Exercise and Prostate Cancer

University Prostate Center and the VA Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina evaluated 190 men who underwent biopsies for possible prostate cancer. When they looked at the results, and accounted for factors such as age, weight, race, body mass index, PSA, and several others, they found that those who exercised the equivalent of three to six hours of walking per week were less likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer. More specifically, compared with their more sedentary peers, these men were two-thirds less likely to have a biopsy positive for prostate cancer. In addition, men who exercised the equivalent of only one to three hours of walking each week had an 86 percent lower risk of having an aggressive form of the cancer.

One of the latest studies conducted an 18-year study in which they evaluated 2,705 men who had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. They found that men who were involved in three or more hours of vigorous exercise had a 61 percent lower risk of prostate cancer-specific death when compared with men who exercised less than one hour each week.  Among men who walked at a normal to brisk pace for more than 90 minutes each week had a 46 percent lower risk of dying from any cause when compared to men who did not walk as much.

Exercise is beneficial not only for helping to prevent prostate cancer, but also for improving quality of life following prostatectomy. In a recent Canadian study, 60 men who were scheduled for radical prostatectomy were interviewed two weeks before and four weeks after surgery regarding their level of physical activity. The researchers found that men who had higher levels of physical activity during the year before their surgery had lesser declines in health-related quality of life both before and after surgery. This finding suggests that declines in health-related quality of life after radical prostatectomy may be reduced or avoided in men who participate in exercise before surgery.

Exercise also appears to help men who undergo external beam radiation for prostate cancer. In a study from the University of Dundee, experts evaluated radiation toxicity data for 65 men who were treated with radiation therapy over a four-week period. Thirty-three men were assigned to a control group and 32 participated in 30 minutes of walking at least three times per week during treatment. Among men who exercised, there was a significant difference in mean toxicity scores regarding rectal side effects when compared with controls, but there was no significant difference regarding bladder side effects. These findings suggest that men who exercise may experience less severe rectal side effects during radiation treatment for prostate cancer.

Obesity, Exercise and Prostate Health

Exercise and weight loss have a significant impact on overall prostate health including reducing your risk of cancer, BPH and prostatitis. Maintaining a healthy weight and getting enough exercise is also fundamental to recovery after prostate treatment. Exercise increases your immunity and overall wellness while maintaining a healthy weight decreases your the inflammation response in your body that can cause or contribute to prostate disease.

Obesity and Prostate Health

The journal Cancer released a report on obesity and prostate cancer. It stated that that “men who have prostate cancer have more than double the risk of dying of the disease if they are obese than if they were of normal weight”. This threat of death remained regardless of whether the men underwent radical prostatectomy or hormone therapy, if they had low- or high-grade cancer, or if the cancer had spread.

The study noted that men who had been obese one year before receiving their diagnosis were 2.6 times more likely than men who had a normal BMI to die of prostate cancer. The odds were even worse for men who were diagnosed with prostate cancer that had not spread far beyond the prostate: those who were obese one year prior to diagnosis were more than three times more likely to have cancer that spread during the study.

Recent studies also shown that heavier patients, or those with the highest body mass index (BMI), also had the largest prostate cancer tumors. They discovered the connection after studying 3,327 patients who had undergone robotic removal of their cancerous prostate glands and surrounding tissue.

Exercises to Increase Blood Flow to Pelvic Floor

1. Stand up, put your legs shoulder-width apart, clamp your hands overhead. Fluently breathing out make slow demi plies, raise your knees aside so that the angle between them achieves 90°. With this, you should put down and fold your arms so that in elbows take a right angle. While breathing in turn into initial position. Repeat 3 – 7 times.

2. Stand up, hold on arm on table. Put one leg far back and another leg forward, slightly fold your knees. Fold your front leg stronger simultaneously leaning back upper part of the body. Hold for 10 – 20 seconds and then try to fold leg much stronger and stray. Turn into initial position, repeat 5 – 10 times and do the same with another leg.

3. Lie on your abdomen and place below it a small rubber ball. Leaning on arms roll the ball on abdomen during 3 – 4 minutes.

4. Lie on the back, put out hands along your body, bend your knees and put between them an elastic ball. Squeeze it with force for 5 – 7 seconds, relax and then repeat 5 -10 times.

5. Lie on the back. Slowly lift straight legs and then the body. Stay in vertical position 10 seconds, keeping your back with hands as close as possible to shoulder bone. Day by day gradually increase the time while you achieve 200 seconds.