What's good for the heart may be good for th...(ke and increased risk of BPH are not cle...),Health

We dont really know how its working but its pretty clear that eating a high amount of fat and it doesnt appear to matter what kind of fat increases the risk of BPH, Kristal said.

The study found small, incremental increases in BPH risk as fat intake increased, with the most substantial risk more than 30 percent among men who got about 40 percent of their calories from fat.

High fat intake increases the bodys overall inflammatory response and it also increases levels of circulating hormones such as estrogens and androgens, he said, both of which may affect prostate tissue. In contrast, a low fat, high vegetable and moderate alcohol consumption pattern is associated with less obesity, lower circulating estrogens and androgens and less stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system.

It is possible that these physiological effects moderate both the hormonally regulated prostate growth and heightened smooth-muscle tone that cause BPH, the authors wrote.

The mechanism by which moderate alcohol consumption appears to protect against BPH may be due to its effects on the production and metabolism of testosterone, Kristal said. Moderate alcohol use lowers circulating hormones and decreases muscle tone of the prostate.

Few studies to date have examined dietary patterns and BPH risk, and most have been small and have collected very limited data.

For the current study, Kristal and colleagues assessed diet, supplement use and alcohol consumption in 4,770 men for seven years, 876 of whom developed symptomatic BPH. They collected the data in the context of a larger randomized clinical trial that aimed to determine whether finasteride, a drug used to treat BPH, would also prevent prostate cancer. The men involved in this analysis, all 55 and older, participated in the placebo arm of the finasteride trial. All were f
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