Pomi-T: a food supplement for prostate problem sufferers
A dear friend of mine is very enthusiastic about a polyphenol rich whole food supplement called Pomi-T that boasts of producing excellent results for persons with prostate problems.
From the Pomi-T website. This is what it says about its product.
Pomi-T® is manufactured in the UK for nature Medical by Power Health Products Ltd. It is made from natural ingredients, to nationally approved assurance standards and EU compliance regulations.
Unlike many other supplement manufacturers we use fully accountable, quality assured products and perform our own laboratory analysis of each ingredient to ensure it is pure and free from contaminants.
It is completely natural containing no colours, preservatives, flavourings, bulking or chelating agents just:
Broccoli Powder 100mg
Turmeric Powder 100mg
Pomegranate seed powder 100mg
Green Tea 5:1 extract 20mg equivalent to 100mg
Gelatine capsule
Recommended Intake
Pomi-T® is not a drug so there is no specific dosage and it is designed to be taken as part of a healthy balanced diet.
Daily dosage therefore depends on the your food intake for that day. For example, a day with a good diet including plenty of dark green vegetables, berries, fruit and teas would only require one tablet day, whereas, on an average day then 2-3 would be better.
Men within the Pomi-T trial, participants took 2 tablets a day.
For more go to: http://www.pomi-t.com/
See also the following two related articles:
Pomi-T supplement
By L. Michael Glode, MD
One of the more interesting abstracts at ASCO last week involved patients taking capsules with a mixture of plant extracts that contain polyphenols. I can pretty much guarantee that at least one of my patients this week will arrive with some sort of news article and ask my opinion. So in the spirit of pre-emption, here are my thoughts.
Polyphenols are some of several natural chemicals that seem to slow prostate growth in the test tube. That said, it makes sense that some of them might work in people. We, ourselves, looked at silibin, one of the more active polyphenols in a human clinical trial. Unfortunately, even taking 13 grams/day of the highly absorbed silibin phytosome preparation, did not seem to have any effect on PSA, possibly because the chemical is rapidly metabolized by humans (unlike mice). Other investigators have published positive results using pomegranate juice or extracts. I have previously reviewed some of these findings here and here. We also completed a trial recently using acai juice that is unpublished, but does show some mild activity.
When the abstract noted above on Pomi-T was presented, there was a great deal of skepticism from experts in the audience who went to the microphones to question the presenter. I think this was well-founded. In the past, patients have spent millions of dollars (literally) on PC-Spes. That story turned out to be actual fraud, with the activity almost certainly related to the manufacturers adulterating the herbal mixture with DES. So before you run to your computer and order Pomi-T from a company you have never heard of, be sure you read the article “PC-SPECS – A Lesson for Future Dietary Supplement Research” at http://jnci.oxfordjournals.org/content/94/17/1261.full which tells the PC-SPES story.
We all hope for simple, non-toxic solutions to cancer problems. Unfortunately, cancer is more complex than that and while I have personally seen some patients respond with drops (temporarily in all cases) in PSA when they start taking some new supplement and are brave enough to tell me about it, this is clearly a small minority. An interesting question remains: If it can’t hurt, why not? The PC-SPES story answers that – because you don’t know what you are taking! Furthermore, for every carefully studied herbal remedy, there must be 100 or so that are nothing but “hope in a bottle” for which charlatans are eager to charge willing and well-meaning patients. It will be interesting to see what further studies tell us about Pomi-T…
For more on this story go to:
http://prost8blog.com/2013/06/10/pomi-t-supplement/
Related story #2:
From Prostate Cancer Info
ASCO-related data on a polyphenol-rich food supplement
Here is the last of our data-based reports from the annual meeting of the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO), which ended last Tuesday. It deals with two presentations [only the first appears here] that are at least intellectually interesting but do not as yet “translate” into any type of clinical certainty.
In the first presentation, entitled “A double-blind, placebo RCT evaluating the effect of a polyphenol-rich whole food supplement on PSA progression in men with prostate cancer: The U.K. National Cancer Research Network (NCRN) Pomi-T study“, Thomas et al. discuss the effects of a polyphenol-rich blend of pomegranate seed, green tea, broccoli, and turmeric (Pomi-T) or an identical placebo for 6 months in the management of men initially diagnosed with localized prostate cancer.
Information about this trial was published earlier (in the UK) in The Daily Telegraph under the heading “‘Superfoods’ shown to fight prostate cancer” — a typically newspaper-like headline!
This study involved > 200 men in a randomized, double-blind, controlled, Phase II clinical trial. All patients received either an oral capsule containing the food supplement twice a day or they received an identical placebo. Here are the early trial results:
203 men diagnosed with localized prostate cancer were enrolled into the trial.
The average age of the patients was 74 years.
59 percent were being managed with active surveillance.
41 percent were being managed with watchful waiting (progressive PSA relapse following previous radical interventions).
The patients were randomized into two groups (to receive either the food supplement or the placebo).
The groups were statistically balanced in terms of Gleason grade, body mass index (BMI), treatment category, and fasting cholesterol.
Men in the food supplement group were younger (average age 71.8 years) than men in the placebo group (average age 76.4 years).
Four men withdrew from the study after randomization.
The average (median) change in PSA levels of men in the two groups at 6 months was:
+14.7 percent for the men receiving the food supplement
+78.5 percent for the men receiving the placebo
This difference is statistically significant.
At 6 months, stable or lower PSA levels were observed in
46 percent of men receiving the food supplement
14 percent of the men receiving the placebo.
This difference is statistically significant.
There were no significant differences in change of PSA level within the predetermined subgroups (age, Gleason grade, treatment category, BMI).
There were no significant differences in cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar or c-reactive protein.
Data on reports of side effects were as follows:
24 percent of men receiving the food supplement reported such events.
34 percent of men receiving the placebo reported such events.
This difference was not statistically significant.
Mild gastrointestinal effects were reported by 17 percent of men receiving the food supplement in the FSG but 8 percent of these men reported an improvement in stool quality.
The authors conclude that, “This study found a statistically significant, short-term, favorable effect on the percentage rise in PSA in these men managed with observation following intake of this specific food supplement.”
This particular food supplement is commercially available at this time … at least in the UK and the USA, but the authors of the paper all state that they had “No relationships to disclose” and so we assume that the manufacturer was not in any way involved with this trial. The authors also state that “future trials should look at the longer-term clinical benefits particularly in terms of preventing medical intervention.”
This study does certainly add further support to the existing evidence that older men with (potentially) lower risk forms of prostate cancer or men who are on watchful waiting after first-line therapy may be able to allay PSA-related stress while on active surveillance or other forms of expectant management through dietary interventions. We do not yet know whether such dietary interventions have any impact on overall survival in such men.
Certainly some men may feel that they may want to add this particular food supplement to their diets based on the above information. The “New” Prostate Cancer InfoLink would only note that, if you want to do that, you might want to show the results of this study to your doctor and discuss them with him/her before you proceed.
For more on this story and to read the second presentation pleas go to:
