Low Testosterone Level May Increase Risk of Death in Men

According to a new study presented at the 90th Annual Meeting of The Endocrine Society in San Francisco, men may not live as long if they have low testosterone regardless of their age. This study conducted from Germany adds to the scientific evidence linking deficiency of the male sex hormone with increased death from all causes over time, called "all-cause mortality".

This study should serve as a warning to several men with low testosterone to start a healthier lifestyle. They should have better routine when it comes to weight control, regular exercise and a healthy diet to avoid repercussions of their medical condition.

"It is very possible that lifestyle determines levels of testosterone," Robin Haring, lead author of the study and a PhD student from Ernst-Moritz-Arndt University of Greifswald, Institute for Community Medicine said.

In the study, Haring and co-workers looked at death from any cause in nearly 2,000 men aged 20 to 79 years who were living in northeast Germany and who participated in the Study of Health in Pomerania (SHIP). Follow-up averaged 7 years. At the beginning of the study, 5 percent of these men had low blood testosterone levels, defined as the lower end of the normal range for young adult men. The men with low testosterone were older, more obese, and had a greater prevalence of diabetes and high blood pressure, compared with men who had higher testosterone levels, Haring said.

Men with low testosterone levels had more than 2.5 times greater risk of dying during the next 10 years compared to men with higher testosterone, the study found. This difference was not explained by age, smoking, alcohol intake, level of physical activity, or increased waist circumference (a risk factor for diabetes and heart disease), Haring said.

In cause-specific death analyses, low testosterone predicted increased risk of death due to cardiovascular disease and cancer but not death of any other single cause.

Simple Exercise Can Cut Cancer Deaths in Men, Study Shows

A recent study published in the British Journal of Cancer revealed that men who exercise often are less likely to die from cancer than those who don't. The study found that men who walked or cycled for at least 30 minutes a day had a 34 per cent lower risk of dying from cancer than men who did less exercise or nothing at all.

The study involved a team of scientists from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden who monitored a number of 40,708 men aged between 45 and 79 years. During the seven years period of the study, 3,714 developed cancer and 1,153 died from the disease. The researchers suggest that half an hour of walking or cycling a day increased survival among these men by 33 per cent.

"These results clearly show for the first time, the effect that very simple and basic daily exercise such as walking or cycling has in reducing cancer death risk in middle-age and elderly men," one of the researchers, Professor Alicja said. "Additionally, this study threw up some really promising data on the role exercise can play in preventing cancer which we would like to explore further in future work."

They found that a more intensive program of walking and cycling for between an hour and an hour and a half a day, led to a l6 per cent lower incidence of cancer.

It's not entirely clear from this study what role exercise plays in preventing cancer in men, but it somehow proved that a healthy lifestyle can prevent up to half of all cancers - and regular exercise forms a key part of this. Cancer Research UK recommends maintaining a healthy body weight, eating sensibly and taking regular exercise as key to a healthy life - along with avoiding smoking.

Dehydrated Tomatoes May Prevent Prostate Cancer

Many studies and research have proven that tomatoes are actually good in preventing and fighting cancer. But another research suggests that the form or tomato product one eats could be the key to unlocking its prostate cancer-fighting potential. And it is dehydrated tomatoes.

According to the latest issue of the Cancer Research, a journal by the American Association for Cancer Research, the greatest protective effect of tomatoes from cancer, especially prostate cancer, comes from rehydrating tomato powder into tomato paste. This suggests that processing of edible plants through heating, grinding, mixing or drying dramatically increases their nutritional value.

The protective effect of tomato products against prostate cancer has been suggested in many studies, but researchers remain uncertain about the exact mechanisms. The study demonstrated that FruHis, an organic carbohydrate present in dehydrated tomato products, exerts a strong protective effect.

The research also evaluated the anti-cancer properties of FruHis and 14 other D-fructose amino acids and found that FruHis in a concentrated form protected against DNA damage known to lead to prostate cancer. When combined with lycopene, FruHis stopped cancerous cell growth more than 98 percent of the time.

Before this study, researchers attributed the protective effect of tomatoes to ascorbic acid, carotenoids, or phenolic compounds. FruHis may represent a novel type of potential dietary antioxidant. Experiments like these suggest that a combination of FruHis and lycopene should be investigated as a potential therapeutic anti-tumor agent, not just a prevention strategy.

The mission of the American Association for Cancer Research is to prevent and cure cancer. Founded in 1907, AACR is the world's oldest and largest professional organization dedicated to advancing cancer research.

Men Can Also Have Breast Cancer

After extensive research, doctors from San Antonio, Texas are trying to encourage men to consider getting tested for genes that raise the risk of breast cancer. According to them, male relatives of women with such genes often realize that they too may carry them. And at the same time, face greater risks of developing male breast cancer, as well as prostate, pancreatic and skin cancer.

"Everyone thinks of breast and ovarian cancer and just assumes it's all women. They don't even realize these genes can be inherited from the father's side of the family," a Dr. Mary Daly of the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia said.

After seeing breast cancer in several male patients, a further study was conducted until finally concluding that men, especially those who are related to someone who had this disease should take a gene test.

However, it seems that very few men want to.

Breast cancer is the most common major cancer in American women. More than 178,000 new cases, and more than 40,000 deaths from it, are expected in the U.S. this year. But men get it, too — about 2,030 cases are estimated to occur this year, accounting for about 1 percent of all breast cancer cases, according to the American Cancer Society. About 450 of these male cases will prove fatal.

Prevent Prostate Cancer, Drink Green Tea

A study conducted by several researchers at Japan's National Cancer Center revealed that drinking green tea may reduce the risk of advanced prostate cancer. The study said that men who drink five or more cups of green tea a day may actually reduce their chance of developing advanced prostate cancer in half, as compared to those who only drinks one cup a day or less.

According to Norie Kurahashi, one researcher who participated in the study, however said that this does not mean that people who drink green tea are guaranteed to have reduced risk of prostate cancer. These results, according to him, are just preliminary and needs further researches to verify the inference. But they claim that the study may point to the hope that green tea can be used to prevent prostate cancer.

Prostate cancer is not very common among Asian men as compared to Western men, and is believed to have been partly due to the effects of the high consumption of green tea in Asia.

However, the British Charity Cancer Research in United Kingdom said on its website that a study of almost 20,000 Japanese men published last 2006 found no relationship between green tea and prostate cancer.

Study Shows Less Men are Having Prostate Cancer Screening

Prostate cancer is probably one of the most common illness plaguing the male population of the world. In fact, one of every three men diagnosed with cancer have prostate cancer. Skin cancer is the number cancer among men.

But this does not make most men to think that they should do something about preventing this disease from disrupting their lives. Because a recent study showed that less and less men are taking time to have prostate-specific antigen test or digital rectal exam done on them. These two are routine procedures performed to check to symptoms of prostate cancer.

The study showed that most men, after weighing the pros and cons of having prostate cancer screening test, decided not to have it at all for the mere fact that they believe that these tests does absolutely nothing because of the fact that they are inaccurate. This is even after several American and Swedish researchers have identified genetic markers that appear to raise the risk of prostate cancer.

Most respondents to this study said that prostate cancer screening tests are nebulous and are useless, as far as they can see. One even said that he would only take the test only if they find a way to be really definite with their assumptions about the illness.