Men’s Health Blog

By Joseph McCaffrey, MD, FACS

You may have heard about lycopenes before. These are compounds found in many brightly colored vegetables and especially in tomatoes. They've gained some prominence because population studies have suggested that men who ate several servings of tomato products a week had a lower risk of prostate problems than those who didn't.
Now there's a study from Germany1 showing even stronger proof of the benefit of adding lycopene to your diet.
Benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH) is a condition in which the cells of the prostate are starting to become a little abnormal. They aren't cancerous yet, but it's considered a precancerous condition. Men who have it are at an increased risk of prostate cancer in the future.
In the study, 40 men who had this condition proven by biopsy of their prostate were divided into two groups. One received 15 mg of lycopene daily in a capsule for six months. The other group received a look-alike placebo.
After only six months, the results were astounding.
As you probably know, rising PSA (prostate specific antigen) levels can reflect developing prostate cancer. In the group receiving the lycopene, PSA levels decreased. There was no change in the placebo group.
The researchers measured size of the prostate in all the men by both digital rectal exam and trans-anal ultrasound (women who complain about mammograms might want to consider how the prostate is examined). Prostate enlargement by both measures progressed in the placebo group. Prostate size stabilized in the lycopene group.
Very importantly, the symptoms of prostate disease, as measured by the International Prostate Symptom Score questionnaire, improved more in the lycopene group than in the control.
All in all, these are very impressive findings, especially since they were achieved using an extremely safe dietary supplement.
This study was done in men who already had a dangerous situation developing in their prostate. There's no need to wait until you have that problem. I recommend getting lycopene in your diet now.
You can take a supplement, as in the study, but as usual I recommend food as the primary source and supplements as the backup. One cup of tomato juice or a tomato-based vegetable juice (like V-8 ) has over 20 mg of lycopene -- more than the 15 used in the study.
Here's what I suggest. Keep low-salt or no-salt organic tomato juice in your fridge. Most mornings, have a cup of it with a teaspoon of horseradish (horseradish is high in cancer-fighting compounds known as glycosinolates) and a dash of Morton's potassium chloride salt replacement. It counts as a serving of vegetables and has a host of nutrients in addition to lycopene.
Or take the supplement. Either way, add this prostate-protecting nutrient to your diet.