The Risks of Developing Prostate Cancer and What Can be Done by Way of Prevention

Over the years there has been a great deal of debate about prostate cancer and the subject of preventing prostate cancer specifically remains rather controversial. Although, as with most cancers, men are not themselves the cause of their own prostate cancer, there are clearly various risk factors for developing the disease and there is a lot that can be done, if not to actually prevent it, then without question to lower your risk of developing it.

The first step in prostate cancer prevention is to understand that you are at risk of getting the disease and to know just what the different risk factors are.

There can be no doubt that men with a family history of prostate cancer are at higher risk and that the risk for someone with a close relative suffering from the disease is about twice that of someone without any family history. If you have two close relatives this risk increases to around five times that of somebody with no family history and if you have three close relatives the risk reaches an almost incredible ninety-seven percent.

The problem here is that many men do not know their family history, frequently because many fathers, grandfathers or brothers have died as a result of other illnesses without even being aware that they had prostate cancer. This happens because prostate cancer will often develop late in life and can be a very slow growing form of cancer. As a result there is a very good chance of individuals developing other conditions together with their prostate cancer and it is these other conditions which ultimately result in their death.

Accordingly, if you do not know your family history, then a good starting point is to check things out if you can. If it is not possible, then it is probably best to err on the side of caution and to assume that you might be at risk rather than assume that you are in the clear.

Another very important factor is race. For example, African American men are at higher risk than Hispanic men who, in turn, are at greater risk than Caucasian men. For an African American man the risk is about sixty percent greater than that for a Caucasian man.

Yet another risk factor is diet and men who live in Western countries such as the United Kingdom or the United States are at increased risk because of the high levels of fat in most Western diets. Here at last is a risk factor that you can actually do something about and lowering the fat in your diet and eating such things as more vegetables and fresh fruit can reduce your risk quite dramatically.

At this point we begin to get into difficulty because, beyond the principle of reducing levels of fat in the diet, views begin to differ when it comes to looking at other aspects of the diet that could be helpful in preventing prostate cancer.

There is little if any doubt that levels of such things as vitamins and minerals in your diet can have a dramatic affect on your health generally and will undoubtedly have a role to play when it comes to prostate health. But, working out just which vitamins and minerals play a role is not a simple matter and is a subject all of its own.