Here's what the article doesn't mention: prostate cancer is estrogen-related. Bodyfat produces more estrogen and has more estrogen receptors. The fatter a man is, the more estrogen in his system, the higher the risk for all cancers--but especially prostate cancer.The study surveyed medical records of some 1,400 men diagnosed with cancer whose prostates were surgically removed from 1998 to 2004 at Veteran's Administration hospitals in California and Georgia and at the San Diego Naval Hospital.
Prostate cancer is the second- most-common cancer afflicting American men. In its most recent estimates, the American Cancer Society projected that 232,000 American men would be diagnosed with the disease and 30,000 would die from it in 2005.
Previous studies have shown that obese men diagnosed with prostate cancer were 20 percent to 35 percent more likely to die from it than men of normal weight. Obesity is based on a height and weight formula; a 6-foot man would be obese if he weighed 222 pounds or more.Prostates removed from the patients in the study were weighed. The 245 men in the sample who were moderately obese had an average prostate weight of 1.4 ounces. Normal-sized prostate glands weigh half to three-fourths as much.
Dr. Durado Brooks, the American Cancer Society's prostate cancer specialist, said the study helps deepen the understanding of the link between obesity and prostate cancer.
Doctors often blame high testosterone levels for prostate cancer, which is partly true--kind of like blaming the sky for clouds. High testosterone, especially in the obese, is converted to estrogen, a normal process that becomes abnormal in the overweight or in those who use steroids (thus the need for steroid users to also use anti-estrogen drugs).
With the increase in environmental estrogens over the past 40 years, the problems will only get worse. All forms of cancer will increase in occurrence.
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