Cancer Pages Article:
Testosterone and Prostate Cancer
Everyone should know that when testosterone is metabolized, it produces DHT as one of the by-products, which is what allows your muscles and erections to grow. That is a good thing! However, DHT that doesn't get burned up during sex or working out is also what is at the root of your prostate problems to begin with.
The fact of the matter is that DHT is always being produced, and a lot of us simply cannot burn it off fast enough--no matter how much we work out in the gym or how much sex we have.
In the case of prostate problems, one camp blames a lack of testosterone while the other camp blames too much of it. I have even heard of a doctor suggesting castration as a means of preventing the spread of prostate cancer because he believed it was the only way to prevent testosterone from acting as fuel for the cancer.
Talk about a case of throwing away both the baby and the bathwater!
I'm sure that we've all heard at some point or another the notion that more sex is the solution to prostate problems, citing as evidence the high incidence of prostate cancer in celibate priests. Let's think about this for a moment: If more sex was really the solution, how come a certain rock-star died from prostate cancer? Also, if prostate cancer is the number one cancer killer of males, were all these murdered males celibate? Not likely...
While plain common sense would indicate that utter sexual abstinence may be harmful over the course of a lifetime, prostate cancer remains the number one cancer-killer of males DESPITE the fact that very few males are either rock stars or priests!
So, prostate cancer has little to do with sexual activity or the testosterone that fuels it. Rather, it is an issue of how we handle the excessive DHT in our bodies. With today's meat and hormone-filled diets it should be no wonder that our current report card is so poor.
This is why pro-hormone supplementation is replete with warnings that people with prostate problems should not be taking their products. (Bodybuilders love excess DHT which they can direct into their muscle tissue.)
Benign prostatic hyperplasia, often referred to as simply BPH, is an enlargement of the prostate gland that usually occurs in men who are over the age of 50. This enlargement in the prostate gland can cause a gradual squeezing of the urethra, which makes urinating difficult and painful. Many men who experience this prostate problem do not have any symptoms at all and it may not be detected until an annual rectal exam. Men with this prostate problem who do experience symptoms are likely to notice difficulty in starting urination, frequent urination as well as an increased frequency in awakening at night to urinate.
Prostate cancer, another prostate problem, is perhaps the most severe and is one of the leading types of cancers diagnosed in American men. Each year almost a quarter of a million new cases are diagnosed. It is estimated that prostate cancer will affect one out of every ten men. Each year more than 30,000 men die from prostate cancer. Because of the seriousness of this prostate problem, prostate cancer is perhaps the most serious of all the different types of prostate disease. Prostate cancer generally occurs in men who are over the age of 65, although cases in younger men have been reported. There is a high incidence of prostate cancer occurring in men who are shown to have a family history of this type of prostate disease. African-American men are considered to be particularly at risk for prostate cancer and suffer from the highest death rates related to this disease.
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