Obese Men May Have Less Chance Of Surviving Prostate Cancer

November 20, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Obesity New research suggests that obese men are twice as likely to die after being diagnosed with prostate cancer than men of normal weight.

This research doesn’t claim that obesity causes cancer, but that the chance of survival is lower among the obese. Add this to diabetes and heart disease, and it’s just one more sign that too much weight equals bad health. The researchers found that 6.5 percent of men with normal weight died from prostate cancer within five years while the death rate for overweight men was 13.1 percent. The death rate for obese men was 12.2 percent.

What’s the link?

It is unclear as to why there is a link between obesity and prostate cancer death rates, but doctors suggest the following:

metabolism rates in heavy men may make the cancer more aggressive
obesity could render cancer treatments less effective
hormone changes may impact the cancer behavior
obese individuals tend to eat high-fat foods and few fruits and vegetables and therefore may be lacking key vitamins needed to help control cancer growth

When is it too late to make lifestyle changes?

Researchers say that what they don’t know is whether improvements made in lifestyle after diagnosis would improve the outcome for prostate cancer victims. But it doesn’t take a researcher to tell us that prevention is always the best route to take. Your chances of surviving any disease are greater if you start taking precautions prior to diagnosis. If you are a man with a body mass index of higher than 25, than now is the time to start making lifestyle changes, before it is too late. If you don’t know your current BMI, you can find out through a BMI calculator provided by The New York Times. A personal favorite book of mine for helping to make the proper lifestyle changes is The Abs Diet. While I do have a couple of very small concerns with this book (namely its suggestions of using the microwave which can destroy food nutrients and its lack of information regarding the dangers of using chemical sweeteners), it is loaded with great tips for losing weight safely and it provides wonderful healthy recipes with power foods that don’t leave you feeling like you need to eat more.

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Posted by Julie Alexander | Filed Under Men's Health, Weight Loss