[throwawaylaptop]

My father has a high rate PSA change a few years ago so I learned everything I could about prostate cancer for about 4 weeks.

I then talked to several doctors I know (family practice and two internal medicine).

It was embarrassing how little they knew. And even more shocking actually, is how wrong they were about things.

Two of them told me the risk of infection from a prostate biopsy was basically zero. I asked for clarification with actual numbers, and even led them with "for what kind? Like 1 in 100 or 1 in 1000?"

One said basically zero, the other said 1 in a million.

Neither knew to mention the two common types, and to make sure we go with the one type that carries less risk of infection.

Even then, the less risky one is about 1 in 1000. If you have bad insurance you might go with the older type which is about 1 in 100. And that's with them giving you antibiotics beforehand....

Basically they got everything I asked about wrong compared to specialists you can read online.

Ps, my dad got an MRI with two 1cm growths.

He changed his diet and added fasts, and did nothing else. His doctor basically writing him off in anger.

5 years later, PSA lower than before the incident. Paid for a scan last year, zero growth.

Internet/YouTube experts/doctors really do beat most general doctors. The odds of you having someone in the top 10% of their field, let alone top 1-2% in your local town is pretty low. Even my bay area doctor friends work at pretty basic general bay area hospitals. Imagine who's left in Modesto, CA.

[kulahan]

I'm glad your dad got better, it had nothing to do with his diet and fasting. It's no different than Steve Jobs stubbornly becoming a fruititarian to treat his cancer. If his immune system had fought it off, then fruit would be a cancer cure and all his doctors would be idiots.

Youtube/Internet experts are one of the largest propagators of medical misinformation and are actively harming people every day, and if I've ever been in favor of restricting free speech, it's giving out medical advice without a license. If we can restrict giving legal advice, and everyone understands how painfully stupid you'd have to be to represent yourself in court without a law degree, then we can restrict giving medical advice, and hopefully people can realize how painfully stupid you'd have to be to manage your own medical treatments without a medical degree.

[throwawaylaptop]

Regarding Steve Jobs, that's unfortunate for him because even my grandmother in Poland used to say "sugar causes/feeds cancer" when she tried to get us to stop sweetening our tea back in the 80s before we left.

Somehow she knew what several doctors and researchers are now documenting, that cancer cells have a much harder time growing without ample amounts of glucose.

[throwawaylaptop]

Oh great, another expert. Except without the 30 years of research and experience.

One guy wins the nobel prize for detailing a function of fasting and its effects on the immune system and cell repair/death... But fasting doesn't help! We know this, because a guy on hacker news said so.