By: Seomul Evans
Submitted: 2010-01-28 03:55:41 | Word Count: 641
How to Fight Prostate Cancer 4 Essential Tips to Maintain Excellent Prostate Health
There are many positive measures that you can take to maintain excellent prostate health. Here are 4 practical tips to implement in your daily life.
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1) Lose your Belly Fat
Aim to keep your waistline trim. Fat in the body results in a drop of the Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA), which circulates in the blood stream. When your Doctor checks your PSA levels to determine if you do have prostate cancer an excess of weight may result in a skewing of test results.
2) Enjoy the sunshine!
Contrary to what you may have heard the sun isn’t all bad. In the US research carried out on men living within the sunniest states found a 32 lower risk rate of prostate cancer. This is believed to be as a result of Vitamin D, which we can get from the sun. However, if you are worried about damage to skin from the sun, you can get your Vitamin D requirements from Cod Liver Oil instead.
3) Follow Popeye’s example eat spinach!
One study established that men could halve their risk of prostate cancer by establishing a high intake of folate. This is a nutrient that can be found in spinach. Aim for a daily quota of 400 micrograms (MCG). As a guide a 180g serving of cooked spinach will provide approximately 100 mcg
4) Think Red!
A study review published in the Journal of Nutrition established that eating between two to four servings of raw tomatoes reduced men s risk of prostate cancer. by 26 . Alternatively, you could opt for a glass of tomato juice which contains similar cancer busting properties.
Prostate Cancer Causes
Prostate cancer causes are not fully able to be explained, but it appears that changes in the DNA of a prostate cell bring on the cancer. DNA is what makes up our genes, which in turn can control how individual cells behave under certain circumstances. We inherit DNA from our parents, and they from their ancestors. A very small percentage, around five to ten percent, it seems to be linked to these changes that are inherited.
It has also been shown to be possibly linked to certain hormones high levels. Higher than average levels of the male hormone androgens has been shown to possibly play a part in the risk of contracting prostate cancer. Researchers have also noted that men who have a high level of a hormone known as IGF 1 are more likely to suffer from prostate cancer. But other scientists have not agreed with the finding of this link.
We can only use risk factors to help determine causes, since we don t know what exactly the most causative factor is. Various cancers will have different risk factors, and some, like smoking, can be controlled. But others, like family history or age, cannot be altered.
The presence of risk factors isn t a sure sign, either. Some people have many risk factors, but never develop cancer. At the same time, other people with no apparent risk factors do develop cancer. The links between risk factors and prostate cancer is not fully clear.
The most important risk factor appears to be age. Your chance of developing cancer goes up most speedily after you reach fifty years of age. Nearly two of three cases occur in men over 65 years of age.
Race appears to be another risk factor in the development of cancer. For reasons unknown, African American men are affected more than men of other races. They are also more likely to suffer from the more advanced stages of the disease, and thus are more likely to die because of prostate cancer. In addition, prostate cancer occurs more often in non Hispanic white men than in Hispanic/Latino and Asian American men. The reasons for these differences in likelihood are not clearly understood.
