Dear PROOF! In your summer edition (PROOF! vol 2 no 4), the article on prostate cancer implies that meditation can be helpful in cases of prostate problems because the symptoms may be stress-dependent. It also says that homoeopathy can be used as treatment in cases of tumours of the prostate.As practitioners, we must bear in mind that prostate cancer can be slow-growing.

It can, however, also spread to the bone quite quickly, and any articles on prostate cancer and complementary medicine should, in my view, recommend it to be used as an adjunct to orthodox treatment. To use meditation, biofeedback or homoeopathy as a means of keeping healthy by stress reduction, for example, is quite another matter.

As for the letter from LC, Co. Wicklow, Ireland, this man says he has erection problems and has been medically tested and found to be physically okay. The treatment of choice for psychogenic erectile failure is psychosexual counselling, looking at the relationship and seeing both partners. There is too much emphasis on ‘quick fixes’ such as the injection, or Viagra, when the problem is frequently between the partners. – Barbara Butcher, Hazlemere, Bucks

Dear PROOF!, In the article on keeping the prostate healthy, I was interested to read the comment that ‘Chinese philosophy holds that stagnation is at the root of many prostate problems’. This presumably relates to the lack of frequency of intercourse or masturbation. This may well be a root cause of prostate problems in old age.

Your article appears to concern itself entirely with medicines of various kinds with no mention of studies about frequency or regularity of ejaculation. Maybe this aspect of the prostate deserves another article. – Name and address supplied