November or Movember is often the time

November (or Movember) is often the time where you see men shave their facial hair at the beginning of the month and let everything grow back in unique ways all in the name of prostate cancer awareness. A legitimate great cause since prostate tumor is the leading cause of cancer in Canadian men. Startlingly, as per the new 2013 cancer statistics, 1 in 8 Canadian men will get prostate cancers in their lifetime! Wow! Thus, the purpose of this article is to provide more education regarding prostate cancer and discuss what you can do to reduce your risk.

So where may be the prostate? What does it do? The particular prostate is a walnut shaped hic found just below the bladder and just anterior to the rectum. It truly wraps around the urethra (the tube that carries urine and sperm through the penis). The main function for the prostate is to make part of the ejaculate that mixes with sperm to form semen.

What are the signs and symptoms that are quite often associated with prostate cancer? Well because the prostate wraps around the urethra (which connects to the bladder), enlargement of this prostate will cause a number of bladder similar signs and symptoms. These include: increase need (frequency) to urinate (especially at night), intense need (urgency) to pee, difficulty starting or stopping flow of urine, inability to pee, weak or decreased urine steady stream, interrupted urine stream, sense adornos pero involving incompletely emptying bladder, burning or pain during urination, and also blood in urine or semen and unpleasant ejaculation. Now if you have these symptoms (or know someone that does) it does not immediately mean that you have prostate cancer. Individualized signs/symptoms could be due to other prostate related issues like prostatitis (inflammation of the prostate) and benign prostatic hyperplasia (non-cancerous enlargement of the prostate), among others.

Risk factors include: family history, inherited gene mutations, diets loaded with fat, red meat, processed meat, and even dairy, prostatitis, high testosterone, contact with pesticides and other toxicities (cadmium subjection and rubber manufacturing). Also adult males of African ancestry have a greater risk of developing prostate cancer instructions they have a 60% higher rate as compared to Caucasian men. While men associated with Asian ancestry have a lower price of prostate cancer.

Early diagnosis of prostate cancer in extremely important for men with a family history of prostatic cancer and for those over the age of 70. This can be accomplished through yearly plan examination via a digital rectal test (DRE) and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing. The DRE is exactly mainly because it sounds, it is a manual test to feel the size and texture of the prostate. The PSA test (which should be done prior to DRE) is a blood test that detects the levels of PSA produced by the prostate which in a natural way increases slowly with aging but actually will increase more quickly in the case of prostate cancer. It is important to note that testing for PSA is controversial as it can often present false negatives and even false advantages for prostate cancer. Thus discuss with your doctor to find out if testing your PSA is appropriate for you.

So what can you decide to do to reduce your risk? Decrease toxic exposure such as pesticides (including choosing organic food), cigarette smoke (high amounts of cadmium), among others. Modify your diet to lower the amount of saturated fat that you eat, avoid eating processed meat together with red meat (if you do eat beef, make sure it's organic), and also reduce/eliminate your intake of dairy (specifically cow dairy). You can also increase the amount of fruit and vegetables that you eat, specifically those from the Brassica family such as broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage which contain a compound known as indole 3-carbinol which will decrease your PSA. Also consider increasing your intake of zinc by consuming more pumpkin seeds (high cause of zinc) which will help reduce the size of your own prostate by inhibiting 5-alpha reductase (involved in testosterone metabolism).