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by: DonaldSaunders
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For several years now there has been considerable argument about prostate cancer and the subject of preventing prostate cancer specifically remains to some extent controversial. Although, as with the majority of cancers, men do not themselves cause their own prostate cancer, there are clearly a number of risk factors for developing the disease and there is much which can be done, if not to actually prevent it, then without doubt to reduce your risk of developing it.

The first step in preventing prostate cancer is simply to understand that you are at risk of getting the disease and also to understand precisely what the various risk factors are.

There is no question that men who have a family history of prostate cancer are at higher risk and that the risk for somebody with a close relative suffering from prostate cancer is approximately twice that of somebody without any family history. If you have two close relatives then this risk rises to around five times that of someone with no family history and if you have three close relatives your risk reaches a staggering ninety-seven percent.

The difficulties here is that many men do not know their family history, frequently because many fathers, grandfathers or brothers have died as a result of other illnesses without ever knowing they were suffering from prostate cancer. This happens because prostate cancer frequently develops late in life and can be an extremely slow growing form of cancer. As a consequence there is a very good chance that individuals will develop other conditions at the same time as their prostate cancer and it is these other conditions which ultimately result in their death.

Accordingly, if you are uncertain of your family history, then a good point at which to start is to check things out if you can. If this is not possible to do so, then it is probably a good idea to err on the side of caution and believe that the risk might be there rather than assume that you are in the clear.

The next very important factor is race. African American men for instance are at more risk than Hispanic men who, in turn, are at greater risk than Caucasian men. The risk for an African American man is roughly sixty percent higher than that for a Caucasian man.

Another risk factor is diet and men who are living in Western countries such as the the US or the UK are at increased risk because of the high fat levels in many Western diets. Here for the first time is a risk factor which you can actually do something about and reducing the fat in your diet and eating such things as more fresh fruit and vegetables can lessen your risk quite considerably.

Now, at this point we start to run into difficulty because, beyond the principle of lowering levels of fat in your diet, views start to differ when it comes to looking at other aspects of the diet that might be helpful in prostate cancer prevention.

There is little if any doubt that levels of such things as vitamins and minerals in your diet can have a significant affect on your general health and will certainly have a role to play in prostate health. But, working out just which vitamins and minerals have a part to play is a difficult matter and is a subject all of its own.