I’ve been told that this time, without mainstream treatment, I have less than twelve months to live. That was in January 2025.
The doctors gave me a choice: take medication with known side-effects, or wait for the inevitable. I chose to change my life completely.
This time I’m rolling the dice.
The story so far...
In 2018, I was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer (T4 terminal) for the first time. I went through the process of “traditional” treatment, including chemo and hormone injections which had devastating side effects.
During the five years that followed my cholesterol had sky-rocketed and statins were recommended. My insulin level was so high I was at risk of type 2 diabetes and was offered more drugs to prevent this. The hormone injections gave me hot flushes and doctors advised antidepressants to combat them. I refused the additional medication. The side effects of the hormone treatment were bad enough.
I’m about to enter my eighth year since my first diagnosis and I feel fit and healthy – I play golf four times a week and practice yoga twice a week. Not bad for a dying man! There is no “definite” beyond the side effects. This is my story and I look forward to sharing it with you all.
I’d been doing my research for a couple of years by that point - listening to podcasts from various Doctors and Professors, reading articles and scouring the internet - and so I asked the hospital, point-blank: “Are all of these symptoms side-effects of the hormone injections?”
The answer was simple. “Yes.”
It was at that point in 2023 that I made the decision to stop all treatment.
Make no mistake, there’s a lot of crap around and a great deal of contradictory data out there - I read all sorts during my research! But there was enough information and a wide enough range of opinions to make me stop and question the mainstream treatment I’d been receiving.
For so long, someone in a white coat had been telling me “you must take this,” and for every drug that doesn’t work, there’s an alternative to try, until you’d be so full of pills, you’d rattle! As for side-effects, it was simply a case of “well, not everyone gets them.” (I’m not sure that’s true.)
Of course, I’m not saying the mainstream method is wrong. I just wonder why we are so quick to shut the door on anything that doesn’t fit the guidebook. Shouldn’t we listen to alternative views and search for other methods, too? After all, patients are individuals and one size doesn’t necessarily fit all.
So, where am I at now?
After stopping the hormone injections and refusing other mainstream medication, I completely changed my life. I changed my diet, exercise routine and altered my mindset. The results have been impressive - my cholesterol and insulin levels have normalised. The hot flushes are almost gone, without ever having to take the antidepressants I was recommended. I feel fit - I play golf four times a week, practise yoga twice a week and do gym work most days. I don’t have any symptoms!
The only scar left from the hormone injections is my testosterone level, which was reduced to one (the healthy level is 10-35 nanomoles per litre). It’s not known if my body will recover from that, but in all other aspects, I feel fine.
Then came a dilemma.
I received a second terminal prostate cancer diagnosis in January 2025. This time, the mainstream prognosis is less than twelve months to live without intervention. The doctors want me to go back on the hormone treatment, with all of the associated, life-altering side-effects. I knew right away that I wouldn’t do it.
It’s frightening to be going it alone, but given how healthy I feel, the thought of going back to that regimen is scarier. I’m doing things my way. I plan to keep living my life just as I am, for as long as I can.
This is my story in real time.