Prostate Cancer Is Not Just an 'Old Man's Disease'

 Gabe Canales' experience with low-risk prostate cancer nearly matches mine -- with a couple of caveats, including a 27-year difference in the ages at which we were both diagnosed.

I was 62 years old with a rising prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level, close to the average age of diagnosis. Canales was just 35.

Canales, author of Unexpected Diagnosis: Prostate Cancer and the Wake-Up Call to Live Healthier and Happieropens in a new tab or window (2022) was diagnosed incidentally while investigating a problem with low testosterone. Instead, he found out he had what most consider "an old man's disease."

Like me, the Texan was diagnosed in 2010 with a single core of Gleason 6 (Grade Group 1) prostate cancer. And just like in my experience, his first doctor didn't emphasize that he had low-risk cancer and tried to persuade him to undergo a radical prostatectomy.

We both did research and got second opinions -- a half dozen in Canales' case -- and found that active surveillance, close monitoring of cancer, was an option to help us avoid the potential side effects of aggressive treatment, including erectile dysfunction and urinary incontinence.

But prostate experts viewed us differently based on our ages. He had maybe a 50- to 60-year life horizon to live with the cancer and be exposed to treatment and its side effects. My horizon was far shorter, maybe 20-30 years. In general, doctors were (and are) more supportive of older men going on surveillance.

This is in part because younger men tend to be diagnosed with more aggressiveopens in a new tab or window cancers.

In the U.S., the average 5-year survival rate

opens in a new tab or window for prostate cancer is between 95% and 100% for men ages 40-80. For younger men, the 5-year survival rate is lower. For men ages 25-34, it's 80%. For men ages 20-29, it's 50%. For men ages 15-25, it's 30%.

Canales had a tough time coping with a disease one would more likely expect his grandfather or father to have. Canales recalled, "My world was just upside down. I was a mess. I really was."

He sorted out his situation after meeting with multiple experts, including at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.

One expert he spoke with, Aaron Katz, MD,opens in a new tab or window a urologist at New York University, is an advocate of a holistic, dietary approach to active surveillance. "This isn't going to kill you," Katz told Canales, reassuring him he was going to be fine

Katz guided him to go on a plant-based diet to slow progression of his cancer. In fact, Canales said Katz told him he had found that many of his patients had no detectable cancers after making lifestyle changes.

In contrast, my doctors told me there was no evidence that diet can impact prostate cancer, which is now controversial. Research is starting to support the idea that a plant-based diet may help slow the progression of and even prevent prostate cancer.

For example, in a paperopens in a new tab or window presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology Genitourinary Cancers Symposium in February, researchers from the University of California San Francisco reported that "plant-based dietary patterns are associated with lower risk of prostate cancer progression and recurrence, particularly among older men and those who reported a higher intensity walking pace." They concluded that prostate cancer survivors may be recommended diet and exercise counseling to improve clinical outcomes after prostate cancer diagnosis.

At the same meeting, Stacy Loeb, MD, a urologist at New York University Langone, reported

opens in a new tab or window that her study suggests: "Greater consumption of healthful plant-based foods is associated with modest improvements in [quality-of-life] domains among patients with prostate cancer."

I recently organized a webinar for Active Surveillance Patients Internationalopens in a new tab or window featuring Loeb, who shared her findings. I was impressed. I went on a whole foods, plant-based diet recently with the goal of improving my health overall, with no expectation that it will impact my prostate. But I have lost 5 lbs in the first month -- so something is happening.

Canales told me that since meeting Katz, "I'm 100% whole foods plant-based. I don't eat processed vegan stuff. I eat a ton of beans, brown rice. You would think I'm a rabbit because I eat a ton of kale and arugula and chard and bok choy every day. I am the opposite of the guy I was in 2010 and earlier.

He added: "Having grown up in Texas, my favorite food was chicken fried steak with cream gravy. Just get a piece of steak, batter it, and deep-fry it. Lots of barbecue and red meat were my favorite protein source every day. And I just absolutely never ate a vegetable."

In 2010, he decided to spread the word by forming a charity called Blue Cureopens in a new tab or window aimed at increasing awareness of prostate cancer in younger men. But prostate cancer awareness is a hard sell in young men because so few in their 20s and 30s are aware of what their prostates are, let alone their risk for prostate cancer.

After realizing this, Canales switched his mission to a broader one: making young men and their significant others aware of good health overall, emphasizing nutrition, exercise, smoking cessation, good sleep, and mental health promotion. As it was, he found young women seemed more interested in improving their male companion's health than did the men.

One of Canales' advisors, Lorenzo Cohen, PhD, professor and director of the MD Anderson Integrative Medicine Program, said prostate cancer is extremely rare in young adults and teens. Research indicates that about 10%

opens in a new tab or window of prostate cancer cases occur in men 55 and younger.

He added that most prostate cancers are slow growing and screening is not necessary before 50 years of age, with the exception of those of African ancestryopens in a new tab or window. "Screening is still controversial as it may cause more harm than good," he said.

Cohen, co-author of Anticancer Living: Transform Your Life and Health with the Mix of Sixopens in a new tab or window, said about Canales: "Gabe is a role model for how to transform your life and health. He did not just modify his diet but changed his whole life. This approach, going beyond just diet and exercise, is likely what is needed to prevent and help control such a complex disease like cancer that has many driving factors." He added, "Blue Cure is doing a great job at educating young men, as that is the time some of these lifestyle cancers get established. Establishing healthy lifestyle habits when you are young will increase the chance that you will prevent future non-communicable diseases like cancer."

This fall, Canales is launching Blue Cure Men's Health College Tour in Texas. It will roll out nationally in 2024. "This is about planting seeds with young men and encouraging action," he said.

Canales, a PR and marketing professional, stressed that the image of prostate cancer needs to be changed. "When you look at brochures and websites, they always feature a guy with silver hair, a guy who looks like my grandfather. We need to get this message out to save lives that prostate cancer can strike younger men. Prostate cancer is not just an old man's disease."

Howard Wolinsky has been writing "A Patient's Journeyopens in a new tab or window" for MedPage Today since 2016. He is a co-founder of the education and support groups, Active Surveillance Patients Internationalopens in a new tab or window and the AnCan Virtual Support Groupopens in a new tab or window for Active Surveillance. He also is the editor of the Substack newsletter, TheActiveSurveillor.comopens in a new tab or window. He just started an MPH program at the University of Illinois Chicago School of Public Health.

https://www.medpagetoday.com/special-reports/apatientsjourney/106156

Tesco staff offered body cameras over crime fears

 Staff at Tesco stores are to be offered body cameras amid a rise in violent attacks, the supermarket's chief executive has said.

The company has seen physical assaults increase by a third since last year.

It mirrors findings by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) published earlier this year, which found abuse against retail staff had almost doubled compared to pre-Covid levels.

Similar action has already been taken by rival chains Waitrose and Co-op.

Writing in the Mail on Sunday, Tesco boss Ken Murphy called for tougher laws targeting offenders.

He noted changes had been made to make attacking a shop worker an aggravating factor in convictions, but wants "abuse or violence towards retail workers" to be made an offence in itself.

Mr Murphy called for the change to bring England and Wales in line with Scotland, where the Protection of Worker's Bill makes it an offence to assault, threaten or abuse retail staff.

He also called for the supermarket to have the right to be kept informed about how a case proceeds.

"Crime is a scourge on society, and an insult to shoppers and retail workers. It is time we put an end to it," he added, saying the abuse suffered was "heartbreaking".

In the BRC's Crime Survey published in March, it recorded more than 850 daily incidents in 2021/22, a steep rise from pre-Covid level of 450 a day in 2019/20.

These incidents included racial and sexual abuse, something it said was having a "huge emotional and physical impact on people".

The trade association, which represents more than 200 retailers in the UK, said the cost of retail crime was £1.76bn in 2021/22, with £953m lost to customer theft, and £715m spent on prevention.

"The pandemic has normalised appalling levels of violent and abusive behaviour against retail workers," said Helen Dickinson, the group's chief executive.

In July, food retailer Co-op warned that some communities could become "no-go" areas for the company due to the rising levels of crime, which it said had increased by more than a third in the past year.

It cited a Freedom of Information request which suggested many police forces were not prioritising retail crime, with 71% of serious retail crime not responded to by police.

Waitrose has said an increase in shoplifting has come from a proliferation of steal-to-order gangs.

The supermarket is owned by the John Lewis Partnership, which has said staff in John Lewis stores have also been given bodycams and de-escalation training to deal with a rise in incidents.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-66699084

'Sputtering Europe and Jittery China Add Bull Case for US Stocks'

  Europe’s stagflation crisis and a property downturn in China are flashing a familiar message: for equity investors, there is no real alternative to the US stock market.

With four months left of 2023, returns on the S&P 500 boast about an eight percentage-point lead over the Stoxx Europe 600. The index is on course for its eighth year of outperformance in the past decade, as the artificial intelligence buzz overshadows economic recession fears and pricey valuations.

What’s more, the Federal Reserve’s policy-tightening has cooled inflation while managing to keep the economy growing at just over 2%. Data Friday reinforced that soft-landing picture, showing a pick up in labor hiring and a slight slowdown in wage growth.

“US stocks are the place to be,” said Max Kettner, chief multi-asset strategist at HSBC Holdings Plc, who recommends using any S&P 500 pullback to buy.

“It’s the economic resilience, the tailwinds from the weaker dollar, still fairly downbeat expectations on earnings. All of that plays in favor of the US,” Kettner added, in a reference to the view that dollar strength has finally topped out.

In contrast, higher interest rates threaten to tip Europe into 1970s-style stagflation, with the economy sinking into a downturn and inflation running above 5%. In China, it remains unclear whether drip-feed stimulus can revive an economy in deflation. That’s accelerated an investor exodus from both regions.

Investors have fled European equity funds for 25 weeks straight, Bank of America Corp. says, citing EPFR Global data, while Germany’s DAX, home to the region’s manufacturing stalwarts, has just posted its worst monthly performance since December.

Europe does have an edge on share valuations — on a price-to-earnings measure, the Stoxx 600 trades near a record low to the S&P 500. For some strategists such as David Groman at Citigroup Inc., that shows Europe is already pricing the bad news. Citi turned overweight on Europe in July and cut the US to neutral.

Yet, in markets gripped by stagflation fears, the cheapness argument is finding fewer takers.

In such an environment, shares in autos, capital goods, retail, chemicals, banks, semiconductors and leisure — essentially cyclical sectors — are most at risk, the JPMorgan Chase & Co. team led by Mislav Matejka wrote.

Europe loses out on another front. Dominated by so-called old economy stocks, it’s also missed out on 2023’s favorite trade: artificial intelligence. The impact of this is underscored by a single statistic — the market value of the entire 600-member Stoxx benchmark has grown this year by about $810 billion, less than what the poster child of AI, Nvidia Corp., has added.

Tech should benefit even more next year as Treasury yields slide, reckons Nicolas Domont, a fund manager at Optigestion in Paris, and his quest for mega-cap stocks has yielded little outside of Wall Street.

“I was talking with my team about what to buy in Europe as we are predominantly looking for growth and our conclusion was that there really wasn’t much indeed,” Domont added.

Luxury has been Europe’s answer to America’s high-growth, highly valued technology stocks — companies such as LVMH and Hermes International have accounted for a substantial chunk of equity returns this year. But for such names, China’s slowdown poses a hurdle, given it is estimated to contribute up to a fifth of their annual sales.

China Confidence

Within China, problems run deep — even after an interest-rate cut and steps to ease mortgage curbs, the Hang Sang Index was the worst performer last month out of 92 gauges tracked by Bloomberg. Foreign investors offloaded around 90 billion yuan ($12.3 billion) worth of mainland Chinese shares in August, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Investors will watch closely how the real estate malaise shapes Chinese consumer spending, with a consumption-related MSCI stocks index trading at around a third of its 2021 peak.

More broadly, the lackluster consumer outlook in China and Europe gives Wall Street bulls another reason to stay close to the US market, where a resilient labor market lifted inflation-adjusted consumer spending by a solid 0.6% last month.

Oppenheimer Asset Management’s chief investment strategist John Stoltzfus recently upped his forecast for the S&P 500, citing the soft-landing view. He now sees the gauge ending the year at 4,900 points, representing an upside of about 9% from current levels.

“We wouldn’t bet against the American consumer and we wouldn’t bet against American business and the American economy,” Stoltzfus told Bloomberg Television this week.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/sputtering-europe-jittery-china-add-073000366.html

Civil Unrest Fears Grow As Youth Unemployment Accelerates

 In nearly every country in the world, youth unemployment is much higher than general unemployment.

Unfortunately, the pandemic only exacerbated matters. During a crucial stretch of their early careers, young adults were locked out of entry-level jobs, destroying their ability to pick up work experience and potentially impacting their long-term earnings.

Now, nearly three years after COVID-19 first hit, young adults from some countries, like China, are struggling to find jobs. Using data from the OECD and the National Bureau of Statistics of China, Visual Capitalist's Pallavi Rao and Niccolo Conte chart out the youth unemployment rate for 37 countries.

Ranked: Countries With the Highest Youth Unemployment

At the top of the list, Spain has the highest youth unemployment in the OECD, with nearly one in three young adults unable to find a job.

ℹ️ Unemployed people are those who report that they are without work, are available for work, and have taken active steps to find work in the last four weeks. The youth unemployment rate is calculated as a percentage of the youth labor force.

A mismatch between educational qualifications and the labor market has been cited as a significant reason for Spain’s lack of employed adults between the ages of 15–24.

Meanwhile, the country’s reliance on temporary contracts and dependence on seasonal sectors—like tourism—to generate jobs are some of the many reasons for its persistently high reported unemployment across demographic groups.

Listed below is the youth unemployment rate for all the OECD countries, and China, as of the second quarter of 2023.

Rank	Country	Average Youth Unemployment Rate
1	🇪🇸 Spain	27.4%
2	🇨🇷 Costa Rica	27.1%
3	🇸🇪 Sweden	24.9%
4	🇬🇷 Greece	23.6%
5	🇨🇳 China	21.3%
6	🇮🇹 Italy	21.3%
7	🇨🇱 Chile	19.8%
8	🇱🇺 Luxembourg	19.6%
9	🇸🇰 Slovakia	18.8%
10	🇨🇴 Colombia	18.7%
11	🇵🇹 Portugal	17.2%
12	🇹🇷 Türkiye	17.0%
13	🇫🇷 France	16.9%
14	🇫🇮 Finland	15.8%
15	🇪🇪 Estonia	15.6%
16	🇧🇪 Belgium	13.9%
17	🇱🇹 Lithuania	13.8%
18	🇨🇿 Czech Republic	13.7%
19	🇭🇺 Hungary	13.3%
20	🇬🇧 United Kingdom	11.4%
21	🇱🇻 Latvia	11.0%
22	🇵🇱 Poland	10.3%
23	🇳🇴 Norway	10.2%
24	🇨🇦 Canada	10.2%
25	🇦🇹 Austria	9.6%
26	🇩🇰 Denmark	9.3%
27	🇳🇱 Netherlands	8.3%
28	🇺🇸 United States	8.0%
29	🇦🇺 Australia	7.8%
30	🇮🇪 Ireland	7.4%
31	🇮🇸 Iceland	7.3%
32	🇩🇪 Germany	6.1%
33	🇸🇮 Slovenia	5.6%
34	🇰🇷 Korea	5.4%
35	🇮🇱 Israel	5.3%
36	🇲🇽 Mexico	5.2%
37	🇯🇵 Japan	4.2%

Announced in June, China’s youth unemployment rate has climbed to 21.3%, a meteoric rise since May 2018, when it was below 10%. The Chinese economy is in the midst of a slowdown and its steadily climbing youth unemployment prompted the government to suspend age-specific unemployment data for the near future.

On the other side of the spectrum, in Japan, only 4.2% of young adults are without a job. A key reason for this is Japan’s shrinking and aging population that’s made for a tight labor market.

Youth Unemployment: Men vs Women

In most OECD countries, it’s common to see young men experiencing a higher unemployment rate compared to young women.

This contrasts with the trend across all age groups in the OECD, where the unemployment rate is 6.3% for women and 6% for men.

We visualize the countries in the dataset with the biggest gaps in youth unemployment below.

There is no singular reason that explains this common gap.

Across the OECD, more young women opt for tertiary education than young men, which may lead to better employment prospects. At the same time women are overrepresented in the health and social welfare sectors—both growing rapidly thanks to an aging population—that may make it easier for them to find jobs.

Why Does Tracking Youth Unemployment Matter?

Aside from being an indicator of general opportunities within a country, youth unemployment is a key metric to track, because it can be a bellwether for future economic prospects.

High rates of youth unemployment also correlate to brain drain within a country, as young adults move elsewhere to find better jobs.

Finally, large increases in unemployed youth have historically led to the potential of civil unrest, which makes it a politically-charged metric to identify and monitor for governments.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/civil-unrest-fears-grow-youth-unemployment-accelerates

RFK Jr.: Warfare Machine That Is Bankrupting This Country

 

Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sat down with CNBC's Brian Sullivan for a wide-ranging interview on his anti-war foreign policy, his economic plans for the country, and how to revitalize the middle class. In the first segment he discusses foreign policy.

"Number one, we have to unravel the warfare business, the warfare machine, that is bankrupting our country. Paul Kennedy, a Yale historian, has done this extraordinary history on the decline of empires. And every empire in the last 500 years, its death knell was overextending its military abroad. We've spent $8 trillion on war in the last 20 years, since 2002, that has gotten us nothing. It has made us less safe. The Chinese spent $8 trillion during that same period building ports, bridges, roads, schools, universities, and hospitals. And they're now the principal creditor for almost every nation in Latin America and Africa."

"Our wars have bankrupted the middle class in this country," he said. "We were told in 1992 that we were going to cut [defense spending] from $662 billion [per year], we were going to get a peace dividend... We were going to cut it to $200 billion, which would be enough money to arm ourselves to the teeth at home so we would be too expensive to ever invade, and reinvest that intellectual capital and currency capital into building an industrial base in this country and it never happened. Instead of going to $200 billion, we went to $1.3 trillion."


"We spend more on our military than the next ten nations combined, and it is not making our country richer, it is making us poorer," Kennedy said. "We can lower our deficits, we can bring a lot of that money home."

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2023/09/01/robert_f_kennedy_jr_we_must_unravel_the_warfare_machine_that_is_bankrupting_this_country.html

Fauci defends masking as COVID cases rise

 Former White House chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci on Saturday defended masking amid a rise in COVID cases across the country, saying he hopes people would listen to advice from health officials.

In an interview on CNN, Fauci said he is worried Americans won’t listen to recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) — even if masking becomes necessary again.

“I am concerned that people will not abide by recommendations,” he said. “I would hope that if we get to the point that the volume of cases is such and organizations like the CDC recommends — CDC does not mandate anything — recommends that people wear masks, I would hope that people abide by that recommendation and take into account the risks to themselves and their families.”

Anthony Fauci, Director, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, testifies during the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions hearing to examine stopping the spread of monkeypox, focusing on the Federal response, in Washington, Sept. 14, 2022. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

A small number of companies have already started asking employees to wear masks again, raising concerns that national recommendations may be needed again soon.

Fauci, who served as the face of the COVID response in the U.S. under the Trump and Biden administrations, said a study from earlier this year which claims masking is ineffective was actually misleading.

“When you’re talking about the effect on the pandemic as a whole, the data is less strong,” Fauci, who retired from his senior health post last year, said. “But when you talk about an individual basis of someone protecting themselves… There’s no doubt that there’s many studies that show that there is an advantage [to masks].”

The study, from respected British database Cochrane, claims that masking “probably makes little or no difference.” It went viral in anti-mask and COVID-skeptic communities this spring, but has been called out as misleading by fact checkers.

Cochrane also put out a statement saying the piece was “widely misinterpreted” in March.

COVID cases are on the rise again nationwide after a late summer surge hit cities like Houston especially hard. There was about a 19 percent increase in COVID hospitalizations and 18 percent increase in deaths in the last week, according to CDC data.

Despite the recent rise, the numbers are in line with rates of hospitalization seen this past February, which fell after a spike in the winter.

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/4184424-fauci-defends-masking-as-covid-cases-rise/

Idalia Aftermath: Saltwater Exposure Causes 'Thermal Runaway' In Flooded EVs

 Electric vehicles flooded by a storm surge produced by Hurricane Idalia have spontaneously ignited in the Big Bend area. This underscores a lesser-known safety concern for the thousands of Americans who recently purchased EVs and reside in coastal regions vulnerable to flooding. 

In the aftermath of the storm, fire officials in Pinellas County, west of Tampa, reported at least two incidents of EVs combusting after lithium-ion batteries were exposed to the saltwater. 

"If you own a hybrid or electric vehicle that has come into contact with saltwater due to recent flooding within the last 24 hours, it is crucial to relocate the vehicle from your garage without delay," a Facebook post by Palm Harbor Fire Rescue reads. 

"Saltwater exposure can trigger combustion in lithium-ion batteries. If possible, transfer your vehicle to higher ground," the post continued. 

It also said, "This includes golf carts and electric scooters. Don't drive these through water. PHFR crews have seen numerous residents out in golf carts and children on scooters riding through water." 

Fire officials posted multiple images of a Tesla fire in Dunedin. 

Video taken by James McLynas shows another burnt-out Tesla in Pinellas Park. 

"Hurricane flooded Tesla Bursts into flames while being towed to the storage lot. Driver picked up the flood damaged Tesla from a storm damaged home and was towing it back when it burst into flames. Driver stopped on a street and quickly off loaded the burning car to save his truck. (that's why there are burnt tow dollies under it). When the fire department arrived, they put it out, but it kept reigniting. After several attempts to put it out, they just let it burn out. This was all that was left," McLynas wrote in his post on YouTube.

The issue with EV battery packs is that saltwater corrodes wiring and battery components, often leading to shorts or exposed wiring. And then thermal runaway ignites the battery -- very few fire departments nationwide are trained in lithium fires. 

This problem isn't limited to Tesla EVs. Last year, Hurricane Ian struck Southwest Florida, causing inland flooding that led to dozens of EV fires (read: here & here). 

What's ironic is that government and climate doomsayers say decarbonizing the transportation sector with EVs will save the planet from imminent destruction (remember Greta said the world would end in 2023), but these unproven vehicles are only sparking more headaches.

As for imminent climate doom, well, more than a thousand scientists just signed a declaration dismissing the existence of a climate crisis, read: Over 1,600 Scientists Sign 'No Climate Emergency' Declaration.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/hurricane-idalia-aftermath-saltwater-exposure-causes-thermal-runway-flooded-electric