Being Tall and Obese Can Put Men At High Risk of Prostate Cancer: Pomegranate Juice May Help Reduce Risks

Are you male, tall and gradually gaining weight? Researchers have now found a link between the height and weight of person with his chances of developing prostate cancer or dying of it. A recently published study, in the journal BMC Medicine, establishes the same association. Obesity has long been one of the major causes of most lifestyle and metabolic diseases like diabetes and cancer.

According to official estimates, cancer kills close to 7 million people globally. Though its causes are still unknown to the world of medicine and science, experts link the development of the disease to lifestyle factors and genetic predisposition. Cancer is the outcome of formation, development and rapid growth of cancerous cells in any part of the body. The disease, when manifested in the prostrate, is known as prostate cancer. According to the World Cancer Research Fund International, over 1.1 million cases of prostate cancer were recorded in the 2012.

A team of researchers at the University of Oxford, UK suggest that tall, obese men are more likely to fall prey to risk of developing prostate cancer and associated death. Higher BMI was also found to be linked with risk of developing high-grade tumours. Although, a person's weight and BMI score have been some of the standard measures to detect obesity, experts shared that the same logic might not work for older men, therefore waist circumference would also be one of the key markers in ascertaining obesity in older men.

Foods for prostate cancer prevention

Diet has a direct correlation with the risk of disease one gets exposed to. Some of the previous studies had linked nuts consumption with reduced risk of prostate cancer. "High fatty diet and red meat are the main causes of prostate cancer," P K Julka, Head of the Department Oncology All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), told IANS.

"Pomegranate has been used as a folk medicine for thousands of years. The juice contains substances that support a healthy prostate. Drinking a glass of pomegranate juice every day has been shown to lower levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) in men. The higher a man's PSA level is, the greater his risk of death from prostate cancer," as mentioned in Dorling Kindersley's book Healing Foods.