No man wants to hear those 3 little words from their doctor “You Have Cancer”. So, one of the best things you can do is to understand your personal risk factors.
Risk factors are anything that affects your chances of getting the disease such as family history, smoking or being overweight.
The American Cancer Society’s estimates for prostate cancer in the United States for 2015 are:
About 220,800 new cases of prostate cancer.
About 27,540 deaths from prostate cancer.
The Major Prostate Cancer Risks Are:
Family History
Prostate cancer tends to run in families with the odds rising to 1 in 3 if your family has a strong history with the illness. If your father or brother had the disease, especially if they were under 55 years of age, can as much as double your chances of getting it yourself.
Age
About 60% of the prostate cancer cases are diagnosed in men over the age of 65 and the disease is rather rare in men below the age of 40.
Race – Ethnicity
Prostate cancer occurs most often in men of African descent whether they live in the United States or in the Caribbean. African- American males are more than twice as likely to die of prostate cancer as Caucasian counterparts. The disease occurs least frequently in both Asian-American and Hispanic men and the reasons for this are still unknown at this time.
Genetics And Gene Changes
There are a few very slight risk factors that are associated with genetics or gene changes as you age. Yes, scientists have found several inherited gene changes, however it is though that these only make up a small fraction of the total cases diagnosed each year.
So, while you may be more prone to it if your father or brother had it, it doesn’t seem to point towards any long length of family bloodlines or ancestral descent.
One might argue that, it doesn’t make any sense that it’s not ancestral, as Africa would tend to point in that direction. However, there are many things that races keep as traditions post migration such as diet that could in fact be the key. Scientists have yet to find any strong evidence that would point towards genetic predispositioning.
Diet
Diet including the lack of nutritional supplementation may yet be found to be one of the biggest culprits.
Finding show that men who consume high dairy and red meat fat diets have a slightly higher risk of developing prostate cancer that those who don’t. The reason very well could be that they may not be eating as many vegetables as the other groups.
This should be an area of intense study, as health is 50% what you do and 50% what you don’t do. If you do eat more meats and dairy, then you may wish to consider upping your intake of fiber rich vegetables. Science very well may prove what the nutritional advocates have said all along. That is, a diet rich in healthy nutrients can help counteract some of the dietary mistakes made by most people.
Obesity
Some studies have shown that obese men have a lower risk of getting the lower grades of prostate cancer which carry less risk. But, they found that obese men have a higher risk of developing the higher grades of prostate cancer which then carry the higher risks.
