Contents:
- Medical Video: Prostate Cancer Myths
- The wider the waist circumference of a man, the greater the risk of developing malignant prostate cancer
- Why does obesity increase the risk of prostate cancer?
- Maintaining an ideal body weight is the key to preventing cancer
Medical Video: Prostate Cancer Myths
Excess weight or even obesity not only increases your risk of various heart diseases and diabetes. The increase in body weight also makes men more prone to prostate cancer. In fact, obese men are more likely to die from malignant prostate cancer than men who have normal weight. Wow! What is the reason?
The wider the waist circumference of a man, the greater the risk of developing malignant prostate cancer
The above statement was concluded by a study published in BMC Medicine after involving observations of 141,896 obese men from 8 countries: Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, England, Germany and Greece. Researchers found out of the total participants, about 7,000 people had malignant prostate cancer, 700 people were at high risk, and more than 900 people died from it.
Other studies published New England Journal of Medicine also found that prostate cancer tends to be more deadly in men who are overweight or obese.
During this time, the increased risk of prostate cancer is ascribed to the total fat content in the body or overall body weight. But apparently, researchers found that the increased risk of aggressive prostate cancer in obese men was more influenced by the size of the waist, hips, and abdomen.
Any additional 10 cm in waist circumference is reported to increase the risk of malignant prostate cancer by up to 13 percent, and the risk of death as a result increases to 18 percent. That is why, the wider the size of a man's waist, the greater the chance for malignant prostate cancer.
Why does obesity increase the risk of prostate cancer?
The cause-and-effect relationship between excess body weight and the risk of prostate cancer cannot be confirmed However, the researchers suspect that the accumulation of fat in the area of the waist, hips, and abdomen is closely related to the growth of cancer cells in the prostate gland.
Researchers also argue that increasing body weight can cause chronic inflammation throughout the body which disrupts hormone levels. Changes in hormone levels are thought to increase the risk of developing aggressive prostate cancer.
In addition, obese men have lower prostate antigen concentrations. They also tend to have more cell counts and larger prostate size. This causes their body cells to be more susceptible to cancer-causing cell mutations, and make cancer cells more difficult to detect so that it is likely to be found late in the deadly final stage.
Maintaining an ideal body weight is the key to preventing cancer
Of course not all big men must be at high risk for death from malignant prostate cancer. Changing your lifestyle to be healthier and avoiding or quitting smoking are the main keys to reducing the risk of prostate cancer, while reducing the risk of death as a result until years later.
