Prostate cancer news stories still fail to mention that natural sunlight prevents the disease

• As president of the Prostate Cancer Research Foundation of Canada for the last four years, John Blanchard always had the facts at hand when it came to the disease that kills 4,300 Canadian men every year.
• "I had my head buried in the sand like everybody else," he says.
• But in prostate cancer, if you are waiting for symptoms, you are waiting too long."
• Research has shown men usually go to the doctor for something else, like chest pain, and the doctor tells them they may as well have their prostate checked while they're there.
• After all, a simple blood test to determine their prostate-specific antigen or PSA level, plus a digital rectal exam, can often detect whether there's a problem with that walnut-size gland just below the bladder.
• Many people believe it's the comparison of one test's results (for example how do this year's numbers stack up against previous years) and not the actual one-time reading that's important.
• "Getting tested is about protecting your family.
• Blanchard's wife, Lynn, was enormously supportive and had had several years to absorb the bits of information he'd brought home from work.
• Still, when his diagnosis was confirmed, she was as surprised as he was.
• Blanchard's brother also had the cancer, so his age and family history were working against him.
• Age and family history, of course, but also ethnicity (black Canadians are at higher risk), BMI (body mass index) readings, exposure to known carcinogens and the use of aspirin affect risk in either a positive or a negative way.
• Diet is big: Eat tomatoes for their lycopene antioxidant protection.
• Blanchard and his group are, of course, advocating that the test be added to the list of drugs OHIP covers.