In a study of this inflammatory bowel disease, scientists from McGill University and the University of Montreal found that Vitamin D deficiency may contribute to Crohn’s disease.

Adding to the evidence is the fact that residents in sun-deprived northern countries are more likely to develop Crohn’s. The human body needs sunlight to produce Vitamin D.

Initially, the researchers were interested in how Vitamin D can boost the immune system to lessen the risk of cancer. But then they realized that Crohn’s disease is also caused by an inflammatory response to a defect in the immune system… specifically how the immune system handles intestinal bacteria.

Vitamin D directly affects 2 genes that are associated with Crohn’s disease. The genes are called beta defensin 2 and NOD2. If NOD2 is defective or insufficient, it can’t defend against microbial attacks in the intestine.

The researchers suggest that disease-free brothers and sisters of Crohn’s patients should check to see whether they have enough Vitamin D in their bodies. If not, they can buy Vitamin D supplements to guard against the development of the disease.

Of course, no one should alter their diet or take Vitamin D supplements without first seeing their doctor for professional medical advice.

But if the results of this study hold up, Vitamin D may become an exciting new defense against Crohn’s and other inflammatory bowel diseases.

Technorati Tags: vitamin D, Crohn’s disease, inflammatory bowel disease

According to researchers at the University of Reading, drinking champagne may be good for your heart if you stick with 2 glasses a day. That’s because it improves how your blood vessels act.

Champagne increases the availability of nitric oxide, which regulates your blood pressure.

How does it do this?

Well, there are certain chemicals called polyphenols that come from the grapes that are used to produce champagne.

If you drink champagne, these chemicals enter your bloodstream and slow the removal of nitric oxide. So the nitric oxide has a longer time to reduce blood clots and blood pressure and increase blood flow.

This may help to lessen your risk of heart attack and stroke. Its effect is similar to that of red wine.

So bottoms up on New Year’s Eve… with a glass or two of champagne… and you may just make your New Year a healthier one.

Technorati Tags: New Year’s Eve, champagne, heart health, blood pressure

But have you ever considered whether obesity can affect how well your blood pressure and cholesterol medicines work?

Canadian researchers decided to study that issue in obese people who were already at high risk for stroke and heart disease.

The researchers knew that high-risk obese individuals often didn’t reach their cholesterol and blood pressure targets even with medication.

So does body mass index (BMI) have something to do with it?

Over 7300 Canadian patients with a history of cardiovascular problems participated in this study from 2001 to 2004.

Forty-four percent of the patients were obese, 38% were overweight, and the remaining 18% were normal weight.

After controlling for other factors such as gender and age, the researchers discovered that obese patients were less likely to reach their blood pressure and cholesterol (HDL only) targets than overweight or normal weight participants.

LDL cholesterol targets didn’t seem to pose a problem.

While they can’t prove a cause-effect relationship, the study results suggest highly that it’s less likely that you’ll reduce your blood pressure or cholesterol to recommended levels until you lose the extra weight.

So obese individuals with cardiovascular disease may want to see their doctors about starting a weight loss program, especially if these patients are taking blood pressure or cholesterol medication.

Technorati Tags: obesity, lose weight, weight loss, blood pressure, cholesterol, cardiovascular disease

Here’s what they found:

To reduce prostate cancer risk or to help in the treatment of an existing case of prostate cancer, your diet should be high in vegetables and fruit and low in fat and red meat. You should also avoid excessive calcium and dairy product intake.

The researchers believe that eating fats, dairy products, and highly processed or charcoaled meats may increase your risk for prostate cancer.

On the other hand, you may want to eat cauliflower, tomatoes, broccoli, green tea, and vitamins (especially selenium and vitamin E) to reduce your prostate cancer risk.

Of course, these study results aren’t conclusive. So you should always check with your doctor before changing your diet to reduce your risk of prostate cancer or to help manage an existing case of prostate cancer.

Technorati Tags: diet, prostate cancer

There are 2 main hormones that control our energy balance by letting our bodies know when we’re hungry and when we’re full.

These 2 hormones are leptin and ghrelin.

Leptin is mostly secreted by fat cells. It lets your brain know how much fat is stored in your body.

A decline in your leptin level makes you hungry while an increase tells your body to burn calories. That’s how leptin affects your weight.

The other hormone, ghrelin, is secreted by your stomach. Its level increases before meals and makes you hungry.

Researchers at UCLA studied 38 men with similar body weights and ages to test the effect of chronic insomnia on these hormone levels and weight gain.

The men were all healthy, but 14 of them suffered from chronic insomnia.

By measuring these hormone levels at different times during the night, the researchers found that leptin levels were about the same between the 2 groups, but ghrelin levels were about 30 percent lower for the insomniacs.

At first glance, these findings didn’t make sense.

After all, lower ghrelin levels among insomniacs should stop their weight gain because it’s the increase in ghrelin that makes us hungry.

But the scientists cross-checked other studies and decided that a hormone switch may occur during the day for the insomnia patients.

Their theory is that poor sleep causes increased ghrelin AND decreased leptin during the day… which doubly increases your appetite when you don’t get enough sleep.

A new study is underway to examine this further.

In the meantime, the evidence suggests that sleep and eating are connected. So one of the best ways to regulate your weight may be to get a good night’s sleep.

Technorati Tags: fat, overweight, obesity, sleep, insomnia, hunger hormones, ghrelin, leptin

Here’s why…

According to a University of Utah study, women in stressful marriages suffer more often from “metabolic syndrome” than women in happy marriages.

Metabolic syndrome is a group of 5 risk factors for diabetes, stroke, and heart disease. These risk factors include high blood pressure, abdominal obesity, high triglycerides, low HDL cholesterol, and high blood glucose levels.

With the increased hostility, conflict and disagreement in their strained marriages, these women are also more apt to be depressed.

Some scientists believe it’s this depression that links bad marriages to metabolic syndrome.

The study included 276 couples from ages 40 to 70 who had been married about 20 years.

The couples filled out a number of questionnaires to rate both the positive and negative aspects of their marriages and to evaluate their symptoms of depression, if any.

Then the couples were given medical tests to gauge their levels of metabolic syndrome and existing heart disease.

But here’s a really interesting side note…

As compared to men in happy marriages, men in strained marriages also reported more depression. BUT it didn’t cause an increase in metabolic syndrome for them.

The researchers believe this happened because women are more sensitive to relationship problems than men and therefore, have a more severe physical response.

So if you’re a woman concerned about your heart health, this study suggests that you should be interested not only in risk factors such as cholesterol and high blood pressure, but also in the satisfaction and happiness of your family life.

Technorati Tags: abdominal obesity, metabolic syndrome, bad marriage, heart disease

1. Nighttime eating will make you fat.

Although some studies seem to support this, nighttime eating doesn’t necessarily cause obesity or weight gain.

It doesn’t matter when you eat; it’s how much you eat that counts.

If you eat more calories than you burn off, then you’ll gain weight. So if you’re eating those extra calories at night, then nighttime eating can cause you to gain weight.

But you can just as easily gain weight by eating too much during the day. And conversely, you can safely eat at night as long as you aren’t eating too many calories overall for that 24-hour period.

2. Eating sugar causes children to be hyperactive.

There have been 12 or more studies to confirm that kids, including those with attention deficit disorder, don’t change their behavior based on how much sugar they’ve consumed.

It doesn’t matter whether the sugar comes from chocolate, other candy, or natural sources.

But these studies have shown that many parents think their kids are more hyperactive after eating sugar. Even if the kids have NOT eaten sugar.

So there is some evidence that the link between a kid’s sugar consumption and hyperactivity may be in the parent’s head. (Hey, that’s what the researchers said, not me… don’t send me angry letters.)

3. Most of your body heat is lost through your head.

Any uncovered part of your body will lose heat when you’re out in the cold.

But the reason this myth has persisted for so long is that a military study from long ago dressed participants in arctic survival suits without any head coverings. Then their loss of body heat was measured in cold temperatures.

Well, duh, of course, the most heat was lost through their heads. That was the only uncovered part of their bodies.

Now the researchers believe that if the same study had put the participants in swimsuits, only about 10% of their body heat would have been lost through their heads.

4. Suicides rise over the holidays.

Even though the holidays can be times of loneliness and depression for some people, many studies from around the world have confirmed that there is no increase in suicides over the holidays.

In fact, more suicides occur during sunny, warm times of the year.

But the researchers caution that suicidal thoughts should always be taken seriously, no matter the time of year.

5. Hangovers can be cured.

There is no scientific evidence that hangovers can be cured by any “remedy.” The best way to cure a hangover is not to get one… which means you should drink alcohol in moderate amounts or not at all.

So those are the 5 dieting and other holiday myths that have been disproven this year.

Technorati Tags: diet, dieting, overweight, obesity, nighttime eating, sugar, hyperactivity, suicide, hangover, body heat

Well, now the experts are pulling a switcheroo on us.

It turns out that in certain circumstances a higher level of HDL may be bad for you.

According to University of Chicago researchers, good cholesterol can vary in its quality. So it’s not necessarily true that the more HDL in your blood, the better.

Bad quality HDL can present a health risk because you may not be protected from heart disease. So you need to ask your doctor to check if your HDL is of the good or bad variety.

The researchers concluded that people with chronic diseases such as diabetes, kidney disease, or rheumatoid arthritis had HDL that was of lesser quality than that found in healthy people.

Basically, their research showed that good HDL reduces inflammation, but bad HDL doesn’t.

So that may be one reason why some individuals have perfect levels of cholesterol, but they still get heart disease.

Technorati Tags: cholesterol, heart disease, HDL, LDL

Turns out there’s a big problem and here’s what it is…

Obesity raises your leptin levels which can then cause a domino effect of bad biochemical changes in your body.

Leptin is a hormone that’s produced by fat cells. Normally, it just helps to regulate your weight by working with your brain to burn stored fat and suppress your appetite.

But if you’re obese, you’re probably producing too much leptin.

This can reduce your levels of nitric oxide, which is used by your body to keep your heart healthy. Nitric oxide causes your blood vessels to relax and helps to maintain a good blood flow.

There’s another problem with greater than normal levels of leptin.

It turns out that your body will produce more superoxide, too. Together with nitric oxide, this produces the very toxic peroxynitrite…

And you’re thinking huh?

Well, that’s what I thought, too, at first. Then I kept reading about the new research from Ohio University and realized that peroxynitrite can damage cells in your vascular system and cause problems with your DNA.

Obviously, that’s not good.

So if you’re obese but otherwise seem to be healthy, remember this. Just the increased leptin in your body from being overweight can cause heart damage, even heart failure, over the longer term.

In fact, it may be just as dangerous to your heart as having high blood pressure, diabetes, or arthrosclerosis.

So now this new risk from leptin may be one more reason to lose weight if you’re obese.

Technorati Tags: obese, obesity, overweight, lose weight, weight loss, leptin, cardiovascular disease, heart failure

To automatically track your workouts, Intel along with some University of Washington researchers have created UbiFit, a cell phone application that’s supposed to help you change your behavior.

UbiFit shows motivational pictures on your cell phone’s screen that change the more you work out.

Over a 3-month study period, UbiFit users stayed with their exercise routines over the winter holidays when non-users gave up on exercising.

It’s a way to use mobile devices to lose weight and achieve your long-term fitness goals.

Currently, UbiFit uses an external sensor that clips to your waist. It can sense your movements with an accelerometer. (Although if you have a mobile phone like the iPhone or the Android G1 that has a built-in accelerometer, you won’t need the external sensor.)

The waist sensor can determine if you’re jogging, walking, or sitting. It then transmits signals to your cell phone. You can also enter information manually if the sensor doesn’t work correctly or if you forget to wear it.

At first, UbiFit shows an empty lawn. Then as you exercise during the week, flowers grow in different colors depending on the type of workout you choose.

When you meet your weekly goal, a butterfly appears.

UbiFit may be released publicly within the next year or so. And it could transform computing from a deskbound activity to a new way to exercise, lose weight, and meet your fitness goals.

Technorati Tags: fitness, exercise, weight loss, lose weight, cell phone, iPhone, Android G1, UbiFit

But now a panel of independent advisors has warned the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to change the product labels on these fillers to more adequately reflect the risks.

Those risks include lingering reactions such as scars, blotches, and bumps under the skin.

Some of the biggest concerns are the use of facial fillers for unapproved uses, inadequately trained technicians who inject the fillers, and little data on long-term safety.

The lure of fillers include the promise of a return to your youth and good looks without the high price and problems of a face lift. Facial fillers are considered to be like spackling, a paste that’s used to fill holes, small cracks, and other small surface defects in plaster. Only these injectable fillers fix your face.

One problem is they’re sometimes used for reasons they weren’t approved for by the FDA. Some examples are filling out the breasts, cheeks or lips.

Another problem occurs when patients with darker skin try these products. They can develop ugly blotches and other complications.

When the FDA looked at the data from 2003 until September 2008, they found over 800 patients who had serious reactions to facial fillers. Almost every one was a woman. They were usually between 50 to 60 years old.

Most reactions were redness and swelling. But there were also some unusually serious reactions like facial paralysis, vision problems, disfigurement, and severe, possibly life-threatening, allergic reactions.

So question your doctor carefully before undergoing treatment with a facial filler. The risks may not be worth the benefit of looking younger.

Technorati Tags: FDA, facial fillers, wrinkles

… but the strange thing is the risk occurs even if your body mass index (BMI) is in the normal range.

In a new study of 350,000 Europeans that was published in the New England Journal of Medicine, it was shown that your waist size can have a tremendous effect on your health and your risk of premature death.

By looking at people with similar body mass index, the researchers found that the risk of premature death almost doubled for those with large waists of over 47 inches for men and over 39 inches for women.

That’s in comparison to people with smaller waists, which was defined as less than 31-1/2 inches for men and less than 25-1/2 inches for women.

For every 2 inches your waist circumference increases, your risk of premature death increases by 17% if you’re a man and 13% if you’re a woman. The circumference is the distance measured around your waist.

It turns out that another measurement, your waist to hip ratio, is also important. For that, you divide your waist measurement by your hip measurement.

If the results of this study hold, each .1 unit increase in waist to hip ratio will increase your risk of death by 34% if you’re a man and 24% if you’re a woman.

The usual waist to hip ratio in this study was between .78 and 1.10 in men and between .66 and .98 in women.

The researchers believe that fat stored around the waist may cause premature death by secreting hormones, cytokines, and other metabolically active compounds that can result in heart disease or cancer.

Although waist size is linked to a higher risk of premature risk despite your BMI, this research does confirm earlier studies that found a higher BMI is linked to higher rates of death.

Technorati Tags: waist size, body mass index, premature death

Lowering your salt or sodium intake is not the only way to reduce high blood pressure; sometimes, it’s not even the best way.

According to a new study from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, a low level of potassium in your diet could be a significant contributor to high blood pressure.

This is especially true if you’re African American.

The scientists studied data on around 3,300 patients from the Dallas Heart Study. They found that lower levels of dietary potassium were linked to higher blood pressure.

They determined this by looking at potassium levels in urine samples from the patients.

Even when controlling for race, age, diabetes, smoking, cholesterol and other cardiovascular risk factors, the effect of low potassium on blood pressure was serious.

In fact, the link between low potassium levels and high blood pressure appeared to be stronger than the link between sodium levels and high blood pressure.

One of the researchers also discovered that a certain gene, WNK1, may be responsible for how potassium affects blood pressure. But more studies need to be done to confirm the effect of this gene.

In the meantime, the scientists recommend that we not only reduce the sodium, but also increase the potassium in our diets to lower blood pressure.

High potassium foods include bananas and orange juice.

We did something similar with the I Love To Cheat Diet. By adding certain foods to her diet, my mother was able to reduce her blood pressure to 132/68 from 168/88 in 7 weeks without medication.

So I’m sold on the concept of adding certain foods to your diet to reduce high blood pressure.

But as with any medical condition, you should always check with your doctor before changing your diet, even to include more potassium as a way to combat high blood pressure.

Technorati Tags: high blood pressure, potassium

Fenfluramine was half of the fen/phen combo of drugs used to fight obesity in years past.

Researchers from Central Utah Clinic studied the heart conditions of over 5700 people who used to take fenfluramine. Valve problems were common, especially in women.

The longer the exposure to fenfluramine, the more likely that blood would back-flow to the heart, which means it’s going in the wrong direction.

That condition is called regurgitation. If it’s bad enough, it can cause congestive heart failure or the need for heart valve surgery.

According to the researchers, their study showed a 7 times higher risk for valve surgery among former fenfluramine users. But they think that number is probably too low.

In fact, they cite another study that shows anywhere from a 17 to 34 times higher risk of valve disease in patients who used fenfluramines for at least 4 months.

More details of the latest study are available in the journal, BMC Medicine.

But if you’ve ever used the fenfluramine obesity drug, you may want to consult your doctor to see if there have been any long-term effects, including heart valve damage.

Technorati Tags: obesity, heart damage, heart valves, fenfluramine, fen/phen, appetite suppressant

Well, according to a new rat study by Michigan State University, it looks like grapes can directly affect your cardiovascular risk as well as lower blood pressure.

Here’s What The Researchers Did…

The rats in the study had similar characteristics to millions of humans who have high blood pressure and related heart failure. The rats were bred to develop high blood pressure when they eat a salty diet.

The animals were divided into 4 groups:

1. Those that received a powdered form of regular table grapes (green, red and black) that was mixed into their high-salt diet…

2. Those that received the grape powder mixed into their low-salt diet…

3. Control rats who didn’t receive any grape powder…

4. Control rats who didn’t get grape powder but did receive a low dose of hydrazine, a common blood pressure drug…

Here Are The Rat Results…

After eighteen weeks, the rats in group 1 (that received grape powder) had better heart function, lower blood pressure, less inflammation in their bodies, and less heart muscle damage than the rats in group 3 (the control group).

The rats in group 4 (control group with blood pressure medicine) had lower blood pressure, but more heart damage than the rats in group 1 (who received grape powder).

The scientists believe that high levels of phytochemicals, which are antioxidants that occur naturally in grapes, protect against heart damage.

They specifically keyed in on flavanoids as reducing blood pressure. The researchers aren’t sure if flavanoids cause a direct antioxidant effect, affect cell function indirectly, or do both.

Flavanoids are plentiful in the skin, seed, and flesh of the grape.

Of course, more studies are needed to determine if this grape effect will help human hearts and lower human blood pressure, too.

Technorati Tags: grape, grapes, high blood pressure, heart failure, heart damage, inflammation

A study at the University of Melbourne in Australia showed that walking for 2-1/2 hours per week can improve the memories of people over 50 years old.

That’s 30 minutes a day 5 times a week.

The effects lasted for the 6-month duration of the study plus up to 12 months after the study was concluded. In the study group, the participants walked for 50 minutes 3 times a week or engaged in other forms of moderate exercise.

Although all of the participants had memory problems, none had actual dementia.

When the study ended, the exercise group had better delayed recall, lower Clinical Dementia Rating Scores, and higher scores on cognitive tests than group members who didn’t exercise.

At this time, there is no medicine that has an equivalent effect.

So the study adds to the evidence that moderate physical activity over 50 can improve your cognitive function, quality of life, and cardiovascular function as well as prevent falls, depression, and disability.

Of course, you should see your doctor before starting any new exercise program. But walking appears to be an easy, cost-effective way to improve your health and your memory, especially if you’re over 50.

Technorati Tags: walking, exercise, memory

That’s because ear infections and tonsillectomies can cause damage to taste nerves which appears to affect eating habits.

According to scientific studies, here’s what happens:

Even though otitis media, or chronic middle ear infection, usually occurs during childhood, you can have localized taste damage which then causes an increased preference for high-fat foods.

That raises your risk of being overweight as a child and as an adult.

According to one study of almost 6600 people, a history of moderate to severe otitis media increased the risk of obesity by 62%.

Other studies have found that:

• Middle-aged women with taste nerve damage preferred more fatty and sweet foods and usually had larger waists…

• Preschoolers who suffered repeated severe ear infections ate more sweets, fewer vegetables, and were more likely to be overweight…

• Toddlers whose ear infections were treated with tubes had a higher body mass index (BMI) than those who weren’t treated with tubes…

Another link was found between tonsillectomies, eating habits, and a higher likelihood of being overweight. The reason may be that tonsillectomies were a common treatment for chronic ear infections during the 1960s when the tonsillectomy survey was taken.

Here are the results:

• Children between 6 and 17 years old who had their tonsils removed were more likely to be overweight…

• Teenage girls who had tonsillectomies had a 30% increased risk of being overweight…

Getting ear infections under control before they cause damage to taste nerves could be one more way to combat the obesity epidemic for children and adults.

Technorati Tags: overweight, obesity, otitis media, ear infection, tonsillectomy, body mass index, BMI

You’ll have a greater span of active life, fewer disabilities, and less than half the chance of dying an early death as your older counterparts who don’t run.

This information comes from a Stanford University School of Medicine study of 538 older runners that started in 1984 soon after jogging and running became wildly popular.

These runners were all over 50 years old and were compared to a group of nonrunners who were about the same age. The runners ran about 4 hours a week at first, then slowed to about an hour and 15 minutes per week after more than 20 years.

But here’s where the story gets good. After 19 years, the researchers checked to see how many of each group had died.

Here’s What They Found

34% of the nonrunners had died. But only 15% of the runners were dead.

Both groups experienced more disabilities over time, but the runners’ first disability was 16–yes, 16!–years later than the nonrunning group.

And the gap between the 2 groups’ abilities continued to widen over time.

The researchers believe this happened because the runners had healthier lifestyles and leaner bodies than the nonrunners.

The runners also had fewer early deaths from heart disease, cancer, infections, neurological and other diseases.

Surprisingly, runners didn’t have more knee replacements or osteoarthritis than nonrunners.

So the conclusions from this study are obvious: keep exercising to remain healthy longer. Of course, you should never start an exercise program without consulting your doctor.

But aerobic exercise, including running, may just turn out to be your fountain of youth.

Technorati Tags: running, aerobic exercise, fountain of youth

That’s the surprising conclusion from a new study by the University of Michigan. It shows that your weight doesn’t predict the state of your health nearly as well as the size of your…

… oh, we’ll get to that in a minute.

But first, here’s what the researchers concluded about weight and health.

According to the study, approximately 51% of overweight adults in the U.S. have normal cholesterol, triglycerides, blood pressure, and blood sugar readings. Close to 33% of obese adults in the U.S. are healthy, too.

But around 25% of thin adults have unhealthy readings in 2 or more of the same categories — cholesterol, triglycerides, blood pressure, and blood sugar. That’s 16 million thin adults who have the kind of health risks that are usually linked to obesity.

How Can This Be?

To start with, the experts are beginning to rethink how they define “overweight.” Traditionally, they used BMI, or body mass index, a ratio of weight to height that doesn’t take into account whether your body is fat or lean.

Using BMI, many professional athletes would be considered to be overweight.

But no matter what your weight or BMI, heart health risks are more prevalent in smokers, older people, and people who rarely or never exercise.

For obese people between the ages of 50 and 64, only 2 out of 10 are deemed to be healthy. For younger obese adults, the healthy ratio is 5 out of 10.

But the researchers aren’t ready to say that excess weight doesn’t carry health risks. At a minimum, this study reinforces the importance of regular exercise for maintaining good health.

One Result Did Jump Out

And the experts took notice.

Whether you’re overweight or thin, a thick waist is linked to a higher risk of heart disease. That’s because a thick waist can mean that your abdominal organs are surrounded by internal fat deposits.

That increases your risk of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high triglycerides and high blood sugar.

So now you know — whether you’re overweight or thin — it’s the size of your waist that may matter most to the state of your health.

Technorati Tags: overweight, obese, blood pressure, cholesterol, triglycerides, blood sugar

That’s because obese men often have lower PSA levels than normal-weight men.

Researchers at Duke Prostate Center and the Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center believe this happens because obese men have greater volumes of blood which dilute the PSA levels.

By giving a false impression of cancer status, these lower PSA levels may be responsible for the delayed diagnosis of prostate cancer in obese men. And worst of all, their cancer may be much more aggressive and widespread by the time it is identified.

The researchers studied almost 3400 men over the last 8 years. They compared the outcomes for men who had prostate cancer found by PSA tests versus by abnormal digital rectal exams.

Their conclusion: obese men who were diagnosed through PSA screening had over 2 times the risk of cancer recurrence after surgery than normal-weight men.

But when obese men were diagnosed through abnormal digital rectal exams, the risk of cancer recurrence after surgery was about the same as normal-weight men.

Another Duke study concluded that prostate surgery may be more technically difficult in obese men as well. By that, they meant that tumors were harder to remove completely. So there was a greater probability of cancer being left behind in obese men.

So obese men get hit twice: once because their tumors are more aggressive and the second time because those tumors are harder to surgically remove.

What should obese men do?

If you’re an obese man, you may want to talk to your doctor about alternative prostate cancer screening methods. Maybe a digital rectal exam should be considered along with a PSA screening.

Or maybe lower PSA levels should be flagged for further analysis in obese men.

For now, unfortunately, there are no standardized medical rules to help with PSA screening, prostate cancer and obese men.

Technorati Tags: obese men, obesity, overweight, PSA, prostate cancer