Diet and exercise looked at as risk factors for enlarged prostates

Age, genetics and hormones are the usual causal suspects in benign prostatic hyperplasia, but now some data suggest that the condition is a consequence of our Western lifestyle. In a 2006 study of 422 men published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, Dr. J. Kellogg Parsons, a urologist at UC San Diego, found that men who were obese had an increased risk of prostate enlargement, with severely obese men at 3.5 times higher risk.

In another paper published this year in European Urology, Parsons pooled data from 11 studies involving about 43,000 men and found that those who engaged in regular physical activity had about a 25% lowered risk of enlarged prostates.

It's emerging evidence, Parsons says, "that the same risk factors that are contributing to cardiovascular disease, obesity and diabetes likely are contributing in some way to [benign prostatic hyperplasia]."

For now, the evidence is based on studies comparing lifestyles of men who do or don't develop enlarged prostates. More convicing, but not yet done, would be studies in which groups of men are put on diet and exercise regimens and then tracked to see whether rates of enlarged prostates differ. Still, Parsons counsels his patients on lifestyle factors for prostate health. "We don't have definitive data, but there's very little downside," he says.