These days, a wide range of beta sitosterol quality, purity and potency are available.

In order to intelligently compare "apples to apples", it is important to clarify these terms. To set the record straight . . . Phytosterols (also known as plant sterols) are a group of steroid alcohols, which occur naturally in plants. Included in this group are the sterols: Beta Sitosterol, Campesterol, Stigmasterol, Brasicasterol; as well as the stanols: Campestanol and Stigmastanol. Of all the components in this phytosterol mix, Beta sitosterol is the most important one for supporting prostate health.

It is important to understand that beta sitosterol does not exist as an isolated raw material. Technically speaking the extracted form is always a phytosterol mix (aka a phytosterol complex), of which beta sitosterol is just one component. Sometimes this phytosterol mix is referred to as a beta sitosterol complex, but to describe it as beta sitosterol, is technically inaccurate and somewhat confusing, yet so commonly done in the natural health industry, that even we (with this explanation) use the terms interchangeably on our website.

The amount of beta sitosterol contained in any phytosterol complex, will depend on both the natural balance of the source material as well as the purity of the phytosterols, which is based on the quality and precision of the extraction process.

In previous years, beta sitosterol was often extracted from sugar cane, but today it is most commonly extracted from soy, with a phytosterol purity of up to 95% and typically containing 40-55% beta sitosterol.

The majority of beta sitosterol available in the USA today, is now being imported from China. ALL Chinese made beta sitosterol is extracted from soy. Many of the newer prostate formulas out there, use the cheaper Chinese made beta sitosterol. Ever since the early 1980s, when China first began competing in the raw materials sector of the U.S. nutrition industry, their quality control has come into question. Beta sitosterol and other raw materials exported from China are often contaminated with unacceptable levels of heavy metals or with the residues of herbicides or pesticides.

Chinese beta sitosterol clearly falls far below the standard we will accept for use in Prostate Miracle® Advanced Formula.

NON GMO Pine Extracted Beta Sitosterol

It turns out that the best source for a high quality beta sitosterol extract is pine. Recent technological advances have led to effective methods for extracting a very pure phytosterol complex from pine, which has a very high concentration of beta sitosterol. It is an expensive process and is not done in the USA, but rather in Europe (where the use of GMO's are banned). Having to import it, makes it an even more expensive raw material. It is however, FAR superior to the Chinese and even the USA produced soy extracts, because not only is it more pure and more potent, but also GMO free as well!

Even amongst the pine extracted phytosterols, there are different qualities available. Prostate Miracle® Advanced Formula uses the highest quality phytosterol complex available. Each daily dosage of Prostate Miracle® provides a 600mg of GMO free, pine based, phytosterol complex (imported from France), guaranteed to be 99% pure and contain NOT less than 70% beta sitosterol.

The Problem with Beta Sitosterol

• Although now well established as the gold standard for natural prostate support, Beta Sitosterol (even the far superior extract from pine bark) is in fact a fat soluble substance and consequently has somewhat poor bioavailable, as is typical of most fat soluble encapsulated powders.

The Solution: Advanced Liposomal Delivery System

• Our Proprietary Advanced liposomal Delivery System™ significantly increases the bioavailability of beta sitosterol.
• There are other prostate support products out there that are promoted with boastful hype about how powerful their products are due to the greater amount of beta sitosterol their products contain.
• These claims beg the questions:
• Why take more of any nutrient beyond its clinicall determined optimal dose?
• What good does it do to consume more of a mostly unabsorbable substance?

• One study published in Prostate (2000 Nov) examined the effect of saw palmetto on stroma cells (the framework cells that build supportive tissue) and on epithelial cells (those which line the glands and ducts of the prostate). The study was done on normal prostate tissue and on BPH tissues from patients treated with and without the saw palmetto. The conclusion was that saw palmetto damages the nuclear and mitochondrial membranes, and causes cellular death in the epithelium and stroma.
• Another study published in the Journal of Urology (2000 Nov) investigated the effects of saw palmetto on primary cultures of fibroblasts (cells that produce connective tissue), and epithelial cells from the prostate, epididymis (the tube that provides for the storage, transmission and maturation of sperm), testes, kidney, skin and breast to determine if the action of saw palmetto is selective and specific to prostate tissue. This study concluded that saw palmetto caused damage and death in prostate tissue, though there were no similar changes observed in other types of cells.
• A third study published in Prostate (1999 Sep) examined the effect of saw palmetto on benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). Again, the results showed there was widespread damage of intracellular membranes, including mitochondrial and nuclear membranes in both healthy and overgrown prostate tissue.

In light of this new information, it seems prudent to avoid saw palmetto. Its toxicity to healthy prostate cells is reason enough to be concerned about taking saw palmetto.

Lycopene is a Fraud.

Many Prostate Formulas contain lycopene and according to Roger Mason "Lycopene is a fraud, a hoax, a deceit and deception." Nearly every single "study" that has been published on lycopene has simply been a paid advertisement in a journal funded by and paid for by Lyco-Mato in Israel. This isn't science- it is advertising. If lycopene had any value scientists around the world would be using GENERIC lycopene in double blind studies to prove its value.

Research update Feb 2011 The American Association for Cancer Research, just published the results of their latest study of lycopene and prostate cancer prevention and concluded that "Lycopene has no role in prostate cancer prevention." Click here to see the details of their study.

A few years back, there was a published article stating that blood studies of lycopene prove it is effective in treating prostate disease (Pure Appl. Chem. v. 74 in 2002). There were however, serious flaws in the methodology used. It turns out that the researchers measured plasma lycopene levels. The problem with that is that plasma does not carry lycopene. Only the blood serum absorbs the lycopene. Countless, proper serum studies of tens of thousands of men prove beyond any doubt that blood serum lycopene levels are completely unrelated to prostate health in any way, shape or form.

Ohio State University concluded in an extensive review (Pure Appl. Chem. v. 74 in 2002), "The consumption of lycopene supplements is not currently recommended for prostate cancer prevention or therapy".

The famous Hutchison Cancer Center (JNCI v. 92 in 2000) basically concluded lycopene is useless when it comes to prostate health.

Ed Giovannucci has been the biggest supporter of lycopene, but even he admits (Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol. Med. v. 218 in 1998), "However, it is premature to suggest that either tomatoes or lycopene is causally related to protection from prostate cancer or that the consumption of products rich in lycopene will have a beneficial effect for men suffering from established prostate cancer."

The Japan-Hawaii Cancer Center (Cancer Epidem. Biol. Prev. 6 in 1997) studied serum from 6,680 men and found it unrelated to prostate health.

The biggest of all studies from NIH and Johns Hopkins University (JNCI v.82 in 1990) studied the serum of 25,802 men and found no relation whatsoever with prostate health and lycopene levels.

We could go on all day with such studies to prove the lycopene is a useless promotion for profit but you get the idea by now.

The specialized function of the normal prostate glandular epithelium (to produce and secrete enormously high levels of citrate) requires unique intermediary metabolic activities, that are not generally associated with other normal mammalian cells.

The accumulation of zinc in normal prostate glandular epithelial cells is associated with genetic alterations, impacting the expression of ZIP1 zinc transporters, which are involved in the inhibition of citrate oxidation. This inhibition is necessary for normal prostate function.

Sufficient zinc levels are critical for these genetic/metabolic relationships, which have important consequences on citrate-related metabolism, bioenergetics and cell proliferation.

It appears that altered zinc metabolism may play an important role in prostate pathogenesis. Further studies are needed to clarify whether the zinc concentration found in specimens of urine, blood plasma and prostate biopsies (from patients presenting with symptoms of prostate pathology) will be useful in the differential diagnosis of prostate disease.

Dietary Sources of Zinc

Zinc is found in a wide variety of foods, including red meat and poultry. Other good food sources include beans, nuts, certain seafood, whole grains, fortified breakfast cereals, and dairy products. Zinc absorption is greater from a diet high in animal protein than a diet rich in plant proteins.

What makes selenium unique? While scientists are still studying selenium’s role in a multitude of biochemical processes, one of its chief attributes is serving as a component of specific proteins called selenoproteins. Almost all of these proteins are active in the scavenging of free radicals.

Selenium is the only mineral nutrient that has its own DNA code, which instructs the body’s protein-synthesis “machinery” to incorporate selenium into its host proteins. Scientists interpret this unique attribute as evidence of selenium’s fundamental importance to virtually all living things on Earth.

Selenium is available from many dietary sources, including garlic, Brazil nuts, and certain vegetables; however, the amount of bioavailable selenium from these sources varies tremendously, depending on the soil and weather conditions where the plants are grown. Furthermore, many foods containing selenium also contain substances that limit selenium’s bioavailability. Therefore, selenium supplementation is often recommended as a way to assure a dependable, bioavailable supply of this nutrient.

As scientists continue to discover the many ways in which oxidative stress is related to inflammation and its destructive consequences—from atherosclerosis to prostate, lung, colon, and other cancers, trace minerals such as selenium are likely to be the subject of even more research.

Selenium Chelates versus Selenium Glycinate Complex

There is a great deal of confusion regarding selenium chelation. Many raw material suppliers provide, what they call a "selenium amino acid chelate", but that term is actually a misnomer. In order to clarify this often misunderstood subject, it is first necessary to understand chelation in general.

Most minerals are somewhat bio-unavailable because they typically carry a charge. This charge relates to the valance or state of free electrons in the outer shell of the mineral's atomic structure.

Regardless of whether the mineral is in the form of a salt or is in an ionic state, if it has a charge . . . it will have difficulty passing through cell membranes (where it is needed by the cells). This difficulty is due to interference from the charge of the cell membrane, which like the charge of a magnet, will either repel the same charge or attract the opposite charge. In either case, the charged minerals's ability to pass through the cell membrane will be impeded resulting in less than optimal bioavailability.

Chelation is a technique sometimes deployed to improve the bioavailability of these charged minerals. The idea is to wrap an amino acid molecule around the mineral so that it will bind to the mineral in two spots, resulting in a neutral, stable, chelated mineral, which can then pass through the cell membrane much easier than it's ionic or salt counterpart.

Chelation occurs when unpaired electrons become non-ionically bound to the electron deficient environment of the positively charged central ion. EVERY amino acid (including glycine) has both a carbonyl end and an amine end. Though, neither end functions as a "negative group", both ends have a set of unpaired electrons. Thus ALL amino acids can form coordinate complexes in two places making them ideal chelating agents.

Selenium has six valance electrons and typically carries a -2 charge. Furthermore, because it's outer shell is lacking only two electrons from having a closed shell configuration, it wants to receive a pair of electrons in order to complete it's shell. Once the shell is complete however, it is not possible to transfer another pair of electrons to it.

For this reason, it is physically impossible for any chelating agent such as glycine (or any other amino acid) to bond with a selenium ion in two sites, so by definition, selenium can not be chelated. In other words, there is no such thing as a selenium chelate.

None of those so called "selenium amino acid chelates" are actually chelates at all. They are typically just a selenium salt combined with a hydrolyzed vegetable protein, having a bioavailability that is not any greater than just the selenium salt or selenium ion.

It turns out that the best way to improve the bioavailability of selenium is to bond it to glycine (an amino acid), resulting in a selenium glycinate complex, which although not neutral, has a -1 charge, and as a result has a much easier time passing through a cell membrane than do mineral salts, ions or any of the so called "selenium chelates".

The selenium we use in Prostate Miracle® Advanced Formula is Albion® Selenium Glycinate Complex, made by Albion Laboratories, Inc., an industry leader in manufacturing chelated minerals since the 1950's. If there was a way to chelate selenium, they would certainly be producing it, but because it is not possible (due to the atomic structure of selenium), they produce the next best thing, which is Albion® Selenium Glycinate Complex.

It is worth noting that, the glycine used in producing Albion® Selenium Glycinate Complex is NOT derived from any GMO source. I am unaware of any prostate support formula out there (other than Prostate Miracle® Advanced Formula) that uses Albion® Selenium Glycinate Complex as it's source of selenium. Even if all of the other ingredients in a formula are derived from non GMO sources, if it contains one of those so called "selenium amino acid chelates", it is not likely that a legitimate "all non GMO ingredients" label claim can be made.

A daily serving of Prostate Miracle® Advanced Formula provides 70 mcg of non GMO Albion® Selenium Glycinate Complex, which is an optimal amount to support prostate health.

The idea is that too little of this critical vitamin in the body may cause cell growth to go awry, leading to cancer.

To test that idea, researchers checked vitamin D levels in 667 Chicago men between the ages of 40 and 79 who were having prostate biopsies because they'd recently had an abnormal prostate specific antigen (PSA) test or because a doctor felt changes to the prostate during a physical exam.

• Normal vitamin D levels are in the range of 30 to 80 nanograms per milliliter (ng/ml).
• Vitamin D deficiency, or a level under 20 ng/ml, was relatively common among all the men tested.
• About 44 percent of the men with positive biopsies and 38 percent of those who tested negative for cancer had low vitamin D levels.
• Among men who tested positive for cancer after their biopsies, those who also had very low levels of vitamin D under 12 ng/ml had greater odds of more advanced and aggressive cancers than those with normal levels.

The connection between vitamin D and cancer seemed to be even stronger in black men.

• Black men with vitamin D levels under 12 ng/ml were far more likely than those with normal levels to test positive for prostate cancer in the first place.
• In general, black men are also more likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer. On average, men have about a one-in-seven lifetime risk of getting prostate cancer. That risk rises to one in five for black men, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
• Researchers aren't sure whether lower vitamin D levels may help to explain why black men are at higher risk for prostate cancer. They say longer and larger studies are needed to sort out the connection.

A University of Colorado Cancer Center study published in the journal Prostate (2014) looked at the possibility that vitamin D may help reduce cancer-causing inflammation. Scientists found that the gene GDF-15, known to be up-regulated by vitamin D can help block a protein which stimulates tumor growth.

"When you take vitamin D and put it on prostate cancer cells, it inhibits their growth. But it hasn't been proven as an anti-cancer agent" said James Lambert, lead investigator at the University of Colorado Cancer Center. "We wanted to understand what genes vitamin D is turning on or off in prostate cancer to offer new targets."

Using a sophisticated computer algorithm, researchers analyzed samples of prostate cells and compared them to the prevalence of GDF-15 and inflammatory cells. Because they were able to demonstrate that vitamin D up-regulates the gene expression for GDF-15, they decided to further investigate to see if GDF-15 could be a pathway in which vitamin D inhibits prostate tumor growth. The results were compelling.

"There's been a lot of work on inhibiting NFkB," said Lambert. "Now, from this starting point of vitamin D in prostate cancer, we've come a long way toward understanding how we might use GDF-15 to target NFkB, which may have implications in cancer types far beyond prostate."

Have you checked your vitamin D blood level lately? If not, you may want to make an appointment with your doctor to check them with a simple blood test. Your levels should be between 30 and 80 ng/mL.

If you are thinking about taking a vitamin D supplement, you should be taking at least 1,000-2,000 IU a day,

A daily serving of Prostate Miracle® Advanced Formula provides 2,000 IU of vitamin D3, which is an optimal amount to support prostate health.