It’s not the “magic bullet” many would like, but a substance called lycopene shows great promise for reducing the risk of prostate cancer.

Lycopene is a powerful antioxidant found in red or pink fruits and vegetables, especially watermelon.

Most studies of lycopene have used tomatoes as the source. But recent USDA research found that watermelon can have up to 40 percent more lycopene than raw tomatoes. Lycopene in watermelon is easily absorbed by the human body, whereas tomatoes must first be cooked.

Muskogee urologist Dr. James Turlington said he has read enough research material on lycopene to take it himself.

“I take it in the form of a supplement called OcuVite,” he said. “It was really designed to benefit your eyes, but it turns out that many of the things that are good for your eyes are also good for your prostate. There is a similar supplement out there called ICaps.”

But taking a supplement is not the only way to get lycopene.

“Dietitians always say the best way to get proper nutrition is to eat fresh food,” Turlington said.

Toby Hunsaker, 36, who works at Lake Country Chevrolet, said getting enough fresh food can be tough, even for a fitness buff like himself.

“I try to watch what I eat,” he said. “I do sometimes eat more fruits and vegetables but because of my work schedule, I usually don’t have time to do all the preparation.”

To fill the fruit-and-vegetable gap, Hunsaker found an unusual health beverage, which contains lycopene via one of its many ingredients; apricots.

“I drink a supplement called MonaVie that is made from a bunch of different fruits,” he said. “My wife, Jamie, heard about it and told me, and I looked it up on the Internet.”

Hunsaker said he’s confident that good diet and regular workouts at the gym are the reason he has the energy and stamina he wants.

If I didn’t work out and watch what I eat, I would probably feel horrible,” he said. “I don’t get sick very often at all.”

Natural sources of lycopene also include tomatoes, red peppers and pink grapefruit.

Turlington said it’s important to make discoveries like recent lycopene research part of a larger pattern of health living.

“In general, we think that a low-fat diet is a good precaution against all types of malignancies,” he said. “I always preach diet and exercise to my patients.”

Dutch research scientist Dr. Jacqueline Limpens, a urologist at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, said in a presentation in Geneva that taking more lycopene won’t necessarily provide more protection.

“We found that low dose lycopene suppressed the growth of the human prostate tumors by over half (at day 42 of the study),” she said. “The combination of low-dose lycopene and vitamin E produced the greatest tumor inhibition. Many pharmacological agents and natural compounds follow a bell-shaped dose response curve, which means that very low or high doses may not work and that there is an optimal dose between the two extremes.”



Reach Keith Purtell at 684-2925 or kpurtell @muskogeephoenix.com.