Hormone treatment for prostate cancer

You might find the title of this post quite strange. Read on.

Recently I was chatting with a specialist involved in palliative care about the potential effects of photobiomodulation (red and near infrared light). He told me that a colleague reported a surprising effect of transcranial photobiomodulation on a man receiving hormone treatment for prostate cancer. Prostate cancer is a tough diagnosis, and the hormone treatment can also be tough, as it reduces the cancer cell population by reducing the testosterone levels in the body. This in turn causes havoc in the body’s temperature control system and stimulates hot flushes (also called hot flashes). These hot flushes are awful, as any menopausal woman knows. The body is overwhelmed with intense heat and sweat, and it just come out of nowhere.

According to the report, the chap was being treated with the hormone injections for prostate cancer and had been plagued with hot flushes. He started transcranial photobiomodulation and after not too long, he noticed that he was, as a result, living a hot-flush free life.

I was pretty fascinated by this, especially so as a family member had been diagnosed with prostate cancer three years ago, and the first thing I’d done was to buy him a pedestal fan, in preparation for the onset of hot flushes. He has been on hormone treatment since soon after diagnosis, but the fan has never been used as he hadn’t experienced any hot flushes. Not one. He’s never used the pedestal fan and he wondered why on earth I’d foisted it on him. The important thing to note is that he uses a Duo Coronet twice daily, and has done so since well before the cancer diagnosis was made.

I called my relative, to tell him about the conversation I’d just had, and my theory that his Coronet had been protecting him from the hot flushes. He then told me that he had been having hot flushes in recent weeks. I was SO disappointed to hear this. End of an exciting theory.

However! He then went on to acknowledge that he had been slack in using the Coronet and he hadn’t been using it very regularly in recent months. He agreed to get back to twice daily Coronet sessions, and within a few weeks he was back to his normal self, the hot flushes having disappeared.

So, is this real, or coincidental? I’d suggest that it is a real effect. We know that the Coronet wavelengths penetrate into the brain, and we know that the body’s temperature regulation is based in the brain. The two wavelengths acting on the temperature control department, could dampen the simulation that results in the hot flush experience.

Whatever the mechanism, if blokes having prostate cancer hormone treatment can stop the hot flushes by wearing a light hat twice daily, then this is a very good outcome. Life is infinitely better without them.

Thanks to yechan park on Unsplash for the great image of the fan.