Tour de USA 2010 for Prostate Cancer Awareness

29000 Men Comment

We are moving forward on our planning for our cross country (and back) motorcycle trip to raise awareness for prostate cancer. If you ride a motorcycle and are interested in the ride of a lifetime, pop on over to the TourdeUSA website and watch our TourdeUSA blog for details.

Alpe d'Huez for Prostate Cancer Awareness

As part of our prostate cancer awareness program, I rented a bicycle during my July visit to Italy and France and climbed the Alpe d'Huez in our current bicycling kit - although it's a bit difficult to see the logo in the picture. I learned that the Dutch cancer foundation does an annual fundraiser on the Alpe d'Huez that raised 5 million Euros on June 6, 2009. I've got an idea for a similar event here in the US.

To my dismay, however, I had forgotten to take my bicycle fit dimensions with me, so I made the climb with a less than optimal bicycle adjustment. But, I'll never need to suffer like that again. My firm, TSG, has just released an iPhone application, MyBikeInfo, that records every possible dimension of a bicycle adjustment for all types of bicycles: road, time trial, track, mountain, etc.


The application is available now from the iTunes application store, and 50% of all proceeds are going to the Prostate Cancer Awareness Project to support awareness and annual testing for men without health insurance. Give it try! You should be able to access the app from the MyBikeInfo website, but if that does not work, just open your iTunes application and search for MyBikeInfo.

And watch this blog for information on our new project. PS. This picture was taken at Turn 4 and I was more than ready for the climb to be over!

Test, Track, Treat - or Die!

Wow. This is a really downer of a tagline. I hope it will cause you to read further.

I attended an exposition yesterday on successful aging, sponsored the the Daily Breeze, our local South Bay newspaper (Los Angeles area). I was talking with vendors about participating in our prostate cancer / breast cancer awareness event November 9th, 2009 at the velodrome at the Home Deport Center in Carson, CA.

Speaking with one of the vendors, I heard another story about a man, aged 54, just diagnosed with Stage 4 prostate cancer, already metastasized to bone. This makes me wonder what it will take for men to come to grips with the self-induced fear about digital rectal examinations (DRE). Most of us played sports in our youth and experienced sprained joints, broken limbs, painful sunburns, jelly fish stings and possible a bouncing baseball to the tender private parts. A DRE isn’t as painful as any of these - nor are the needle biopsies if that should become necessary. Prostate cancer is the number two cancer killer of men, approximately 29,000 men each year, and the incidence of prostate cancer is rising. Despite massive investments in research, there is no effective cure for cancer. Ideally we will learn at some point the causes for cancer and be able to take preventative measure. Until that time, the best we can do is detect cancer sufficiently early that we can treat it where possible. Prostate cancer is highly treatable if cause early, prior to metastasis.

Here’s my personal prescription:

1. Test. Beginning at age 35, have an annual PSA test (until something better is developed).


2. Track. Track the change - hopefully there is none - and discuss it with your doctor. Track the data on your refrigerator door. Download and print one of simple PSA trackers from our website.


3. Treat. If you fall into the unfortunate group of about 200,000 men who are diagnosed each year, work with your doctor to determine your best course of treatment.


4. Live. If you’ve done all this, move to a healthy diet and exercise, and you’ve probably done all you can.

Finally, take a moment and encourage your friends to follow the same path.

"Just Do It" Seems to Hold True for Prostate Cancer Prevention

Rather than just surviving prostate cancer, wouldn't it be better to simply prevent it in the first place? You bet! But how can we do that when we don't know precisely what causes cancer?

Research is beginning to demonstrate a connection between lifestyle habits - exercise levels and nutritional patterns - that seem to have an effect on cancer occurrence. For example, a 2008 report cited in the Daily Mail in the United Kingdom revealed that men working in office jobs experienced a higher rate of prostate cancer than men that moved around during their workday. These results are in line with an American Cancer Society study that estimates that a third of all cancers can be traced to inactivity and nutritional shortcomings.

I'm not a physician, but it seems to me that "Just Doing It" - to paraphrase the Nike slogan - is a free and easy way to prevent yourself from becoming one of the one-in-six men who will experience prostate cancer. So, if you work in an office, it's time to get moving!

If you like to bicycle, consider joining us in August 2009 at the Tour of Skyline Drive in Virginia. We'll spend two days riding along the Skyline Drive in the Shenandoah National Park.

Remember to "Test. Track. Treat. Live." Track your PSA annually and look for a change of .75 or more, and ask your colleagues (35 and older) if they are testing.

Best regards, Robert