What Foods Can Prevent Prostate Cancer

Nutrition And Prostate Cancer

Differences in diet and lifestyle may account for the variability of prostate cancer rates in different countries. Good nutrition may reduce the incidence of prostate cancer and help reduce the risk of prostate cancer progression. There are many lifestyle studies currently being conducted to further understand how diet and prostate cancer are related.

We do know that improved nutrition reduces risk of heart disease, diabetes and obesity, and usually improves overall quality of life. It’s estimated that a third of cancer deaths in the United States can be attributed to diet in adults, including diet’s effect on obesity. Additionally, a healthy diet helps to increase energy levels, facilitate recovery and enhance the immune system.

Researchers conducted an 11-day study where men followed the Pritikin program. The Pritikin program includes a diet that is high in vegetables, fruits and whole grains and very low in fat. This diet is used in combination with 60 minutes of daily exercise. Serum IGF-I decreased by 20 percent after following the program for 11 days. Higher IGF-I values previously have been associated with higher risk for various cancers, including prostate cancer. This reduction in IGF-I may be related to the lower serum insulin levels observed with a healthy, low-fat, plant-based diet and regular exercise.

Do Certain Foods Increase The Risk Of Prostate Cancer

Its not entirely clear which foods increase the risk of prostate cancer. Meat , fatty foods, carbohydrates, eggs, poultry, and milk are all prime suspects, however reports connecting these foods to prostate cancer are inconsistent . Several studies do raise a concern for dairy milk, specifically dairy calcium and protein. Recently, an extensive population study from the UK estimated that a 35g per day increase in dairy protein raises the risk of prostate cancer by 32% . This is the equivalent of drinking 4-5 cups of whole milk daily. If you are really concerned about your risk for prostate cancer, you may consider decreasing your meat and dairy intake.

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National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health

The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health at the National Institutes of Health facilitates research and evaluation of complementary and alternative practices, and provides information about a variety of approaches to health professionals and the public.

• NCCIH Clearinghouse

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Food For Fighting Prostate Cancer

Eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, particularly red ones, could be beneficial.

Registered dietitian Julie Bouwman is a fan of keeping food simple and natural, an approach that can improve your health in a variety of ways.

One way is fighting cancer.

We asked Bouwman, who works for Kaiser Permanente in Colorado, to share which foods you should eat and which you should avoid if you want to help prevent prostate cancer, which affects about 13 out of 100 men at some point in their lives, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

What kind of diet should men follow if they want to try to lower their risk of prostate cancer?

There has been research linking lowered risk of prostate cancer with a higher intake of lycopene, an antioxidant thought to have anti-cancer properties. Lycopene is found in red fruits and vegetables, particularly in tomato and tomato products. Carrots, grapefruit, red bell pepper, and pomegranates also contain lycopene. In general, its a good idea to have a healthy diet that includes 8 to 10 servings of fruits and vegetables per day.

You are not a fan of processed food but are there any processed foods that are OK to eat?

When it comes to lycopene-rich foods, its OK to eat tomato paste, ketchup, or sundried tomatoes, all of which are processed. In fact, lycopene in processed tomato products is more easily absorbed than when you eat tomatoes whole or raw.

What Is The Best Diet For Prostate Cancer

What you put inside of your body has a considerable impact on what you get out of your body. Eat healthily and your body will perform at an optimum level. Prefer unhealthy foods and you will soon start to feel unhealthy, unable to live life to the fullest. An unhealthy diet, filled with sugary and fatty foods, are also known to contribute significantly to a series of health ailments. Mamavation reports that, amongst all of the many health ailments that an unhealthy diet can contribute to, many foods are also known to cause a significant increase in a persons risk of developing cancer.

While we have mentioned that eating foods that are not considered healthy contributes to a greater chance of developing cancerous cells in the body, the focus of our post is to share some essential ideas about the best foods to prevent prostate cancer and, of course, to assist with slowing down this deadly disease should it have already manifested. Thus, let us take a look at foods that all men should frequently include in their daily diet to help them minimize their risk of this dreadful type of cancer, as well as to help them gain the advantage against other types of cancers as well.

When adjusting your diet to be more cancer-friendly in other words, to ensure your diet is fighting against prostate cancer and even other cancer while also making you feel healthier and better about yourself, Zero Cancer recommends making the following changes:

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Stay Active To Support Prostate Health

In addition to eating a healthy diet, you should stay active. Regular exercise pares down your risk of developing some deadly problems, including heart disease, stroke, and certain types of cancer. And although relatively few studies have directly assessed the impact of exercise on prostate health, those that have been done have concluded, for the most part, that exercise is beneficial. For example:

Based on questionnaires completed by more than 30,000 men in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, researchers found an inverse relationship between physical activity and BPH symptoms. Simply put, men who were more physically active were less likely to suffer from BPH. Even low- to moderate-intensity physical activity, such as walking regularly at a moderate pace, yielded benefits.

Using data from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, researchers also examined the relationship between erectile dysfunction and exercise. They found that men who ran for an hour and a half or did three hours of rigorous outdoor work per week were 20% less likely to develop ED than those who didn’t exercise at all. More physical activity conferred a greater benefit. Interestingly, regardless of the level of exercise, men who were overweight or obese had a greater risk of ED than men with an ideal body mass index, or BMI.

Get more information and the latest news about prostate health at www.HarvardProstateKnowledge.org.

How To Add More Legumes And Soybeans To Your Diet

To add more legumes and soybeans to your diet, consider swapping meat for plant protein in at least some meals. This could mean trying Meatless Mondays or moving toward a plant-based diet.

Try making a black bean burger with lots of veggies. Alternatively, homemade hummus made with blended chickpeas makes a delicious dip for vegetables or whole grain bread.

Finally, tofu is an excellent source of soy. Try flavoring tofu with sauces and baking it or browning it on the stove, or adding it to stir-fries.

Summary

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Questions And Answers About Vitamin E

What is vitamin E?

Vitamin E is an antioxidant that may help protect cells from damage. Vitamin E also affects how signals are sent within cells and how the cell makes RNA and proteins.

There are eight forms of vitamin E: four tocopherols and four tocotrienols . Alpha-tocopherol, the form of vitamin E used in dietary supplements, is found in greater amounts in the body and is the most active form of vitamin E. Most vitamin E in the diet comes from gamma-tocopherol. Food sources of vitamin E include vegetable oils, nuts, and egg yolks.

• Vitamin E and selenium.
• Two placebos.

SELECT results published in 2011 showed that men taking vitamin E alone had a 17% increase in prostate cancer risk compared with men who did not take vitamin E.

Several factors may have affected study results, including the dose of vitamin E.

Clinical trials

Have any side effects or risks been reported from vitamin E?

In the Physicians Health Study II and the Alpha-Tocopherol, Beta Carotene Cancer Prevention Study Group, there was a higher number of strokes caused by a broken blood vessel in the brain in men who took vitamin E than in men who took a placebo.

Questions To Ask Your Health Care Provider About Cam

When considering complementary and alternative therapies, patients should ask their health care provider the following questions:

• What side effects can be expected?
• What are the risks related to this therapy?
• What benefits can be expected from this therapy?
• Do the known benefits outweigh the risks?
• Will the therapy affect conventional treatment?
• Is this therapy part of a clinical trial?
• If so, who is the sponsor of the trial?
• Will the therapy be covered by health insurance?

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Tips For Nutrition During Cancer Treatment

• Maintain a healthy weight. For many men, this means avoiding weight loss by getting enough calories on a daily basis. For men who are overweight and are obese, this may mean losing some weight. If you are trying to lose weight, it should be moderate, meaning only about a pound a week.
• Get essential nutrients the body needs, such as protein, carbohydrates, fiber, vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, such as carotenoids, and water. Not only will your body function better, you will feel better.
• Be as active as you can, such as taking a daily walk. If you sit or sleep too much, you may lose muscle mass and increase your body fat, even if you are not gaining weight.

If you are struggling to eat enough or are eating too much, nutrition counseling may help you get essential nutrients, such as protein, vitamins, and minerals into your diet and maintain a healthy body weight. Ask your health care team for a referral to a registered dietitian or nutritionist. Dietitians and other members of the health care team work with people to meet their nutritional needs.

More On Prostate Cancer:

This article on a diet to fight prostate cancer is the first one in a series of articles on prostate cancer and nutrition. To learn more about how eating certain foods can help prevent prostate cancer, continue to the next article 15 Foods That Help Fight Prostate Cancer. If you’re interested in recipes that help prevent prostate cancer, be also sure to check out our collection of Prostate Cancer Fighting Recipes.

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Maintaining Good Nutrition During And After Treatment

Maintaining a healthy diet can help you prepare for and recover after cancer treatment. It may also help to prevent the prostate cancer from coming back.Watching your weight may also reduce your risk of dying from prostate cancer. Recent studies have indicated that the risk of dying from prostate cancer is more than double in obese men diagnosed with the disease compared with men of normal weight at the time of diagnosis. Obese men with local or regional disease have been shown to have nearly four times the risk of their cancer spreading beyond the prostate or metastasizing.

Prostate cancer treatment may affect your appetite, eating habits, and weight, but it is important for you to maintain a healthy weight, get essential nutrients, and remain as physically active as possible.If you have difficulty eating due to side effects from treatment, there are ways to make eating more comfortable. Working with a registered dietitian/nutritionist can help make sure you are getting the nutrition you need.

Unfortunately it is possible for the side effects of surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy to cause you to lose your appetite, eat less and lose weight. On the other hand, some treatments, such as androgen deprivation therapy may cause weight gain for some men.

, Prostate Cancer and Nutrition featuring Margaret Martin, RD, MS, LDN, a nutrition educator from PearlPoint Nutrition Services.

Prostate Facts: What Is Your Prostate And What Has It Done For You Lately

• The prostate is a small gland that surrounds part of the urethra, the little tube that urine travels through before it exits the body. It secretes 30% of the fluid that makes up semen. The liquid the from the prostate helps sperm survive the vaginas acidic environment, but I would never call the prostate basic .
• Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in men the US. Only skin cancer is more common for men. Im not going to dwell on the ins and outs of prostate cancertheres plenty of sites that exist for this purpose. The CDC offers an easy to follow article for prostate cancer awareness.
• Recommendations for prostate cancer screening seem like a hot mess nowadays. I know hot mess isnt a medical term, but Im just keeping it real. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends individualized decision making about screening for prostate cancer after discussion with a clinician, so that each man has an opportunity to understand the potential benefits and harms of screening and to incorporate his values and preferences into his decision.

Wait, what? Thats doctor speak for you should just talk to your doctor because screening may be helpful, but it may be harmful too. Ill probably end up getting my PSA check when Im the appropriate age, but Im going to keep some prostate cancer-preventing foods on my plate until we come up with something better.

The prostate with examples of prostate cancer

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Questions And Answers About Green Tea

What is green tea?

Tea comes from the Camellia sinensis plant. The way tea leaves are processed determines whether green tea, black tea, or oolong tea is made. Green tea leaves are steamed and dried.

The health benefits studied in green tea are thought to be from compounds called polyphenols. Polyphenols are a group of plant chemicals that include catechins . Catechins make up most of the polyphenols in green tea.

Catechins in green tea can vary widely, depending on the source of the tea leaves and the way they are processed. This makes it hard to identify most of the chemical factors linked to the health benefits of green tea.

Some studies suggest that green tea may protect against heart and blood vessel disease.

How is green tea given or taken?

People usually drink green tea or take it as a dietary supplement.

Have any laboratory or animal studies been done using green tea?

See the Laboratory/Animal/Preclinical Studies section of the health professional version of Prostate Cancer, Nutrition, and Dietary Supplements for information on laboratory and animal studies done using green tea.

Overall, population studies suggest that green tea may help protect against prostate cancer in Asian populations. Prostate cancer deaths in Asia are among the lowest in the world.

Clinical trials

Best Foods To Slow Down The Prostate Cancer

• Health

The prostate is a part of the male reproductive system which exists directly under the bladder. It is normally the size of a walnut. There are many small glands in the prostate which produce a fluid that becomes a part of the semen.

Prostate cancer is a common cancer found in men. The main cause of prostate cancer is said to be high fat and high sugar diet. It is believed that this cancer starts with tiny changes in the shape and size of the prostate gland cells. Most men develop this disease but most of the time it goes unnoticed.

Researchers have carried on with long experiment for years and found out the ways to slow down the prostate cancer. New study of National Cancer Research Network in UK has presented ways of slowing down the growth of cancer cell with the help of 4 food items. After the experiment was over, the researchers have found out the reduction of PSA level by 64 %. Here around 203 men were provided with a pill that constitutes the extract of 4 concentrated food extracts. As a result all those men were viewed slowing down the risk of prostate cancer.

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Questions And Answers About Soy

What is soy?

The soybean plant has been grown in Asia for food for hundreds of years. The soybean can be made into products, such as soy milk, miso, tofu, soy flour, and oil.

Soy foods contain phytochemicals that may have health benefits. Isoflavones are the most widely studied compounds in soy. Major isoflavones in the soybean include genistein, daidzein, and glycitein.

Isoflavones are phytoestrogens that attach to estrogen receptors found in prostate cancercells. Genistein may affect some processes inside prostate cancer cells that are involved in the growth and spread of cancer.

How is soy given or taken?

Soy may be eaten in food or taken in dietary supplements.

Have any laboratory or animal studies been done using soy?

See the Laboratory/Animal/Preclinical Studies section of the health professional version of Prostate Cancer, Nutrition, and Dietary Supplements for information on laboratory and animal studies done using soy.

Have any studies of soy been done in people?

Population studies and clinical trials have been done to find out if soy can prevent or treat prostate cancer. The results of these studies have been mixed. Some studies have shown a lower risk of prostate cancer or a change in prostate-specific antigen level, and others have not. The results may be mixed because the number of men participating in the studies is small and different types and doses of soy products were given for varying lengths of time.

Combined population studies

Clinical trials