Like I said in another post, my first PSA test was my only alarming test, at 7.49, and it threw both me and my doctor into a panic. I was devastated and contemplating what to do in the most dire scenario. But first, the test had to be redone, which was in another week or so, and it came back just under 1. Thinking back on that first test, I realized that the day before I did a 5 hour bike ride along the coast. I mentioned that to my doc, who said “yep, that could account for it”. I have never since (almost 20 years) had anything above 1.1.
Pro tip: I was also alerted to the fact that many men get inaccurate PSA readings, because in the office they get the digital exam (finger-in-bum), and then go straight to the lab. There, the prostate which has been perturbed/bruised by that digital examination, will give you an elevated PSA reading, giving you sleepless nights and grim thoughts. So, shortly before you get a PSA test, make sure you have not stressed your prostate excessively, by bike rides, digital exams, even holding in your urine for too long (f.ex. in a movie theater). Also, no sex, or ejaculate 3 days before the PSA blood draw.
Pro tip 2: In the opposite direction. Please be aware, that some of the drugs and supplements you take, will bring down your PSA reading, like statins - but as a PC researcher (I think I heard it on one of Attia’s interviews), explained, that is a falsely low artificially suppresed reading not reflecting the true health of the prostate. So you have to take a correction on that reading - that 0.9 might be a 1.00 etc. depending on the drug or supplement. Why does that matter? Because as one of my favorite studies showed - a study I linked elswhere - Swedish scientists determined that a single reading at age 60 tells you if you might get PC, with very high probability. If your PSA reading at 60 yo, is at or below 1, the odds that you will die of PC by age 85 is extremely remote. And so, if you get a reading of 1 by age 60, if you are taking a drug that suppresses the PSA marker - the true reading is in fact 1.1, and you are suddenly not “in the clear” anymore. That’s why even small values this way or that can matter.
Bottom line, PSA is a valuable tool, but a tricky one to handle. And watch those bike rides.
