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 In one study, men with metabolic syndrome – a collection of traits
that raise the risk of heart disease and diabetes –were almost twice
as likely to be treated for urinary symptoms than men without the
syndrome, researchers found.
Features of metabolic syndrome include a large waist circumference,
high blood pressure and high cholesterol.
The study didn’t look at what would happen if such risk factors
improved. But still, the researchers say, “Prevention of such
modifiable factors by the promotion of dietary changes and regular
physical activity practice may be of great importance” for helping
men with urinary tract symptoms.
Frequency, urgency, and bladder leakage have all been associated
with obesity, and may also be associated with metabolic syndrome,
the authors wrote in BJU International.
Researchers at Saint-Louis Hospital and Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital
in Paris, led by Pourya Pashootan, studied 4,666 men with an average
age of 55 who visited their general practitioners in November 2009.
Doctors recorded patients’ urinary tract symptoms (if any), height,
weight, waist circumference, blood pressure and other markers of
metabolic syndrome.
They also recorded symptoms of incomplete bladder emptying, weak
stream, intermittency, straining, and need to urinate during the
night.
A quarter of the men were obese. Roughly half the men had metabolic
syndrome.
Almost 39 percent had moderate lower urinary tract symptoms, and 9
percent had severe symptoms, according to their doctors.
Previous studies have suggested an association between metabolic
syndrome and annual prostate growth rate, the authors note. An
enlarging prostate may then lead to urinary tract symptoms,
according to Dr. Mike Kirby of The Prostate Centre in London, who
wasn’t involved in the study.
“For men the link between metabolic syndrome and enlarging prostates
is strong,” Kirby told Reuters Health by phone.
“The toxic fat in the belly produces a growth factor that makes the
prostate grow, and that toxic fat is part of metabolic syndrome,” he
said.
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Obesity has been linked to prostate inflammation, said Cosimo De
Nunzio of the department of urology at the University La Sapienza in
Rome, who was not part of the new research.
Other recent evidence indicates metabolic syndrome may also be
associated with prostate cancer, he told Reuters Health by email.
“Men go to the doctor with lower urinary tract symptoms and the
doctor deals with bladder and prostate but forgets to look at the
rest of the man around the prostate,” Kirby said.
Lifestyle interventions like weight loss, physical activity and
health eating habits are the foundation of reducing metabolic
syndrome, and may also alter prostate growth rate, the authors
write.
“Diet and exercise are critically important,” Kirby said.
Another study in the same issue of BJUI, by Dr. Richard Stubbs of
Wakefield Hospital in Wellington, New Zealand and colleagues, found
that lower urinary tract symptoms also tend to improve after weight
loss surgery, regardless of how much weight is lost.
Urinary tract symptoms or erectile dysfunction can be signs of
metabolic syndrome, which increases the risk of many other dangerous
conditions, and urologists should keep this in mind, Kirby said.
“If we persuade doctors to think laterally, there is great potential
to do something to prevent diabetes, heart attacks and strokes,” he
said.
“As doctors we need ways to encourage people to change their
lifestyles.” Kirby said.
SOURCES: http://bit.ly/1yFA28f and http://bit.ly/1BUgRJ9 BJUI,
online December 8, 2014.
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