join the half dozen other videos on YouTube showing the Palisades:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKBNCZwctMA&feature=youtu.be

Videographer/Editor Walter Alter

Artist - Heretic - Savant
http://walteralter.byethost32.com/

Cooking Oil Flash Points

Cooking oils become carcinogenic when they smoke, this is called the flashpoint. We know that olive oil is the most Prostate friendly oil, but it's flashpoint is relatively low. We recently read that avacado oil has one of the highest at 520 degrees. Below is a picture taken in Armstrong Redwoods Park in Guerneville  CA the site of last weeks PAF Wednesday hike.

Sustainable Prostate Hikes

Prostate Awareness Foundation Summer 2014 Hiking Schedule

You are cordially invited to participate in the Prostate Awareness Foundation's 

weekly Bay Area hikes. We have changed the day of the week to Wednesday's by popular request. Most of the hikes will take place in Marin County with occasional hikes taking place in Sonoma County. All hikes will begin at 10:00 and last between 4 and 5 hours. Terrain varies but generally the hikes will be of a moderate nature. You do not have to have prostate problems to participate, women are also welcome. Those men who have consistent exercise programs seem to have the slowest prostate cancer disease progression! These hike are a great way to meet those of a similar interest and to get in shape and pro-actively take care of yourself. Bring your own snacks water and lunch for the trail. Please contact Ken Malik at kamalik@prostateawarenessfoundation.org or 415-407-3961 n_of_the_skype_highlighting FREE end_of_the_skype_highlightingat least a day before the scheduled hike to let us know you plan to participate and review logistics.


Wednesday Hiking Schedule:
June 18th Mt Tamalpais / Mt Home Inn
June 25th Muir Woods
July 2nd Pt Reyes / Marin County
July 9th Mt Tamalpais / Pantoll
July 16th Armstrong Redwoods / Guerneville, Sonoma County
July 23rd Mt Tamalpais / Mt Home Inn
July 30th Bothe-Napa State Park
August 6th Muir Woods
August 13th Mt Tamalpais / Pantoll
August 20th NO HIKE THIS WEEK
August 27th Sugarloaf State Park / Sonoma County
September 3rd Pt Reyes / Marin County
September 10th Mt Tamalpais / Mt Home Inn
September 17th Muir Woods

Call

Send SMS

Add to Skype

You'll need Skype CreditFree via Skype

High Cost of Therapy

When I was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1995 brachytherapy (seed implant radiation) was a new option. One of it's advantages was it's lower average cost compared to radical prostatectomy. $13,000 compared to $30,000. We heard from a guy lately that was billed $300,000 for a seed implant procedure and he has no insurance! There is something very wrong here. Let's call it what it is -- GREED

BELOW: Walter, Tom and Kenin Muir Woods. Pt. Reyes trail. Tom and John on Mt Tamalais

Hiking in the Northern Sierra's

 Last week 4 PAF members Tim Englert, Walter Radtke, Dennis Nichols and Ken Malik camped and hiked around Sierra  City on the Sierra Buttes. We are in training for the August Cancer Climb, trek & Gathering for Prostate Awareness to the Yosemite High Country. There wasn't much snow or water in the creeks, but it was still a great trip. Here are a couple of photos

Hiking the Gunsight Trail in Sonoma County

Costanoa Camp hike and bike

Six of us had a great time down on the San Mateo Coast a few weeks back. we took advantage of a San Francisco Chronicle article by Tom Steinstra and he claims that the hike and bike that we did at Big Basin State Park is his favorite in the United States. I can vouch for that. We rode in six miles on fairly easy terrain. Then locked up our bikes and did a three waterfall eight mile loop back to the bikes. Wild flowers galore, lots of water. We all slept well that night in camp. This is becoming an annual PAF spring event. Three of the guys on the Yosemite High Country PAF expedition were on this weeks hike - Tom Lennon, John Bohan & Ken Malikbike & camp and are in training.We also went to Ano Nuevo State Beach which is the home of thousands and thousands of Sea

lions part of the year and I think you'll enjoy the picture above. 

 he's correct it was a great hike

Prostate Veterans on Mt Tamalpais

A apology is in order: This photo was taken almost a month ago. I'm new to blogging and have to admit the technology is still new and in a sense overwhelming to me. I feel like Rip Van Winkle waking up and coming into the modern world of computer technology!
The above photo was taken on Mt Tamalpais in Marin County after a winter storm about 3 weeks ago. The 4 musketeers in the photo left to right: Walter Radtke, John Bohan, Tim Englert and Ken Malik. All of us are participating in this year's Cancer Climb, Trek and Gathering for Prostate Awareness in August in the Yosemite High Country. (Yes, we are still recruiting participants. See www.prostateawarenessfoundation.org for details. So in a sense this was one of the first warm up hike for that event. We try to do a group hike every early Sunday morning here in the bay area. Staying in shape is one of the three cornerstones of the Prostate Awareness Foundations recommendations for a sustainable prostate. The other two: a prostate healthy diet and a stress management program.

Introduction to Ken & the Prostate Awareness Hikers

    As part of our ongoing effort to get good quality daily exercise we are climbing and hiking at Sugarloaf State Park in the Valley of the Moon, Sonoma County, California. We always go early in the morning to beat the crowds and get closer to nature. Our group generally consists of older guys who are trying to exercise daily as part as their proactive sustainable prostate program. The other parts of the PAF / Prostate Awareness Foundation program are a prostate healthy diet, stress management, a spiritual path of some sort. The object is to retard disease progression if diagnosed with prostate cancer or younger guys trying to prevent this nationwide epidemic.

    Each week, normally on Sunday we hike somewhere in the bay area. The latest research indicates that men who have the most consistent aggressive exercise programs. So you can expect photos of our weekly adventure.  The below picture of me was on the Steep Ravine Trail on Mt Tamalpais in Marin County during last Sunday's rain.