Lassen Volcanic National Park

Lassen Volcanic National Park is one of the least visited of our National Parks.Located about 5 hours north of San Francisco it last erupted in 1915. The terrain and geology is pretty incredible. The Cascade range received record snowfalls this winter and there is still lots of snow still on the trail.

We will be camping at Manzanita Lake in the NW corner of the park. This is gourmet car camping at it's best. Please see the www.prostateawarenessfoundation.org website for details.

Thank you to Cory Poole Photography for permission to use his nighttime photo of Mt. Lassen. You can see more of his stunning astrophotography on his main website: http://www.corypoolephotography.com/ and he is on Facebook too

(C) Cory Poole Photography - used with permission. https://www.facebook.com/CoryPoolePhotography 

Crila for BPH Control

Do you have BPH ? (Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia). It does not lead to prostate cancer but the symptoms drive a lot of guys crazy. They included urgent and frequent urination, difficulty in starting a stream, difficulty totally evacuating and often multiple trips to the bathroom overnight. BPH afflicts a large percentage of men as they age, with symptoms beginning for some men as early as their 40's.There are a multitude of supplements available on-line and over the counter, many making outrageous claims, few of them work well.
 
The PAF will be conducting a 6 month evaluation of Crila a supplement for BPH control. This supplement comes from a Vietnamese Water Lilly used by royalty and the nobility of Vietnam for centuries.


Crila Health is the company that grows, harvests,  encapsulates and distributes this supplement whose active ingredient is called Crinum Latifolium. Crila Health will be providing this product free of charge for a six month evaluation conducted by the Prostate Awareness Foundation. The PAF is currently recruiting 25 men to participate. If you are interested please call the PAF at 415-407-3961 to see if you qualify.

Cannabis - Is it useful for Prostate Cancer?

The PAF began getting reports from men about their cannabis use for prostate cancer a number of years ago. Clinical research on the subject is still hard to find. So the PAF does not encourage or discourage the use of cannabis for prostate cancer treatment. However, a number of men with prostate cancer have reported using a protocol of very high concentrated cannabis oil called Rick Simpson Oil (RSO). The protocol calls for using 1 gram of this cannabis oil per day for between 90 and 180 days depending on the severity of the disease and whether you have had prior conventional treatment.
PAF devoted a lecture and meeting to the subject of cannabis and prostate cancer this February.
Here are some of the things we learned from men in attendance :
1) A number of men we met are currently using variations on this protocol.
2) Some men with early stage prostate cancer report using 250mg instead of 1 gram of RSO.
3) To avoid the extreme psycho-activity at this volume of consumption a number of men are using RSO in suppository form. This approach by-passes the liver on the first pass which dramatically reduces the stony effect. Men report being able to tolerate these large doses and still function and remain focused thru the day.
4) After taking RSO orally for about a week or so, most men report a diminishment of the psycho-active effect.
5) Men on these protocols report deeper and more restful sleep with a pronounced reduction in BPH symptoms including reduced night time urinary frequency.
6) One man with a Gleason of 8 and recurrent prostate cancer after radiation therapy was told by his cancer specialists after a full battery of tests including an MRI and PET scans that his prostate cancer could not be found. But yet his PSA has continued to rise!
We know these stories are not clinical research, but the results are certainly encouraging and bear watching.
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If You Have Prostate Cancer You Probably Won't Die From It!

That's right, only 3 % of men diagnosed with prostate cancer die from it. I like to say it the other way around: 97% of men diagnosed with prostate cancer will not die from it. So what will most of us die from? More than likely a heart attack.
I had a wake up call over the holidays. My younger brother called me from the hospital. He had had a massive heart attack. At 62 he had had no prior heart problems, but when he called he told me that if he had not called 911 when he did he would not be here today. The type of heart attack he had is called a Widow Maker. It is a major blockage of the left artery in the heart. The name speaks for itself. The survival rate is very low. I realized I need to get a better understanding.  So I Googled Widow Maker to learn more and hopefully find out what I might to do avoid one myself.
Keep in mind that the pro-active lifestyle changes I adopted to keep my prostate cancer from progressing back in 1995 are also important for heart health. They include a prostate healthy diet, lots of cardiovascular exercise and stress management.
But I wanted to do something more. It turns out that Vitamin K2 is a very important supplement for heart health. It helps put calcium where it belongs: in the bones not in the arteries where a calcium build up can lead to a clogging of the arteries and a heart attack.
So I bought a year's supply of Vitamin K2 from a reputable supplier for under $100. In my opinion

very inexpensive additional insurance against heart disease.
Check it out!

Mt Shasta 2017 Cancer Climb and Trek for Prostate Awareness

Happy New Year.
Would you believe that Mt Shasta beat it's previous world record for the most snow at one time..
18' in 4 days, 22' in 7 days. That's a lot of snow.
A group of PAF hikers on a snowshoe expedition visited Mt Shasta just before Christmas on a scouting expedition. This was right before the big snowfall.
Awesome.

We will be summiting 14,179' Mt Shasta in July during the PAF's annual
Cancer Climb and Trek for Prostate Awareness.
Want to join the expedition?
For details contact Ken Malik @ 415-407-3961 or kamalik@prostateawarenessfoundation.org