Preventing Prostate Cancer

By E Douglas Kihn, OMD, LAc, CPT

The prostate gland is situated at the base of the urinary bladder and supplies most of the fluid and muscle tissue that helps in male ejaculation. Prostate fluid also helps to keep sperm healthy and lively.

Cancer of the prostate gland is very common among older American men. Approximately 80% of American men who are 80 and older have prostate cancer. The good news is that it doesn’t spread very easily and is probably the least dangerous form of cancer there is. Having said that, it is still dangerous because it is a form of cancer and men do die from its spread.

More good news: Prostate cancer is preventable. It is extremely rare, for example, in older men who live in communities noted for their healthy seniors. These people in their 80s, 90s, and beyond are cancer-free because of their living habits. Four of these communities are detailed in the John Robbins book Healthy at 100: The Scientifically Proven Secrets of the World’s Healthiest and Longest-Lived Peoples, a book I would urge you all to read.

Chinese Medicine sees cancer as “toxic blood stagnation.” When the qi (energy flow) is blocked or becomes sluggish for whatever reason, material will pile up in certain areas. The wei qi (immune system) is always on the lookout for excess stagnant material, including cancer cells, that it can neutralize and turn into fuel. After all, any material that does not serve a function for the body is seen as a potential enemy and fuel source.

However, the wei qi can be weakened and hampered in its duties by factors such as muscular tightness, enlarged fat cells, and excessive heat. When excess material sits around too long, it can block the blood flow, causing pain. It can also putrefy like a dead body in a swamp. Putrefaction turns toxic (poisonous) and tries to spread. In the case of the prostate gland, the toxicity has a hard time escaping the confines of the gland itself, and so is usually contained.

Prostate cancer that is contained is almost without symptoms. When the growth presses against the urinary channel, it can cause urinary obstruction, a symptom that allows it to be confused with two other prostate problems: benign prostate hypertrophy and prostatitis. Benign prostate hypertrophy (enlarged prostate) and prostatitis are not linked to prostate cancer in a causal relationship. Neither can be shown to develop into prostate cancer. However they are all three indications of the same unhealthy habits.

The main symptoms of an enlarged prostate are frequent urination, nighttime urination, extreme urgency to urinate, difficulty emptying the bladder, and a weak urinary stream.

Prostatitis is an inflammatory condition of the prostate that is most common in men ages 20 to 50. There are two broad classes of prostatitis: nonbacterial and bacterial. Nonbacterial prostatitis is the most common form of prostatic inflammation. Its symptoms are pelvic pain, problems with urination, discomfort after ejaculation, and lower back pain. A bacterial infection in the prostate gland leads to pain and difficulty in urinating; there may be cloudy bacterial fluid or blood in the urine; and there might be a fever.

In all three situations, the causal factors are damp, heat, and liver qi stagnation.

Removing damp

In Chinese Medicine, the term “damp” denotes pathogenic material, specifically that which has entered the body through the mouth in the form of excess food. It does not relate to water drunk but rather the water that is chemically bound up with the calories in food. While foods like dairy and sugar contribute to damp, excess consumption of calories is the leading cause. Enlarged fat cells, impacted fecal matter, and neoplasm (growths) are all the result of excess calories, and are all labeled “damp.” Every bit of excess fat you carry is “damp.” The opposite of damp is lean and hungry.

Damp can cause swelling and enlargement of the prostate. Damp can also collect in the prostate for years and putrefy, causing toxic blood stagnation (cancer).

One aspect of eliminating damp means reducing caloric intake and decreasing the size of your fat cells. Removing damp is a grave challenge because, in our stressful culture it is the most common and honored form of mental sedative. The evolutionary purpose for excess consumption of food and the resulting damp is to ensure the survival of the individual through a long, harsh winter. A calm mind doesn’t expend as many calories as an active mind. A calm mind doesn’t create dissention while couped up with a dozen relatives for six months. A sedated mind wants to sleep and be lazy, not expend a large number of calories in a fruitless attempt to find food where there is none. For the same reason, heavy damp completely eliminates the hunger feeling, so that winter hibernation is not interrupted by a need to eat.

The only Americans who lose a lot of fat weight and keep it off are those who have simultaneously improved their mental health. Ninety percent of Americans who rapidly lose a lot of fat weight manage to gain it all back one year later because they ignored the development of mental calmness and found themselves leaner but “climbing the walls.”

Another method of preventing damp accumulation is regular ejaculation. The prostate is the main supplier of seminal fluid and as such is always in danger of damp stagnation. One reason that orgasm feels so good is so that men will be motivated to ejaculate frequently, thus clearing the prostate of fluid buildup. Ejaculation also calms the mind. However, an excessive amount of damp in the region, such as we find with obese men, can often prevent sufficient heat from reaching the genital region. This can make orgasm difficult to achieve.

There are many other healthy ways to increase mental calmness while getting leaner. The study of Taoist philosophy or Zen Buddhism, the performance of daily strenuous physical exercise, meditation, cognitive-behavioral therapy, play, laughter, hunger awareness training (when hunger controls appetite), and the conscious decision to stop worrying are some of the most common and effective methods of achieving a calm mind without the use of food, tobacco, alcohol, cannabis, or prescription medications.

Removing heat

Being warm-blooded creatures, we are warm and we are attracted to heat. However, excessive heat can accumulate in the body/mind, causing a multitude of problems. Heat expands and can enlarge the prostate gland. Too much heat can irritate – burn – the prostate, causing prostatitis. Accumulated heat in the prostate can turn normal prostate fluid into a diseased swamp, which years later can turn toxic (cancerous).

Heat and movement are intimately related. Movement creates friction, which creates heat. Too much movement causes excessive heat. Americans who hurry through life, overscheduling, multitasking, rushing here and there, skipping sleep, refusing to take rest breaks when their bodies and minds demand rest breaks – all of these habits must be changed in order to prevent heat from injuring the prostate gland.

Too much movement against a barrier will also lead to excess heat. Frustration and suppressed rage are examples of blocked qi that keeps hammering against an obstruction, creating an enormous amount of friction and heat. Habitual frustration and rage can damage internal structures, including the prostate.

The conscious decision to slow down, simplify, and get lots of sleep and rest will help to prevent the collection of pathogenic heat in the prostate. Unless there is a specific reason to move fast, don’t walk fast, talk fast, drive fast, work fast, eat fast, read fast, or do anything fast. Watch everyone else hurrying around you, and realize that they are unwittingly nourishing their inflammatory conditions.

Use deep breathing and patience to counter the warming effects of frustration. Prevent resentment from forming by communicating your anger in a polite manner with those who anger you. Trust your emotions and let anger help you establish your boundaries with people. In the end, they will appreciate knowing your limits.

Regular release of fluids and feces will expel excess heat, even fever, from the interior. Therefore frequent ejaculation will help to discharge heat from the prostate. However, men with an excessive amount of heat in the system will tend to exhibit frenetic activity, including sexual activity. Too much activity increases friction and heat. In this case, care must be taken that the reproductive apparatus isn’t strained, causing symptoms such as low back or genital pain, exhaustion, or dizziness.

Removing liver qi stagnation

In Chinese Medicine, “liver” has less to do with the anatomical organ and more to do with function. Simply put, the liver acts as a manager, keeping everything flowing peacefully and harmoniously.

When the qi of the body becomes jerky, uneven, stagnated, liver is not doing its job and is unhappy. Muscles tighten up, fluids accumulate, and overall circulation is reduced. Instead of being evacuated on a regular basis, garbage starts piling up, usually in out-of-the-way places like the prostate gland. The wei qi has a tough time reaching trouble areas through all the tightness, and it fails to neutralize and consume some cells that have turned toxic. These rogue cells eventually form a colony which can become a cancerous tumor.

One very important cause and indication of liver qi stagnation is bottled-up emotions. Emotions are just information about what is going on inside. They exist for our survival and must all be honored. When mad, glad, sad, and scared are not honored, the result is injury, disease, and misery. Typically, men have no problem with mad and glad, but are uncomfortable feeling sad and scared. When people don’t believe that they have a right to feel certain emotions, they tend to tighten their muscles. Structural muscles tighten up, but also internal muscles that compose or surround organs and other structures. Chronic tightness can settle anywhere in the human body and very often without any consciousness of it happening. A common area for men is the bladder/prostate area.

Unreasonable fear, called “fight-or-flight,” can also tighten muscles in the pelvic region without the mind being aware of it. This constriction of the prostate area is also a common cause of male sexual impotence. Fear, usually the result of lack of trust in a partner, can shut down the blood supply (and everything else) to the genital region, sabotaging erections. Fear can also tighten the bladder, causing nervous urination problems where urine is blocked or incontinent in response to an anxiety-producing event.

If you worry a lot, you probably suffer from a serious case of liver qi stagnation, and are advised to work on getting rid of it. Worrying about the past or future is inherently a stagnant proposition because the future and the past don’t really exist, and so they don’t flow with reality. The only time that elicits emotions from wild animals and small children, who do not suffer from liver qi stagnation, is the moment. That is why their emotions are spontaneous and appropriate to whatever context they find themselves in.

Analyzing the past and planning for the future are noble and necessary tasks, but they involve the intellect, not emotion.

It is actually possible to decide to stop worrying and move the qi instead. This decision is only possible with the time and life experiences that allow one to glimpse the big picture.

Take another look at the above-mentioned methods (Removing damp) for increasing mental calmness and moving qi, and add to them a devotion to the improvement of physical and mental flexibility. Consider hiring a trainer who understands the importance of flexibility training and can help you put together your own routine. If you already have prostate issues, practice deep-breathing exercises that focus on relaxing the pelvic and lower back areas.

Practice letting go of issues. Don’t keep holding on to grudges. Don’t get stuck on small stuff. Keep things moving forward in a smooth fashion. Don’t talk jerky, don’t drive jerky, and don’t work jerky. Stay regular and grounded.


Prostate cancer is not difficult to understand when seen through the lens of Chinese Medicine. Unfortunately, there is no simple formula for preventing prostate cancer; just a whole lot of actions we can take that will increase our chances of avoiding it for as long as possible.