How Your Weight Affects Your Prostate Cancer Treatment

Every case of prostate cancer is different; hence each one has to be evaluated on its individual merits. Your general health, weight, age and motivation all need to be taken into account when choosing a form of prostate cancer treatment. If you are overweight, know that this factor alone can affect how your prostate cancer treatment is going to be like.

Occasionally prostate cancer treatments will not have a big enough effect on some men, especially obese men. External radiation therapy uses a beam of subatomic particles to kill the cancerous cells in the prostate gland . However, if you are overweight, the beam is unable to penetrate through the extra layers of fat. This renders the prostate cancer treatment ineffective. In cases such as this, a more radical form of treatment is usually recommended.

Being obese may initially help to cause prostate cancer and then it may help the cancer to spread more rapidly and more aggressively as well. Fatty diets that contain high levels of saturated fats and dairy products are thought to contribute to the probability of developing prostate cancer in the first place and remaining overweight may enhance the spread of the disease.

Thus, even if the prostate gland is removed as part of your prostate cancer treatment the cancer might have already spread making it harder to control and totally rid from the body. In fact, men who are obese are 70% more likely to develop metastases i.e. secondary tumours at other sites around the body, than men who are fit and a healthy weight.

This would suggest that the incidence of prostate cancer is somewhat linked to diet and that being obese may mean you require surgery as a form of prostate cancer treatment. For this reason every man over the age of 25 should make an effort to maintain a healthy weight and eat foods that are low in saturated fats and dairy products, even if it is just as a precaution against the possibility of surgery as a future prostate cancer treatment!

A balanced diet with plenty of antioxidants such as lycopenes, which are found in tomatoes, watermelon and other types of fruit could seriously help to combat the first signs of prostate cancer meaning that any cancerous cells are killed before they have chance to divide and grow. Fibre is also a requirement of a healthy diet and as it helps to encourage frequent bowel movements it also rids the body of potentially harmful toxins and bacteria.

If you are of a healthy weight, it is possible that you will be taking a course of radiation as a prostate
cancer treatment rather than invasive surgery followed by a course of radiation. Do your sums and you will realise that being of a healthy weight has a far more advantages.