My dad is currently undergoing treatment for prostate cancer. Apparently (“apparently” because this is all being filtered through his interpretation of the treatment and communication of that to me, which all could be very different from what’s actually happening) part of the treatment is to lower his testosterone, bc “prostate cancer feeds off of testosterone” to quote him.
My first question is just, “Is all of this even accurate, ie is this actually part of the treatment for prostate cancer?” And my second question is, “How would this affect his training if he were to begin training now?”
Yes, androgen deprivation therapy is a common form of treatment for prostate cancer.
And he would not respond as robustly to training as he otherwise would.
However, severely low testosterone levels (as he is likely to experience) can also cause osteoporosis, so he should probably train - if he has clearance from his oncologist, given that prostate cancer itself can spread to the bones and predispose them to fracture.
Yeah this is what makes me so adamant about making Barbell coaches more readily available: there’s just so many people that need this stuff, but either 1) can’t get it for whatever reason (financial, impracticality), or 2) can’t be convinced that they need it. Now that Beth (I think is her name) is in Mississippi (where I/he live), he’s got a much closer option, but still can’t afford it, or if he “can”, he won’t be convinced that it should be fitted within his tight budget atm.
Also, I didn’t mean to betray any sort of impatience. BBM is in its infancy and there’s so many great things to come. Hell I was motivated enough to go post Bach to try the whole med school thing. Keep up the great work. I think BBM literally has the potential to affect the world on a pretty macro scale.