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Prostate Problem Guide
How To Prevent Prostate Cancer Or Reduce Your Prostate Cancer Risk
Unfortunately there is no 'sure fire' way to prevent prostrate cancer and, no matter what you do, there is always going to be chance that you will develop the disease. Having said this, there are a number of preventative measures that you can take and you can certainly lower your risk of developing the disease.
First however it's necessary to recognize that the risk of contracting prostate cancer is very real and also to understand that this risk varies from one individual to the next.
If, for example, you have a family history of prostate cancer then you are twice as likely to develop the disease as somebody without any family history. However, because prostate cancer often appears quite late in life and can be slow to develop, many men with prostate cancer in fact die as a result of some other condition. So, if a family member has always been assumed to have died from say a heart condition, that doesn't mean that he didn't suffer from prostate cancer and it's well worth investigating your family history closely to assess your own risk.
Other risk factors include such things as race and diet. African Americans, for example, are at higher risk than Hispanic and Caucasian men and people enjoying a Western diet are at greater risk than people following a traditional Eastern diet.
Whatever your additional risk, all men are at some risk of contracting the disease and it is most likely to appear once you have passed the age of 40. So what can be done to reduce the risk?
CHB (COMBINATION HORMONE BLOCKADE): also referred to as CHT, MAB, TAB or ADT (androgen deprivation therapy); therapy usually involving an LHRH agonist and an anti-androgen; may involve other agents such as Proscar® or prolactin inhibitors such as Dostinex®; preferred term is ADT with number attached to show number of agents e.g. ADT3 (Flutamide, Lupron®, Proscar®) or ADT3 (FLP).
HYPERTHERMIA: treatment that uses heat; for example heat produced by microwave radiation.
IMRT (INTENSITY MODULATED RADIATION THERAPY): an approach to radiation delivery allowing the treatment team to specify the tumor target dose and the amount of radiation allowable to the nearby tissues and uses sophisticated computer planning to arrive at acceptable equations; sophisticated hardware is also incorporated into this planning that allows the radiation intensity to be modulated up or down as the delivery system rotates around the patient.
RESECTOSCOPE: instrument inserted through the urethra and used by a urologist to cut out tissue (usually from the prostate) while the physician can actually see precisely where he is cutting.
The two principle areas to look at are your diet and the use of dietary supplements.
The main problem when it comes to the Western diet is animal fat and the solution here is simply to lower the quantity of meat in your diet and, when eating meat, to eat meats containing low levels of fat or leaner cuts of high-fat meat.
As far as dietary supplements are concerned this is something of a minefield, with opinions varying widely and often being driven more by profit than by medical evidence in this highly lucrative market.
The list of possible dietary supplements for consideration in preventing prostate cancer is extremely long and ranges from vitamins, like vitamin E, and minerals, such as Selenium, to estrogen and green tea extract.
When considering dietary supplements, it is important to think about your overall health and not to simply consider them in terms of preventing prostate cancer.
It is also sensible to look first at your diet itself, as you will find that the need for almost all supplements can be eliminated by simply ensuring that the required vitamins and minerals are included within a well balanced diet including a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables.
Despite the fact that many thousands of men die each year from prostate cancer, a large percentage of these deaths are unnecessary and a mixture of early prostate cancer testing and a few simple preventative measures can prevent thousands of needless deaths.
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