Prostate cancer is a disease that affects men usually over the age of 40. The American Cancer Society states that one out of every six men will be affected with prostate cancer. One of out every thirty five men will find this disease fatal. Men who have a family history of prostate cancer and African American men have a much higher chance of contracting prostate cancer. This type of cancer if not caught and treated early has a high incidence of advancing or spreading into the bone marrow or other organs. Once this happens, it is much harder to treat successfully.
So what are things that men can do in order to help prevent this disease? Well there is no absolute way to prevent it unfortunately. However there is a very real link between health, diet and the risks associated with this. Researchers have found that people who eat a well rounded diet and exercise are less likely to become stricken with prostate cancer.
So what are some things that can be done to help prevent prostate cancer? First make sure that emphasis is put upon eating a healthy diet that includes lots of fresh fruit and vegetables. Avoid overeating in general, junk foods, heavy foods, and those high in fat content. Research has found that prostate cancer rates are much higher in countries where high fat diets are normally consumed than in those countries where the diets are normally low in fat, and concentrate on whole grains, fruits and vegetables.
Make sure that the diet includes vegetables that have antioxidant properties. Recently researchers found that a substance called lycopene, which is an antioxidant found in tomatos can greatly reduce the chances of developing prostate cancer. Other fruits such as grapes and berries have excellent antioxidant properties. These should be included in the diet on a daily basis to try to reduce the chances of prostate cancer.
Researchers in the United Kingdom did a clinical study which showed that diets rich in omega 3 fatty acids could not only help prevent the chances of developing prostate cancer but that it also could retard the rate of which cancer cells would invade the body to move into bone marrow or other organs. They felt that it was very important that these omega 3 fatty acids were consumed regularly by all men. These fatty acids are found in certain fish such as tuna, salmon, and mackerel. There are omega 3 fatty acid supplements that can be purchased and taken by those men who do not or cannot get enough fish in their diet daily and want to reduce their chances of prostate cancer today.
Researchers at Bethesda, Maryland did a clinical study on prostate cancer and found that ALA, which is alpha-linolenic acid, and commonly found in flax seed oil not only had some wonderful cardiovascular benefits but was successful in lowering the risk of prostate cancer. The study showed that men who had a high ALA intake were 50% less likely to develop prostate cancer than men who had a lower intake of ALA. They also found that ALA was successful in retarding cancer cells from invading bone marrow and causing further damage to the body.
Researchers in Boston found during their clinical studies that men who were given 200mg of selenium every day, the risk of them developing prostate cancer was cut in half. The study was long term and followed these men for over 13 years. They found that daily doses of selenium does not only cut the risk of prostate cancer in half, it also stops the cancer cells from invading the bone marrow as well.
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