Tag : fat : Page 3

A recent study of prostate cancer, funded by the federal government, linked high cholesterol levels with doubling the risk of developing an aggressive cancer that is more likely to result in death. The study, which involved over 6000 men, showed there was a clear correlation between a cholesterol level over 200 and a doubling in the incidence of high-grade malignancies of the prostate. As a result, some have leapt to the conclusion that placing men on statin drugs, which are a class of drugs that lower cholesterol levels, should lower the risk of prostate cancer (or at least lower the risk of high-grade aggressive prostate cancer).

I wish life was that straight forward, but the data on statin use and prostate cancer incidence is complex. There are studies indicating that long-term use of statin drugs may decrease the overall risk of prostate cancer to some modest degree. On the other hand, a large study, published in September of 2009 and done here at the Seattle Fred

Since I stopped practicing general family medicine and started dedicating myself exclusively to aging issues, there is one disease process that comes up again and again.  It’s the one on which I probably spend the lion’s share of my time as a clinical physician. That process is adult-onset, or Type II, diabetes. No mistake about it, it’s a killer and in America’s adult population, it’s a full blown epidemic. 

People worry a great deal about cancer, but your chances of getting cancer pale beside the one-in-three shot you have of developing diabetes before you die. People tend to overlook diabetes since the disease has been manageable for decades. But managed or not, over the long term it will still ravage your heart, eyes, and circulatory system. 

The thing that’s so crazy about diabetes is that we still have a tendency to view and treat adult-onset diabetes as a purely genetic disorder. The truth is, however, diabetes is like heart disease

The number one question I get about eyes is… “Can you fix my eyes so I don’t need reading glasses anymore?” The best answer is…probably not, but there is hope! Somewhere around 40 most of us start losing the ability to flex our lens enough to see close up. By 50 I had reached the point that I needed weak reading glasses in dim light. Within three months of starting a total hormone replacement program including growth hormone, I was able to put the glasses away. I bought myself almost 10 years free of granny glasses. But eventually time and gravity always win and once more I am straining to see the small print.That reminds me of a more serious issue, the increasingly common “Age-Related Macular Degeneration”, or AMD. The macula is a small area in your eye with the highest concentration of visual receptors. Most people don’t realize that this is the only part of your eye that sees details, the 20/20 part of our eye. Most of the eye can pick up motion, colors, and