July 2, 2023 • 21 mins
Can you imagine taking control of your health and arming yourself against prostate cancer? That's what we promise you'll learn from this episode of Micro Musketeers Moment. Our co-host, Dr. Richard Kennedy MD, offers a wealth of knowledge from his 36 years of clinical experience in primary care, and he shares this with us in a captivating conversation that explores the world of prostate cancer — from understanding incidence rates and risk factors to discussing the PSA test and its pivotal role in detecting the disease.
Navigating the path of prevention strategies, we illuminate the importance of exercise, fitness, and recognizing your family history. We delve into the ongoing debate around regular screenings and their impact on decreasing death rates from prostate cancer. Dr. Kennedy candidly evaluates various treatment options for those diagnosed with prostate cancer, outlining their pros and cons. With personal anecdotes and insights, this episode is more than a data dump or medical jargon. It’s a call to action, a chance for you to seize control over your health. Listen in to learn about when and how often the PSA test should be done, and how you can protect yourself from prostate cancer. Don't let this opportunity pass you by.
Prostate Cancer Foundation - Resources:
https://www.pcf.org/patient-resources/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome to Micro Musketeers Moment, a short
podcast episode on health,wellness and other topics from
Wellness Musketeers.
I'm your host, aussie MikeJames, a freelance writer and
speaker with over 30 years ofinternational experience
managing leading corporatefitness centres in Australia and
in Washington DC with the WorldBank Group.
(00:29):
Our special guest today is ourco-host and fellow Musketeer, dr
Richard Kennedy MD.
Dr Kennedy is an internist whohas over 36 years of clinical
experience, including the WorldBank clinical services and
private practice.
He is currently a primary carephysician in Washington DC with
(00:52):
MedStar.
Today, dr Kennedy is going todiscuss something that's very
important Prostate cancerscreening.
Welcome, dr Kennedy.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Thank you, Mike.
fellow Musketeer, Glad to talkabout a very important topic.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
And let's get right into it, richard, and I'll call
you Richard or Dr Kennedy.
We've known each other for sucha long time.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Perfectly fine, Mike.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
First question What is the incidence of prostate
cancer in the US and theincidence of prostate cancer
globally?
Speaker 2 (01:23):
The incidence of prostate cancer in the United
States the last readings werefrom 2020, was 111 cases per
100,000 population, And then, ifyou look at it in 2023, there
(01:43):
is an expectation there'll beabout 288,300 cases of prostate
cancer in the United States Andglobally.
Worldwide, there were 1,414,000cases of prostate cancer
(02:03):
throughout the globe.
That's a high incidence.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Richard, what factors are associated with an increase
in prostate cancer?
Speaker 2 (02:12):
The most important risk factors are advancing, age,
the black race and familyhistory, and what we see is that
, when they look across theglobe, the cases of prostate
cancer tend to be highest from55 to 69.
(02:35):
But of course, we see it inpeople much younger, and more so
as we get older and older.
Now, the belief is that if welive long enough as men in the
world, one out of 10 men willhave prostate cancer diagnosed
(02:56):
in their lifetime.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
I guess increasing ageing society, people living
longer generally, is going tocompound that factor.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Absolutely.
And then the other similar riskfactors that we've all talked
about that are associated withother diseases like obesity,
diabetes, level of fitness,dietary patterns meaning eating
a diet higher in fat and redmeat All of those things are
(03:29):
thought to increase the chancethat prostate cancer may visit
men.
Now, that being said, most menwho be diagnosed with prostate
cancer in their lifetime willnot die of the prostate cancer,
and that has a lot to do withthe fact that in the 1990s they
(03:52):
came up with the PSA test.
It's called theprostate-specific antigen, or
short for PSA, and that is achemical that only is made in
the prostate gland And it willelevate when certain things
(04:13):
happen.
So you can have it elevatedwith infection, you could have
it being elevated as theprostate gland itself gets
bigger, and it can be elevatedwith cancer.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
What is the measure there?
Is there a range that we shouldbe looking at?
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Yes, the normal range for prostate cancer, or rather
I should say for the PSA test,is zero to four.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Anything under four is considered normal, so over
four, and that goes up toadenthinitim, or does it have a
ceiling?
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Adenthinitim.
The highest PSA test I've seenin practice has been 496.
Oh wow.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
So that's advanced.
When should the PSI 20 muchlike done?
Speaker 2 (05:08):
There's a global debate about whether dreaming
for prostate cancer decreasesthe death rate from prostate
cancer, and so what has happenedis and we'll use the PSA test
that started being used aroundthe world in 1990.
(05:33):
At that time, what we did isonce we started doing PSA
screenings.
We started doing the screeningsat the age of 50, because that
was when the incidence of theprostate cancer seemed to be
increasing globally.
But what they also found out isthat when you found an elevated
(05:53):
PSA so, for instance, you canhave a person who has a PSA of
3.2, which again, technicallywould be normal.
But if this individual had aPSA test done the year prior, or
two, three years prior, and itwas 1.1, then that was more than
(06:18):
a 50% increase in the PSA.
So there's a suggestion thatthere might be something going
on.
So you want to make sure thatjust because the test is normal
doesn't necessarily mean youhave to take in the factors
family history, because thosewho have a family history of a
(06:44):
father, a brother or son who hadprostate cancer, there's a much
greater risk that person willhave prostate cancer going in
their life.
So which?
Speaker 1 (06:58):
you're having the PSA done, say when you get to over
60,?
how often should you have itdone?
Is it an annual type of thing?
Speaker 2 (07:06):
I think it depends on you and your doctor, because
there are pros and cons to doingtests.
So, if you do the test and thetest is elevated, it might
suggest that you might haveprostate cancer And, as I said
earlier, the majority of men whoget prostate cancer are not
(07:30):
going to die from, they're goingto die from other things.
It is only the aggressive formsof prostate cancer that are
more likely to be associatedwith that, and so, as an example
, in the United States, thiscoming year 2023, the Leaf is
(07:51):
going to be close to 34,700 menwho will die from prostate
cancer, whereas globally, thatnumber will turn out to be about
375,000 who will die fromprostate cancer Global.
Should you get a positive testand it's been confirmed, what
treatment options are availableif you do get diagnosed with
(08:12):
prostate cancer.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
So they are more likely to be more likely to get
prostate cancer.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
So there are multiple treatment options.
The first one, if it's alocalized cancer, meaning the
cancer is still within theprostate and the value is low,
and there's a special testcalled the Gleason test which
measures is a summation of thetype of cancer cell and how much
(08:49):
of the prostate is affected,will determine what the Gleason
score is, and you'll have thatdiscussion with the oncologist
and or the Ural.
But the one that has beenrecommended for a localized
cancer, meaning that it iscompletely confined to the
prostate, it has.
A Gleason score meaning lessthan six is what we call watch
(09:14):
for waiting or active.
Now in Europe that is more ofan accepted practice than it is
here in the US, although it'sgaining teeth in the US these
days.
These are all discussions youhave with your doctor at the
time of the diagnosis.
The second option for atreatment would be surgery.
(09:38):
The intention of surgery wouldmean to remove the entire
prostate, the blood supply thatgoes to the prostate, but
sparing the nerve, and thenagain, for patients who have
localized disease, it's notspread.
Then there's radiation.
(09:59):
There's external radiation andinternal radiation.
And then external radiation isbasically you go to see a
radiation oncologist and theyradiate the area where your
prostate would sit.
The internal radiation is wherethey literally move thing in
(10:24):
place indirectly to where thecancer cells are in the prostate
and have it go, and so that'sone.
Then there's radiophosphatecals,which is essentially
radioisotopes, and this is for,specifically, castration
(10:44):
resistant prostate.
And then there's hormonetherapy, chemotherapy and
immunotherapy.
All of these are differentoptions And the more extensive
the disease, the greater thechance that you can't do
watchful waiting and you can'tdo surgery.
(11:04):
Now, all of those things anysurgery, any radiation, hormone
therapy, chemotherapy they allhave side effects And that is
the reason why people arereluctant to always say
everybody should get treated forprostate cancer, because the
(11:27):
treatments are associated withside effects, the two most
important ones being bladdercontineness, or where you lose
control of your bladder, andsexual dysfunction, loss of good
erection.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
And Dr K with this prostate cancer.
let me just backtrack a littlebit.
You mentioned that you have toconfer with your doctor and
that's great.
You have a good relationshipwith your doctor.
But, as I'm sure more than mostpeople, there's a thing called
Google these days and peopletend to look up Google and hear
all manner of cures and so forth.
(12:07):
Is there any site you wouldrecommend for a more sober
scientific analysis of theoptions with prostate cancer,
whether it be the Mayo Clinic orwhoever anything you could
recommend?
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Most of the places Mayo Clinic, nih, the CDC, the
American Cancer Society, theJohns Hopkins, any of the major
cancer sensors around they'reall available, they all use the
(12:42):
same data and pretty much acrossthe globe, because everybody's
comparing data and research andstudies across the globe to get
an idea of how best to look atthis.
And probably and you bring up agood point about this
discussion with provider andpatient is that this is a shared
(13:06):
decision, but the finaldecision is always the patient
And backtracking a little.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Maybe I should have asked this question at the start
.
And what actually does theprostate do?
what is its function?
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Good question.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
A lot of people don't really know.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
So the prostate its primary function is that it
makes semen, and semen is partof the lubricant and nutrition
for sperm cells as we relate itto impregnation and pregnancy.
So its job is really to providean environment that the sperm
(13:51):
cells can survive in whilethey're trying to make their way
up in through the vagina, intothe cervix and into the womb to
get pregnant.
And so I would say the mostimportant thing here is that the
vaginal and the uterineenvironment is not conducive to
(14:17):
sperm survival.
In a way, that's why it takesone egg but a couple of million
sperm to create a fetid.
So that seminal fluid is whathelps those things to survive.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
So why is the prostate very susceptible to
cancer, Dr Co.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
I wouldn't say it's very susceptible to cancer.
I'd say every cell in our bodyis susceptible to cancer.
So you could say that about thelung, you can say that about
the breast, you can say thatabout the skin, you can say that
about the kidneys, liver, etc.
It's the second most commoncancer in men.
(15:00):
Number one happens to be skincancer, and I'm a firm believer
that all of us have cells thathave the potential to become
cancer And there are multiplefactors that will dictate
whether that comes true or not,because we also have immune
cells who spend their timetrying to keep those cells from
(15:23):
turning into the bad cells.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
Another factor we talked about and that's a
particular interest to me,having managed fitness centers
on my life, the importance ofexercise and staying fit is a
good deterrent, if that's theright word, for helping to
prevent prostate cancer.
Is there increasing researchthat's showing exercise and
fitness is a big component?
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Yes, is all of these things reflected.
So, if you think about it, whenwe exercise and stay fit and by
default, if you exerciseregularly and stay fit, you have
to eat well.
You can't eat poorly and stayfit, and so what does that do?
(16:07):
It means that your body makesuse of all of the nutrients that
come in so that you geteverything that you need to
sustain normal cellular function.
What exercise does is it keepsus from being obese.
Obesity has been tied tocancers of all kinds prostate as
(16:33):
well And so what they see isthat there are people who stay
fit, are much less like.
Now all of that goes out thewindow.
If you're a, genetics play arole, meaning there's a family
history.
If you happen to be of Africanheritage, you're more likely for
(16:54):
this to be an issue.
It doesn't mean it's going tohappen And it's interesting.
The US preventive task forceback in 2012 recommended against
prostate cancer screeningbecause they didn't feel like
doing.
It decreased the mortality forthe incidence of prostate cancer
(17:17):
And, interestingly, theEuropean Union did the same
thing.
And then one of the things from2013 to 2017, what they found
was that there was less PSAscreening, and what happened is,
during that time period, theincidence of more advanced or
(17:41):
aggressive cancers of prostatestarted to increase.
So now they back the bit, andnow that's why the option is
having this discussion with yourprovider to determine whether
checking for prostate cancer iseasy.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
We're cutting a lot of areas there.
Dr Kate, in closing, what'syour key message regarding
prostate cancer screening, or beyour key message or key points,
if you will.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
I'd say one of the most important things is to get
screened.
Screening does save lives Andthe dilemma here is we don't
know if one person gettingscreened is going to have an
(18:30):
aggressive or far advancedcancer, meaning outside of
prostate, or not.
Probably get screened And thisis one of the other important
things about prostate cancer.
For the most part, there aren'treally any symptoms of prostate
cancer until it's spreadoutside of the gland.
(18:51):
A lot of men think gee, as Iget older, gee, it takes longer
for me to urinate, it takeslonger for me to I get up in the
middle of the night to pee alot.
And one of those things is thatit's really important to be
aware of that and to make surethat you at least get checked,
(19:14):
because you can have an enlargedprostate and be giving you all
of the symptoms and give you anelevated PSA and it not be
prostate cancer.
But it could be And, on apersonal note, i'm one of those
people.
My dad had prostate and my dadgot diagnosed with prostate
(19:37):
cancer when he was 70 and it wasbecause he had symptoms.
He stopped being able to pee.
He ended up in the emergencyroom because his bladder and
kidneys were still making urineand he couldn't get it out
because the prostate had gottenso big it's used to tubing.
So that then meant that me andmy brothers were all at risk for
(20:01):
getting prostate cancer, and sofar two out of the three of us
have had prostate cancer at muchyounger age.
Mines was at 52, my brotherswas at 97 and had no symptoms.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
So you've got a personal knowledge of this from
more than most people.
That was a really educationalsession.
Dr Kay, Thank you very much forbeing our guest today.
And again, the key message isget screened.
huh, Would you agree?
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
Terrific.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Thank you again, dr Kay, for joining us today for
this wellness musketeers moment.
Tune in for upcoming episodesto gain the tools to improve
your health, work performanceand live a more balanced quality
of life.
Please subscribe, give us afive star review, share this
recording with everyone you knowand you can make a contribution
(20:55):
through a link provided in ourprogram notes.
To allow this podcast to grow,please let us know what you need
to learn to help you live yourbest life.
Send your best questions andideas for future episodes to
davidmless at gmailcom.
Thank you again, dr Kennedy,and have a wonderful day.
Welcome to Micro Musketeers Moment, a short
podcast episode on health,wellness and other topics from
Wellness Musketeers.
I'm your host, aussie MikeJames, a freelance writer and
speaker with over 30 years ofinternational experience
managing leading corporatefitness centres in Australia and
in Washington DC with the WorldBank Group.
(00:29):
Our special guest today is ourco-host and fellow Musketeer, dr
Richard Kennedy MD.
Dr Kennedy is an internist whohas over 36 years of clinical
experience, including the WorldBank clinical services and
private practice.
He is currently a primary carephysician in Washington DC with
(00:52):
MedStar.
Today, dr Kennedy is going todiscuss something that's very
important Prostate cancerscreening.
Welcome, dr Kennedy.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Thank you, Mike.
fellow Musketeer, Glad to talkabout a very important topic.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
And let's get right into it, richard, and I'll call
you Richard or Dr Kennedy.
We've known each other for sucha long time.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Perfectly fine, Mike.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
First question What is the incidence of prostate
cancer in the US and theincidence of prostate cancer
globally?
Speaker 2 (01:23):
The incidence of prostate cancer in the United
States the last readings werefrom 2020, was 111 cases per
100,000 population, And then, ifyou look at it in 2023, there
(01:43):
is an expectation there'll beabout 288,300 cases of prostate
cancer in the United States Andglobally.
Worldwide, there were 1,414,000cases of prostate cancer
(02:03):
throughout the globe.
That's a high incidence.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Richard, what factors are associated with an increase
in prostate cancer?
Speaker 2 (02:12):
The most important risk factors are advancing, age,
the black race and familyhistory, and what we see is that
, when they look across theglobe, the cases of prostate
cancer tend to be highest from55 to 69.
(02:35):
But of course, we see it inpeople much younger, and more so
as we get older and older.
Now, the belief is that if welive long enough as men in the
world, one out of 10 men willhave prostate cancer diagnosed
(02:56):
in their lifetime.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
I guess increasing ageing society, people living
longer generally, is going tocompound that factor.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Absolutely.
And then the other similar riskfactors that we've all talked
about that are associated withother diseases like obesity,
diabetes, level of fitness,dietary patterns meaning eating
a diet higher in fat and redmeat All of those things are
(03:29):
thought to increase the chancethat prostate cancer may visit
men.
Now, that being said, most menwho be diagnosed with prostate
cancer in their lifetime willnot die of the prostate cancer,
and that has a lot to do withthe fact that in the 1990s they
(03:52):
came up with the PSA test.
It's called theprostate-specific antigen, or
short for PSA, and that is achemical that only is made in
the prostate gland And it willelevate when certain things
(04:13):
happen.
So you can have it elevatedwith infection, you could have
it being elevated as theprostate gland itself gets
bigger, and it can be elevatedwith cancer.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
What is the measure there?
Is there a range that we shouldbe looking at?
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Yes, the normal range for prostate cancer, or rather
I should say for the PSA test,is zero to four.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Anything under four is considered normal, so over
four, and that goes up toadenthinitim, or does it have a
ceiling?
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Adenthinitim.
The highest PSA test I've seenin practice has been 496.
Oh wow.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
So that's advanced.
When should the PSI 20 muchlike done?
Speaker 2 (05:08):
There's a global debate about whether dreaming
for prostate cancer decreasesthe death rate from prostate
cancer, and so what has happenedis and we'll use the PSA test
that started being used aroundthe world in 1990.
(05:33):
At that time, what we did isonce we started doing PSA
screenings.
We started doing the screeningsat the age of 50, because that
was when the incidence of theprostate cancer seemed to be
increasing globally.
But what they also found out isthat when you found an elevated
(05:53):
PSA so, for instance, you canhave a person who has a PSA of
3.2, which again, technicallywould be normal.
But if this individual had aPSA test done the year prior, or
two, three years prior, and itwas 1.1, then that was more than
(06:18):
a 50% increase in the PSA.
So there's a suggestion thatthere might be something going
on.
So you want to make sure thatjust because the test is normal
doesn't necessarily mean youhave to take in the factors
family history, because thosewho have a family history of a
(06:44):
father, a brother or son who hadprostate cancer, there's a much
greater risk that person willhave prostate cancer going in
their life.
So which?
Speaker 1 (06:58):
you're having the PSA done, say when you get to over
60,?
how often should you have itdone?
Is it an annual type of thing?
Speaker 2 (07:06):
I think it depends on you and your doctor, because
there are pros and cons to doingtests.
So, if you do the test and thetest is elevated, it might
suggest that you might haveprostate cancer And, as I said
earlier, the majority of men whoget prostate cancer are not
(07:30):
going to die from, they're goingto die from other things.
It is only the aggressive formsof prostate cancer that are
more likely to be associatedwith that, and so, as an example
, in the United States, thiscoming year 2023, the Leaf is
(07:51):
going to be close to 34,700 menwho will die from prostate
cancer, whereas globally, thatnumber will turn out to be about
375,000 who will die fromprostate cancer Global.
Should you get a positive testand it's been confirmed, what
treatment options are availableif you do get diagnosed with
(08:12):
prostate cancer.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
So they are more likely to be more likely to get
prostate cancer.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
So there are multiple treatment options.
The first one, if it's alocalized cancer, meaning the
cancer is still within theprostate and the value is low,
and there's a special testcalled the Gleason test which
measures is a summation of thetype of cancer cell and how much
(08:49):
of the prostate is affected,will determine what the Gleason
score is, and you'll have thatdiscussion with the oncologist
and or the Ural.
But the one that has beenrecommended for a localized
cancer, meaning that it iscompletely confined to the
prostate, it has.
A Gleason score meaning lessthan six is what we call watch
(09:14):
for waiting or active.
Now in Europe that is more ofan accepted practice than it is
here in the US, although it'sgaining teeth in the US these
days.
These are all discussions youhave with your doctor at the
time of the diagnosis.
The second option for atreatment would be surgery.
(09:38):
The intention of surgery wouldmean to remove the entire
prostate, the blood supply thatgoes to the prostate, but
sparing the nerve, and thenagain, for patients who have
localized disease, it's notspread.
Then there's radiation.
(09:59):
There's external radiation andinternal radiation.
And then external radiation isbasically you go to see a
radiation oncologist and theyradiate the area where your
prostate would sit.
The internal radiation is wherethey literally move thing in
(10:24):
place indirectly to where thecancer cells are in the prostate
and have it go, and so that'sone.
Then there's radiophosphatecals,which is essentially
radioisotopes, and this is for,specifically, castration
(10:44):
resistant prostate.
And then there's hormonetherapy, chemotherapy and
immunotherapy.
All of these are differentoptions And the more extensive
the disease, the greater thechance that you can't do
watchful waiting and you can'tdo surgery.
(11:04):
Now, all of those things anysurgery, any radiation, hormone
therapy, chemotherapy they allhave side effects And that is
the reason why people arereluctant to always say
everybody should get treated forprostate cancer, because the
(11:27):
treatments are associated withside effects, the two most
important ones being bladdercontineness, or where you lose
control of your bladder, andsexual dysfunction, loss of good
erection.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
And Dr K with this prostate cancer.
let me just backtrack a littlebit.
You mentioned that you have toconfer with your doctor and
that's great.
You have a good relationshipwith your doctor.
But, as I'm sure more than mostpeople, there's a thing called
Google these days and peopletend to look up Google and hear
all manner of cures and so forth.
(12:07):
Is there any site you wouldrecommend for a more sober
scientific analysis of theoptions with prostate cancer,
whether it be the Mayo Clinic orwhoever anything you could
recommend?
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Most of the places Mayo Clinic, nih, the CDC, the
American Cancer Society, theJohns Hopkins, any of the major
cancer sensors around they'reall available, they all use the
(12:42):
same data and pretty much acrossthe globe, because everybody's
comparing data and research andstudies across the globe to get
an idea of how best to look atthis.
And probably and you bring up agood point about this
discussion with provider andpatient is that this is a shared
(13:06):
decision, but the finaldecision is always the patient
And backtracking a little.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Maybe I should have asked this question at the start
.
And what actually does theprostate do?
what is its function?
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Good question.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
A lot of people don't really know.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
So the prostate its primary function is that it
makes semen, and semen is partof the lubricant and nutrition
for sperm cells as we relate itto impregnation and pregnancy.
So its job is really to providean environment that the sperm
(13:51):
cells can survive in whilethey're trying to make their way
up in through the vagina, intothe cervix and into the womb to
get pregnant.
And so I would say the mostimportant thing here is that the
vaginal and the uterineenvironment is not conducive to
(14:17):
sperm survival.
In a way, that's why it takesone egg but a couple of million
sperm to create a fetid.
So that seminal fluid is whathelps those things to survive.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
So why is the prostate very susceptible to
cancer, Dr Co.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
I wouldn't say it's very susceptible to cancer.
I'd say every cell in our bodyis susceptible to cancer.
So you could say that about thelung, you can say that about
the breast, you can say thatabout the skin, you can say that
about the kidneys, liver, etc.
It's the second most commoncancer in men.
(15:00):
Number one happens to be skincancer, and I'm a firm believer
that all of us have cells thathave the potential to become
cancer And there are multiplefactors that will dictate
whether that comes true or not,because we also have immune
cells who spend their timetrying to keep those cells from
(15:23):
turning into the bad cells.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
Another factor we talked about and that's a
particular interest to me,having managed fitness centers
on my life, the importance ofexercise and staying fit is a
good deterrent, if that's theright word, for helping to
prevent prostate cancer.
Is there increasing researchthat's showing exercise and
fitness is a big component?
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Yes, is all of these things reflected.
So, if you think about it, whenwe exercise and stay fit and by
default, if you exerciseregularly and stay fit, you have
to eat well.
You can't eat poorly and stayfit, and so what does that do?
(16:07):
It means that your body makesuse of all of the nutrients that
come in so that you geteverything that you need to
sustain normal cellular function.
What exercise does is it keepsus from being obese.
Obesity has been tied tocancers of all kinds prostate as
(16:33):
well And so what they see isthat there are people who stay
fit, are much less like.
Now all of that goes out thewindow.
If you're a, genetics play arole, meaning there's a family
history.
If you happen to be of Africanheritage, you're more likely for
(16:54):
this to be an issue.
It doesn't mean it's going tohappen And it's interesting.
The US preventive task forceback in 2012 recommended against
prostate cancer screeningbecause they didn't feel like
doing.
It decreased the mortality forthe incidence of prostate cancer
(17:17):
And, interestingly, theEuropean Union did the same
thing.
And then one of the things from2013 to 2017, what they found
was that there was less PSAscreening, and what happened is,
during that time period, theincidence of more advanced or
(17:41):
aggressive cancers of prostatestarted to increase.
So now they back the bit, andnow that's why the option is
having this discussion with yourprovider to determine whether
checking for prostate cancer iseasy.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
We're cutting a lot of areas there.
Dr Kate, in closing, what'syour key message regarding
prostate cancer screening, or beyour key message or key points,
if you will.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
I'd say one of the most important things is to get
screened.
Screening does save lives Andthe dilemma here is we don't
know if one person gettingscreened is going to have an
(18:30):
aggressive or far advancedcancer, meaning outside of
prostate, or not.
Probably get screened And thisis one of the other important
things about prostate cancer.
For the most part, there aren'treally any symptoms of prostate
cancer until it's spreadoutside of the gland.
(18:51):
A lot of men think gee, as Iget older, gee, it takes longer
for me to urinate, it takeslonger for me to I get up in the
middle of the night to pee alot.
And one of those things is thatit's really important to be
aware of that and to make surethat you at least get checked,
(19:14):
because you can have an enlargedprostate and be giving you all
of the symptoms and give you anelevated PSA and it not be
prostate cancer.
But it could be And, on apersonal note, i'm one of those
people.
My dad had prostate and my dadgot diagnosed with prostate
(19:37):
cancer when he was 70 and it wasbecause he had symptoms.
He stopped being able to pee.
He ended up in the emergencyroom because his bladder and
kidneys were still making urineand he couldn't get it out
because the prostate had gottenso big it's used to tubing.
So that then meant that me andmy brothers were all at risk for
(20:01):
getting prostate cancer, and sofar two out of the three of us
have had prostate cancer at muchyounger age.
Mines was at 52, my brotherswas at 97 and had no symptoms.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
So you've got a personal knowledge of this from
more than most people.
That was a really educationalsession.
Dr Kay, Thank you very much forbeing our guest today.
And again, the key message isget screened.
huh, Would you agree?
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
Terrific.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Thank you again, dr Kay, for joining us today for
this wellness musketeers moment.
Tune in for upcoming episodesto gain the tools to improve
your health, work performanceand live a more balanced quality
of life.
Please subscribe, give us afive star review, share this
recording with everyone you knowand you can make a contribution
(20:55):
through a link provided in ourprogram notes.
To allow this podcast to grow,please let us know what you need
to learn to help you live yourbest life.
Send your best questions andideas for future episodes to
davidmless at gmailcom.
Thank you again, dr Kennedy,and have a wonderful day.
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