Raena Morgan: Hello! I'm Raena Morgan with iHealthTube, visiting today with Dr. Aaron Katz. He wrote Prostate Health. He is the Associate Professor of Clinical Urology and the Director for the Center for Holistic Urology at Columbia University. You practice something called integrative medicine. Could you expound on the difference between integrative medicine and mainstream medicine?
Dr. Aaron Katz: Sure. I think that as most urologists in this country who went through medical school education and a residency program, there was little emphasis on the role of nutrition and diet in the management of many of these cancers and specifically we'll focus today on prostate health and prostate cancer. And what we're finding now in the literature, it's so clear how diet and prostate health are related as it is related to many of the cancers that we see today; likely including colorectal and breast cancer as well.
So I think that it's important rather than focusing on the specific target only, like just focusing only on the prostate, that we look at the individual as a whole, and integrate into that patient's diet some of the evidence-based medicine supplements that we can, and dietary modifications to help that patient potentially prevent cancer as well as potentially prevent a recurrence of cancer, if that patient has already had cancer and has been treated and they'd like to prevent if from recurring.
Raena Morgan: So with integrative medicine, you go, you get ahead of the game is what you're doing. You go and you start getting checked, you treat the whole person.
Dr. Aaron Katz: Yes. We're proactive and we're also not only treating the diet and modifying the diet, but we're also looking at the stress components that are in that person's life. Why did that patient develop a cancer? What types of modifications can we do like meditation and yoga; and now we're finding out through the literature and through studies that so many of these modifications in our lifestyles can have an effect on our health in cancer health, as well as other medical conditions like cardiovascular disease as well as in stress-related diseases like ulcers.
Raena Morgan: So this would help prevent a lot of cancers. Wouldn't it?
Dr. Aaron Katz: Yes, that is our hope to try and influence the body, and reducing the stress load, incorporating some of the best dietary and nutritional things that we can to prevent cancers from developing.
Raena Morgan: About what age should a man start looking into this or getting test -- he shouldn't wait until he has enlarged prostate. He should be looking into this sooner, right?
Dr. Aaron Katz: Well, absolutely. This brings up a very important point as to who are the men that are at risk and all men I think over the age of 40 are at risk for developing prostate cancer; but we know that there are risk groups. African-American men have a very high risk of developing prostate cancer and men with a family history.
Yesterday in my office, I saw a man that came in with his father; his father has prostate cancer, his grandfather has prostate cancer and his uncle has prostate cancer, and he was there to evaluate his dad. But then I turned to him, and I said, Hey! You've got to start incorporating some of these things into your own diet because you have a very strong family history and we know that, that in itself is a very high risk factor for developing this disease.
Raena Morgan: Okay Dr. Katz. Well, we'll visit some more with the information that you're giving us. Thanks so much.
Dr. Aaron Katz: Thank you.
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