Zinc And Prostate Cancer 2020

Polyphenols Coffee And Pomegranate

Polyphenols are found in varying amounts in most fruits and vegetables, as well as in green tea and red wine. These agents act via antioxidant, antiproliferative, and antiangiogenesis pathways and have proapoptotic effects.

Some of the more popular polyphenols have been the catechins in green tea, which have been shown to inhibit cancer cell growth in animal and epidemiologic studies. Epigallocatechin , which is a principal ingredient in green tea leaves, interferes with biochemical reactions associated with cellular proliferation and enhances apoptosis. EGCG is a potent inhibitor of the carcinogenic heterocyclic amines , which are produced from overcooked or charred meat.

Some preliminary epidemiologic data support increasing green tea and/or EGCG consumption to reduce the risk of prostate cancer. In addition, some preliminary research also suggests that coffee consumption may help to prevent prostate cancer or aggressive prostate cancer. Still, the question remains whether these low-caloric beverages have tangible anti-cancer properties or are just markers of overall healthy behaviors that could cumulatively be responsible for a lower prostate cancer risk. This will be difficult to answer any time soon, but consuming low-caloric beverages to help maintain or achieve a healthy weight is a reasonable recommendation.

Zinc For Prostate Health

You need a whole variety of minerals in order to enjoy good health.

In many ways one of the most important of minerals that specifically help you with your prostate health.

The prostate is a small gland that is only found in the male body. It is about the size of a walnut and sits just below the bladder, close to the rectum. The prostate itself serves a particularly important role in male sexual health.

This gland secretes a fluid that is important for the protection of sperm. When sperm combines with the fluids from the prostate gland, it is known as semen.

While this is the functionality of the prostate gland in healthy men, certain conditions may affect the prostate.

In turn, problems can develop, ranging from urinary consistency to cancer. Several treatments are available for prostate conditions, but the side-effects cause concern.

Zinc has been suggested as a positive supplement that may be good for promoting a healthier prostate.

It may also have some beneficial effects in cases where an existing condition has developed.

Dietary Fat And Prostate Cancer

Per-capita fat consumption is highest in males in North America and Western Europe, and rates of prostate cancer deaths are also highest in these regions. Conversely, the countries in the Pacific Rim have the lowest fat consumption and the lowest prostate cancer death rates.

Whittemore et al studied the relationship of diet, physical activity, and body size in black, white, and Asian men living in North America and found that the only factor that correlated with prostate cancer was the amount of dietary fat. The same was true in Hawaiian men the highest prevalence of prostate cancer was in men with the highest intake of saturated fat.

The introduction of Western diets in Japan, where the traditional diet is low in fat, has led to an increased incidence of aggressive prostate cancer. Giovannucci et al reported that men who consumed high levels of fat were more likely not only to develop prostate cancer but also to develop a more aggressive form of the disease.

Still, it is intriguing that numerous clinical trials have begun examining the impact of higher fat consumption or a ketogenic diet on prostate cancer progression. It seems plausible that if higher fat intake can lead to heart-healthy parameter changes then the potential for success should somewhat rival what is observed with other heart-healthy dietary programs.

Don’t Miss: What Does Prostate Cancer Mean

Zinc And Zinc Transporters In Prostate Cancer

Zinc has long been known to be highly concentrated in prostate tissuemore than 10 times enriched compared to that in other soft tissues . Analysis of frozen prostate tissues demonstrated lower levels of zinc in prostate carcinoma compared to those in normal prostate . Zinc content of 1018, 1142 and 146 g/g dry weight in normal prostate, benign prostatic hyperplasia and prostate carcinoma tissue, respectively, was reported . Zinc concentration in malignant prostate is approximately 10% to 25% lower than that of normal prostate . Zinc contents in plasma are also significantly lower in prostate carcinoma and BPH compared to those in normal prostate samples . A meta-analysis documented significantly lower levels of zinc in prostate cancers than in benign tumors and normal prostates . Taken together, these findings indicate that the development of prostate malignancy is strongly associated with the reduction of intracellular zinc in malignant cells and the circulating level in plasma.

Questions To Ask Your Health Care Provider About Cam

When considering complementary and alternative therapies, patients should ask their health care provider the following questions:

• What side effects can be expected?
• What are the risks related to this therapy?
• What benefits can be expected from this therapy?
• Do the known benefits outweigh the risks?
• Will the therapy affect conventional treatment?
• Is this therapy part of a clinical trial?
• If so, who is the sponsor of the trial?
• Will the therapy be covered by health insurance?

Also Check: Could An Enlarged Prostate Cause Constipation

Open Access License / Drug Dosage / Disclaimer

This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License . Usage and distribution for commercial purposes as well as any distribution of modified material requires written permission. Drug Dosage: The authors and the publisher have exerted every effort to ensure that drug selection and dosage set forth in this text are in accord with current recommendations and practice at the time of publication. However, in view of ongoing research, changes in government regulations, and the constant flow of information relating to drug therapy and drug reactions, the reader is urged to check the package insert for each drug for any changes in indications and dosage and for added warnings and precautions. This is particularly important when the recommended agent is a new and/or infrequently employed drug. Disclaimer: The statements, opinions and data contained in this publication are solely those of the individual authors and contributors and not of the publishers and the editor. The appearance of advertisements or/and product references in the publication is not a warranty, endorsement, or approval of the products or services advertised or of their effectiveness, quality or safety. The publisher and the editor disclaim responsibility for any injury to persons or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content or advertisements.

Anatomy And Function Of The Prostate

The prostate is a gland located in the man’s pelvic cavity, behind the pubis. It is in front of the rectum and under the bladder. It wraps and surrounds the first segment of the urethra just below the bladder neck .

Figure 1. Schematic representation of the location of the prostate in the male urogenital system. It is an organ of fibro-muscular and glandular nature and has the shape of an inverted pyramid. Four zones can be distinguished in the prostate: The anterior zone or fibromuscular stroma, the peripheral zone, the central zone, and the transitional zone. The anterior zone is of fibromuscular nature, a thick sheet of compact connective and muscular tissue that covers the entire anterior surface of the prostate. It surrounds the proximal urethra at the level of the bladder neck, where it joins the internal sphincter and detrusor muscle in which it originates. It occupies almost a third of the total volume of the prostate and does not contain glands. It does not participate in any pathology of the prostate. The peripheral zone is of endodermal origin and is the largest anatomical region of the glandular prostate. The central zone is the smallest of the regions of the glandular prostate. It represents between 20 and 25% of its mass and is crossed by the ejaculatory ducts. The fourth zone, the transitional zone, has a mesodermal origin, formed by a small group of ducts closely related to the proximal urethra. These ducts represent 5% of the glandular prostate mass.

You May Like: Can You Detect Prostate Cancer Blood Test

Selenium: Questions And Answers

• Vitamin E and selenium.
• Two placebos.

Early results of SELECT reported in 2009 found no difference in the rate of prostate cancer among the 4 groups. In the selenium alone group, there was a slight increase in the rate of diabetes mellitus. Even though this change was not clearly shown to be due to the supplement, the men in the study were advised to stop taking the study supplements.

In 2014, further results of SELECT showed that selenium supplements in men with low selenium levels at the start of the trial had no effect on prostate cancer risk. However, selenium supplements in men who had high levels of selenium at the start of the trial increased the risk of aggressive prostate cancer.

A study of 1,434 men in SELECT suggested that changes in certain genes which control the way selenium is used by the body may have an effect on the risk of prostate cancer.

Several factors may have affected study results, including the dose of vitamin E and the form of selenium used. The authors concluded that men should avoid selenium at doses that are higher than the recommended dietary intake.

Too Much Of A Good Thing

Zinc is one of those essential minerals when you hear the phrase essential vitamins and minerals. Our body needs a certain amount of zinc to function properly and we cant synthesize it ourselves, which is why we need to take it in from dietary sources. It plays a role in the production and function of more than 300 enzymes in our body and is particularly important to healthy prostate function. This makes getting enough zinc in your diet an important goal.

Yet new research, recently published in the journal Nutrients, has revealed that too much dietary zinc may have a paradoxical effect on prostate health. Specifically, researchers have discovered that men that ingested more than 10.53 mg of zinc per day were 66 percent more likely to be diagnosed with a prostate tumor with a Gleason score of 6 .

Recommended Reading: How Often Should You Test For Prostate Cancer

Is Zinc Good For Prostatitis

Prostatitis is another condition where zinc may yield positive effects. This particular condition usually refers to an acute set of symptoms that develop, which include inflammation that occurs within the prostate gland.

The inflammation can lead to several potential complications.

The patient may find that urination becomes difficult. This happens because the swelling of the prostate gland leads to a restriction in the urethra.

When we take a look at the role of zinc in prostatitis, we will definitely see many similarities with what we have discussed previously.

The significant difference here is the fact that prostatitis will generally lead to an acute case of inflammation.

The utilization of zinc supplementation in the case of prostatitis might, however, still yield an anti-inflammatory effect in some individuals especially when levels of zinc in the persons body is lower than what it should be.

Risk More Than Doubles

Researchers found that although taking zinc supplements of up to 100 mg per day did not increase men’s overall risk of prostate cancer, men who took more than 100 mg of supplemental zinc per day were more than twice as likely to develop advanced prostate cancer than nonusers.

Men who took zinc supplements for 10 or more years also were more than twice as likely to have advanced prostate cancer compared with those who didn’t take zinc supplements.

Researchers say they can’t rule out the fact that some other factor may account for the increase in advanced prostate cancer risk associated with excessive zinc supplementation found by the study. For example, heavy zinc users may have also taken high levels of other supplements that might affect the prostate, such as calcium.

In addition, because zinc has been associated with prostate health, some users may have been self-medicating longstanding prostate cancer symptoms or delayed medical care, which may have increased the risk of the cancer being found at a later, more advanced stage. But researchers say that’s unlikely because taking the men’s history of prostate cancer screening and early years of follow-up into account didn’t alter their findings.

Show Sources

You May Like: How Many Weeks Of Radiation For Prostate Cancer

Vitamin E: Questions And Answers

In This Section

• Vitamin E and selenium.
• Two placebos.

SELECT results published in 2011 showed that men taking vitamin E alone had a 17% increase in prostate cancer risk compared with men who did not take vitamin E.

Several factors may have affected study results, including the dose of vitamin E.

Clinical trials

• In the Physicians Health Study II, men took either vitamin E supplements, vitamin C supplements, or both and were followed for about 8 years. The overall rates of prostate cancer were similar in the men who took vitamin E supplements and in those who did not. Vitamin E did not affect the number of new cases of cancer or the number of deaths from cancer.
• A 2011 study of men who took part in The Carotene and Retinol Efficacy Trial found that, among those who were current smokers, higher blood levels of alpha-tocopherols and gamma-tocopherols were linked with lower risk of aggressive prostate cancer. In another study of men who were current smokers or who recently stopped smoking, higher blood levels of alpha-tocopherol were linked to a lower risk of prostate cancer.

Permission To Use This Summary

PDQ is a registered trademark. The content of PDQ documents can be used freely as text. It cannot be identified as an NCI PDQ cancer information summary unless the whole summary is shown and it is updated regularly. However, a user would be allowed to write a sentence such as NCIs PDQ cancer information summary about breast cancer prevention states the risks in the following way: .

The best way to cite this PDQ summary is:

PDQ® Integrative, Alternative, and Complementary Therapies Editorial Board. PDQ Prostate Cancer, Nutrition, and Dietary Supplements. Bethesda, MD: National Cancer Institute. Updated < MM/DD/YYYY> . Available at: . Accessed < MM/DD/YYYY> .

Images in this summary are used with permission of the author, artist, and/or publisher for use in the PDQ summaries only. If you want to use an image from a PDQ summary and you are not using the whole summary, you must get permission from the owner. It cannot be given by the National Cancer Institute. Information about using the images in this summary, along with many other images related to cancer can be found in Visuals Online. Visuals Online is a collection of more than 3,000 scientific images.

You May Like: Metastatic Prostate Ca Icd 10

Viability Of Prostate Cancer May Require Exclusion Of Zinc

Prostate epithelium is characterized by high intracellular levels of zinc, particularly within the mitochondria. This intra-mitochondrial zinc is believed to promote the proper function of prostate epithelium by inhibiting aconitase activity, thereby causing an accumulation of citrate in the Krebs cycle. Much of this citrate is exported into the seminal fluid, where it serves as an energy substrate for spermatozoa.

However, malignantly transformed prostate epithelium is far lower in intracellular zinc, reflected greatly diminished expression or activity of transporter proteins – ZIP1, ZIP2, and ZIP3 – that import zinc. This loss of intracellular zinc appears to be essential to the viability of the transformed cells, as measures which restore high intracellular zinc levels – exposure to high extracellular zinc, or treatment with zinc ionophores such as pyrithione or clioquinol – slows their proliferation and up-regulates cell death. In vivo, continual intravenous infusion of zinc, injection of zinc acetate directly into tumors, or parenteral administration of the zinc ionophore clioquinol has notably slowed the growth of human prostate cancers in nude mice. In particular, administration of clioquinol was associated with an 85% growth retardation of a ZIP-1- deficient human prostate cancer.

Zinc Intake And Risk Of Prostate Cancer: Case

• * E-mail:

  Affiliations Department of Kinesiology and Nutrition and Department of Physical Therapy, School of Applied Health Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America, Department of Pathology, South Egypt Cancer Institute, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt

• Umaima Al-Alem ,

  Contributed equally to this work with: Abeer M. Mahmoud, Umaima Al-Alem

  Affiliation Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America

• Affiliation James R. & Helen D. Russell Institute for Research & Innovation, Advocate Lutheran General Hospital, Park Ridge, Illinois, United States of America

• Affiliation Department of Kinesiology and Nutrition and Department of Physical Therapy, School of Applied Health Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America

• Affiliation Department of Surgery, College of Medicine, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, United States of America

• Affiliation Department of Surgery, College of Medicine, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, United States of America

• Affiliation Department of Surgery, College of Medicine, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, United States of America

Also Check: Does Peanut Butter Cause Prostate Cancer

Lycopene: Questions And Answers

• Current Clinical Trials