Regular exercise, a nutritious diet, not smoking, and other healthy lifestyle components were found to reduce the risk of severe prostate illness in men who are already at high risk.
Although several factors play a role in prostate health, genetics can be a major one. The researchers involved in the study suggest genetics can account for about 58 percent variability in risk for severe genetic mutations.
The study looked at nearly 10,500 men distributed among four groups. The data suggested those with the highest genetic risk were 5.4 times more likely to develop severe prostate illness and 3.5 times more likely to develop potentially fatal conditions than those with the lowest genetic risk.
But lifestyle had the potential to alter outcomes. When those in the highest risk group practiced a healthy lifestyle, they were about half as likely to develop severe issues as those who did not.
The study, however, could not prove cause and effect. However, it does echo other work in showing that how a person lives can profoundly affect health outcomes, regardless of genetic predispositions.
It is possible that what you do every day and the habits you develop can offer a certain degree of protection from, for lack of a better of a term, yourself. In fact, making lifestyle adjustments might be the best way to play the cards you are dealt.
Regardless of your genetic risk factors, focusing on what you can control, like how many fruits and vegetables to you eat, how you limit processed foods and alcohol in your diet, and how much exercise you get may make a sizeable difference in prostate health.
You hold more power than you think. Promote prostate healthy by living as well as you can.