Fabled crab fisherman chasing“Deadliest Catch” yet—prostate cancer
Continuing Dr. McDougall debate
(Editor’s note: The Active Surveillor brings you all the latest prostate cancer-celeb news that fits. It’s always interesting to see how celebs are handing prostate cancer, High-risk, low-risk, it doesn’t matter. Here’s the scoop on reality TV and “Deadliest Catch” star “Wild Bill” Wichrowski and his new challenge—The Big PCa.)
By Howard Wolinsky
For 20 TV seasons, crab fisherman Wild” Bill Wichrowski has starred on the reality show “Deadliest Catch” on the Discovery Channel.
He leads his crew on the high seas off Alaska following the Alaskan king crab and snow crab seasons,
The show's title comes from the high risk of injury and death associated with this dangerous line of work. The fishermen face extreme conditions, including 15-meter seas, 60-knot winds, sub-zero temperatures, heavy machinery, and 350 killigram pots.
With his new season, Wild Bill is making public his battle with apparently advanced prostate cancer.
Ironically, the symbol for cancer the disease is the crab of the kind Wild Bill pursues on his show. The ancient Greeks connected the crustaceans with the disease because of the finger-like spreading projections from a cancer called to mind the shape of a crab.
In his Season 20 preview, Wild Bill reveals he has prostate cancer, apparently a more aggressive form. His doctor told him: "You do have prostate cancer, and it needs to be treated right away."
“When I heard [the diagnosis]," Wichrowski said, "one of the things I thought was, 'You know what? I'm not going to stop [fishing]. I'm going to keep going until I actually can't.' How many people get diagnosed with this and they just shut down and crawl into a shell? And it just makes it worse."
He said: “"I'll be honest. It's kind of weird to put [the diagnosis] out there to the public. I'll explain to people what happens as it goes...I'm willing to put it out there to let people see the journey in hopes of convincing some people to get tested."
Wild Bill battles the “deadliest catch” out on the Bering Sea and is now going to battle his prostate cancer publicly while still on the water.
Wild Open Country notes his fans are rooting for him: "Bill, I was fortunate that my prostate cancer was caught early. Hope all goes well." Another wrote, "Hoping for the best for Captain Bill. I've been watching DC for a long time. Medicine has come a long way with cancer treatment!"
High-profile people can help others by sharing their diagnosis with prostate cancer or other conditions. So kudos to Wild Bill for taking his battle with prostate cancer public and taking on the another deadly catch.
McDougall debate continues even after his death
By Howard Wolinsky
Dr. John McDougall was controversial in life as omnivores, carnivores and even other vegans took shots at McDougall’s plant-based program.
And now the controversy continues following his death on June 22.
Things were getting intense in the discussion section here. Please be civil, all.
Now, Matt Cook, a men’s health researcher and fellow Substack newsletterist, has taken the debate over to his Daily Medical Discoveries. There is always curiosity about the deaths of figures like diet proponents McDougall and Dr. Robert Atkins and running guru Jim Fix.
(I remember one week in the gym in downtown Chicago where I was a member that two young seemingly super-fit Fix followers died on the track IN THE SPORTS CLUB.)
Do best-selling gurus follow what they preach? Were they hypocrites? Or just humans? Inquiring minds want to know—especially if we’re following a diet or exercise program advocated by these authors.
One of my health writer pals in Chicago suggested semi-seriously that the FDA regulate diet books.
Matt Cook tackles the McDougall and Atkins sagas here: https://substack.com/home/post/p-146044549.
Why not check out Matt’s newsletter?
My story:
RIP: Dr. John McDougall, controversial advocate for plant-based diet to prevent prostate cancer and other chronic diseases
By Howard Wolinsky John McDougall, MD, an advocate for plant-based eating to prevent and reverse chronic diseases like prostate cancer, died “peacefully” in his home on June 22. He was 77. The announcement today did not list the cause of death. It would be helpful to know.
Week 2 on TheActiveSurveillor subscription campaign: 15 new paid subscribers, 85 to go
By Howard Wolinsky
The first week of my campaign to get out of red ink has been a success. But I need more help.
Fifteen new paid subscribers joined in the past week. Thanks to you all.
And thanks to my previous paid subscribers for continued support. And readers.
I hate to ask for help, But the newsletter is a continuing financial liability—because of costs for transcriptions, bandwidth, taxes and the money skimmed off the top by the publisher of this great content management system, Substack, and their financial partner, Stripe, plus taxes.
Journalism on the internet only looks free. Someone is pounding the keypad and trying to eje out a living or at least not to go broke.
Hence, I have a hand out and a red face.
The Active Surveillor now has nearly 1,700 subscribers, including 223 paid subscribers. I get as many as 50,000 readers per issue.
The readership is made up mainly of patients with low-risk and favorable intermediate-risk prostate cancer. But some of my strongest supporters are patients with more more aggressive prostate cancer. Many of the top prostate experts in the world also are readers, too. The list is anonymous, but I know who you are.
I am at this point shooting for 80-100 new paid subscriptions to put the publication into the black.
The subscription is $50/year. Two readers threw $150/each into the kitty this week. Thank you.
Meanwhile, why not subscribe? You can help a starving journalist and grad student.
Thanks for the mention! What I appreciate about you, is you are open minded, which is rare today. I’m continually trying to see how I could be wrong, painful as that process is. I’m sure methionine and cysteine are best kept as low as possible, but I also suspect there are many nutrients that vegans are not getting enough of.