Diet and exercise limit heart disease risk in men undergoing hormonal treatments for advanced prostate cancer

Men with advanced prostate cancer are typically treated with drugs that prevent the body from making or using testosterone. A hormone (or an androgen, as it’s known), testosterone drives prostate cancer cells to grow faster, so shutting it down is essential to keeping the illness in check. About 600,000 men with advanced prostate cancer in the United States today are undergoing this type of anti-hormonal treatment, which is called androgen deprivation therapy (ADT). But even as ADT helps men live longer, it exerts a toll on the body. Men can lose muscle and bone mass, gain weight, and they face higher risks for heart disease and type 2 diabetes. The good news is that a few helpful strategies can lessen these metabolic side effects. Engaging in aerobic exercise and resistance training, for instance, has been shown to drop levels of inflammation in the body that might otherwise lead to heart disease. Quitting smoking is similarly beneficial, since tobacco smoke’s toxic effects on the heart are more pronounced in the absence of testosterone. In a new study, researchers have shown that taking daily walks and eating a low-carbohydrate diet can also lessen ADT’s harms. During the investigation, 42 men who were just starting on ADT were split into two groups: Half the men took daily walks lasting at least half an hour five days a week, and were instructed to limit their carbohydrate intake to no more than 20 grams per day. The other half of the men (the control group) maintain...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Health Living With Prostate Cancer Prostate Knowledge Treatments HPK Source Type: blogs