You are here: Home: Guides: Talk about it | Mail it | Bookmark it

Reducing cholesterol level in the body could prevent prostrate cancer

07/Oct/2006: Low cholesterol level in the body is good to the heart, but researchers have now found that it could also lower the risk of prostrate cancer.

Dr. William J. Catalona, director of the Clinical Prostate Cancer Program at Northwestern University's Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center, said that new researches on the association between prostrate cancer and cholesterol levels in the body could uncover some interesting facts, in future.

Dr. Catalona said that recent studies, which reviewed health records of a large number of patients over a long period of time, have found that those men who took drugs to reduce the cholesterol level in their body had a lower risk for prostrate cancer.

Moreover, prostrate cancer patients, who were on statin drugs (drugs used for reducing cholesterol levels in the body), were at a less risk of an aggressive form of this disease.

Elizabeth A. Platz, an associate professor in the Department of Epidemiology at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, authored one such study in which 34,000 men were followed up for 10 years and the details on their use of statins were recorded every two years.

This study, which was presented at the American Association of Cancer Research annual meeting last year, found that men who were on statin drugs had halved their risk of advanced prostrate cancer, apart from reducing their risk of metastatic prostrate cancer by over 30%, compared to the men who did not take statin drugs.

While talking about her work, which is being done in conjunction with researchers at Harvard University, Platz said that, since blood cholesterol level is found to be associated with prostrate cancer, her team was investigating whether high cholesterol levels in the body could increase the risk of prostrate cancer.

Dr. Catalona, while explaining the association between cholesterol and prostrate cancer, said that high cholesterol levels could trigger prostrate cancer, since it is one of the key elements in the hormone testosterone, which has already been linked to prostrate cancer.

However, he added that further studies on the association between cholesterol and prostrate cancer need to be carried out, before men could be recommended to take statin drugs to reduce the risk of prostrate cancer.

Reduce your cholesterol
http://www.finallyitfits.com/

Eco Features
Eco Guides
Health & Lifestyle
Mail This Page
Link To Us
Bookmark
Archives

Recent Articles