THURSDAY PATERNAL HEALTH: PROSTRATE CANCER- Causes, Symptoms and Treatment

What Is Prostate Cancer?

The prostate is a gland in the male reproductive system. It makes most of the semen that carries sperm. The walnut-sized gland is located beneath the bladder and surrounds the upper part of the urethra, the tube that carries urine from the bladder.

Prostate cancer is a major health concern for men. The disease is rare before age 50, and experts believe that most elderly men have traces of it.

The American Cancer Society predicts that 220,800 new cases of prostate cancer would be diagnosed in 2015. An estimated 27,640 men will die of it. African-American men are more likely to get prostate cancer and have the highest death rate. Other than skin cancer, prostate cancer is the most common cancer in American men. In other parts of the world -- notably Asia, Africa, and Latin America -- prostate cancer is rare.

Prostate cancer is usually a very slow growing cancer, often causing no symptoms until it is in an advanced stage. Most men with prostate cancer die of other causes, and many never know that they have the disease. But once prostate cancer begins to grow quickly or spreads outside the prostate, it is dangerous.

Prostate cancer in its early stages (when it’s only found in the prostate gland) can be treated with very good chances for survival. Fortunately, about 85% of American men with prostate cancer are diagnosed in an early stage of the disease.

Cancer that has spread beyond the prostate (such as to the bones, lymph nodes, and lungs) is not curable, but it may be controlled for many years. Because of the many advances in available treatments, most men whose prostate cancer becomes widespread can expect to live five years or more. Some men with advanced prostate cancer live a normal life and die of another cause, such as heart disease.

What Causes Prostate Cancer?

• Prostate cancer affects mainly older men. About 80% of cases are in men over 65, and less than 1% of cases are in men under 50. 
• Men with a family history of prostate cancer are more likely to get it.
• Doctors don’t know what causes prostate cancer, but diet contributes to the risk. Men who eat lots of fat from red meat are most likely to have prostate cancer. 
• Eating meat may be risky for other reasons: Meat cooked at high temperatures produces cancer-causing substances that affect the prostate. 
• The disease is much more common in countries where meat and dairy products are common than in countries where the diet consists of rice, soybean products, and vegetables.
• Hormones also play a role. 
• Eating fats raises the amount of testosterone in the body, and testosterone speeds the growth of prostate cancer.
• A few job hazards have been found. Welders, battery manufacturers, rubber workers, and workers frequently exposed to the metal cadmium seem to be more likely to get prostate cancer.
• Not exercising also makes prostate cancer more likely.

Drugs that may lower the risk of having prostate cancer include aspirin, finasteride, cholesterol-lowering drugs and triglyceride-lowering drugs, and anti-inflammatory drugs. Adding certain foods in your diet may also help reduce the risk, including tomato sauce and vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage.

What Are the Symptoms of Prostate Cancer?

There are no warning signs of early prostate cancer. Once a tumor causes the prostate gland to swell, or once cancer spreads beyond the prostate, the following symptoms may happen:

• A frequent need to urinate, especially at night
• Difficulty starting or stopping a stream of urine
• A weak or interrupted urinary stream
• Leaking of urine when laughing or coughing
• Inability to urinate standing up
• A painful or burning sensation during urination or ejaculation
• Blood in urine or semen

Preventing Prostate Cancer

• Testing for Prostate Cancer

To date, no evidence proves that you can prevent prostate cancer. However, you may be able to lower your risk.

A diet that helps maintain a healthy weight may reduce your risk for prostatecancer. The American Cancer Society recommends:

• Limiting high-fat foods
• Cutting back on red meats, especially processed meats such as hot dogs, bologna, and certain lunch meats
• Eating five or more servings of fruits and vegetables each day

Healthy food choices also include bread, cereals, rice, pasta, and beans.

Antioxidants in foods, especially in fruits and vegetables, help prevent damage to the DNA in the body's cells. Such damage has been linked to cancer. Lycopene, in particular, is an antioxidant that has been thought to lower the risk of prostate cancer. It can be found in foods such as:

• Tomatoes -- both raw and cooked
• Spinach
• Artichoke hearts
• Beans
• Berries -- especially blueberries
• Pink grapefruit and oranges
• Watermelon

However, it's not clear whether lycopene actually helps prevent prostate cancer, and recent studies have not been able to show that it does. Read more about antioxidant-rich fruits, vegetables, and beans.

Researchers continue studying other ways to lower prostate cancer risk. It’s still too soon, though, to know whether studies are finding new ways to prevent prostate cancer. Here are some examples of what's being considered:

• Some doctors are looking at whether certain drugs, such as Avodart (dutasteride) and Proscar (finasteride), which are both used to treat an enlarged prostate that isn't cancerous, can help prevent prostate cancer.
• Early studies showed that vitamins, such as selenium and vitamin E, may lower your chance of getting prostate cancer. Further research, though, has not shown this.
• Doctors continue to study the effects of supplements on prostate cancer. For now, no vitamins or supplements are known to lower risk.

QUOTE OF THE DAY 
Nobody ever wrote down a plan to be broke, fat, lazy, or stupid. Those things are what happen when you don’t have a plan. – Larry Winget

Happy eid-mubarak to all our Muslim brothers and sisters. Wishing you Allah's blessing.