- Improved cardiovascular health may reduce the risk of being diagnosed with prostate cancer, a new study from Sweden has found.
- Although many men develop prostate cancer, few die from it, and this study did not show a link between cardiovascular health and death from prostate cancer.
- The association between cardiorespiratory fitness and prostate diagnosis is most likely due to good overall health, experts say.
A new study of Swedish men has found a strong link between cardiovascular health and a lower risk of developing prostate cancer.
This study found that improving your cardiovascular health by just 3% can reduce your risk of prostate cancer by 35%.
This study focuses on men’s risk of developing cancer in general, so it makes no claims about cardiovascular fitness or the likelihood of dying from prostate cancer.
However, cancer often grows very slowly, and most men diagnosed with prostate cancer do not die from the disease.
There is intense debate about whether the best course of action upon diagnosis is surgical prostatectomy (prostatectomy), radiation therapy, or nothing other than observation.
Doctors track the presence of prostate cancer and receive an indication of its severity through blood tests such as the prostate antigen test (PSA).
The research results are British Journal of Sports Medicine.
The study analyzed Swedish health records in which 57,652 men reported their physical activity levels, self-reported health status, lifestyle, and weight and height measurements.
Each participant also took part in at least two cardiorespiratory fitness tests on a stationary bike, including a V02 max test that tracks oxygen inhaled and exhaled at maximal exercise levels. I got it.
During a mean follow-up of 6.7 years, 46 men died from prostate cancer.
The Swedish health system provides excellent data for these studies, but what is concerning is that the group of men studied was predominantly white Scandinavian men.
Black men, who are at highest risk for prostate cancer, were not included.
Dr. Jayne Morgan, a cardiologist at GeoVax, was not involved in the study, but mentioned this as a key concern when interviewed. Today’s medical news. But this wasn’t her only concern about her research.
Dr. Morgan asked, “Do men with high fitness levels and men with high cardiorespiratory fitness have different health habits in terms of the type of food they eat, how much sleep they get, hobbies, level of interaction with health care providers, obesity, and health status? It was pointed out that there was a lack of information regarding “Please.” Employment (all these men were employed) and other lifestyle choices can affect health and even cancer risk. ”
Dr. Ramkishen Narayanan, a urologist and urological oncologist at the Disney Family Cancer Center Urological Health Center in Burbank, Calif., who was not involved in the study, also said the study focused on diagnosing prostate cancer. It was evaluated that the study was focused on the diagnosis of prostate cancer and did not focus on the diagnosis of prostate cancer. Regarding mortality rates, the number of deaths among men is so small that meaningful analysis is difficult.
“That’s about 1% with an average follow-up of seven years. So the follow-up is not very long and there are fewer,” he said.
Dr. Narayanan said the benefits of cardiorespiratory fitness may be primarily due to being generally healthier, which has positive value in avoiding metabolic syndrome.
“These are modifiable risk factors,” Dr. Narayanan said. “We know that high blood pressure and obesity are risk factors for the likelihood of a variety of tumors.”
Specifically, Dr. Morgan says:[g]In general, heart health is linked to better overall health, which in turn is linked to lower abdominal fat, weight loss, and lower insulin resistance, which means less type 2 diabetes. [risk], improved cholesterol profile. ”
Dr. Morgan explained:[t]The common denominator is chronic systemic inflammation, which is a risk factor for both cancer and heart disease. ”
“Interestingly, heart disease
Dr. Morgan also noted that men treated for prostate cancer with androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) have increased cardiovascular risk.
Dr. Morgan listed items he would like to see covered in subsequent, more robust studies. these are:
- Utilizes validated VO2 max measurements.
- Control of comorbidities and lifestyle factors.
- Conduct a randomized controlled trial.
- including other populations, especially black men
- Increase number of time points
- Adjust and randomize according to age.
Dr. Narayanan essentially proposed redirecting the research, an idea also proposed by the authors. “We’ll look at the prostate cancer patient population, look at biochemical recurrence, and see if the prostate cancer is aggressive.” [cardiorespiratory fitness] That would coincide with a reduction in biochemical recurrence of the disease. ”
After you receive treatment for prostate cancer, your PSA level will be monitored regularly indefinitely.
“The biggest lesson I take away from this is [promoting] Cardiovascular fitness is something that is doable and empowering for men, rather than feeling like, “This is family history, this is genetic predisposition, so you can’t take preventable behaviors.”
– Dr. Ramkishen Narayanan
He also said some men are afraid to engage in cardio-respiratory fitness because they worry that it will increase their testosterone levels and increase their risk of prostate cancer.
“There is a misconception that increased testosterone increases the incidence of prostate cancer,” Dr. Narayanan explained. That really proved to be a misunderstanding. So that’s an important thing to know. ”