Men’s Health

Prostate Cancer

What is Prostate Cancer?

Prostate cancer occurs when abnormal cells develop in the prostate. These abnormal cells can continue to multiply in an uncontrolled way and sometimes spread outside the prostate into nearby or distant parts of the body.

Prostate cancer is generally a slow growing disease and the majority of men with low grade prostate cancer live for many years without symptoms and without it spreading and becoming life-threatening. However, high grade disease spreads quickly and can be lethal. Appropriate management is key.

In Australia, prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in men. Approximately 3,500 Australian men die of prostate cancer each year. More men die of prostate cancer than women die of breast cancer

Symptoms:

In the early stages, there may be no symptoms. In the later stages, some symptoms of prostate cancer might include:

• Feeling the frequent or sudden need to urinate
• Finding it difficult to urinate (for example, trouble starting or not being able to urinate when the feeling is there or poor urine flow)
• Discomfort when urinating
• Finding blood in urine or semen
• Pain in the lower back, upper thighs or hips.

These symptoms may not mean you have prostate cancer, but if you experience any of them, go and see your doctor.

Age: Prostate cancer is an age-dependent disease, which means the chance of developing it increases with age. The risk of getting prostate cancer by the age of 75 is 1 in 7 men. By the age of 85, this increases to 1 in 5.

Visit our Hornsby medical centre for a men’s health check up,

 

Depression

What is Depression?

Depression is what some people experience feelings intensely, for long periods of time (weeks, months or even years) and sometimes without any apparent reason. Depression is more than just a low mood – it’s a serious condition that affects your physical and mental health.

Depression is very common, with 1 in 8 men experiencing it at some stage of their life. You need to know the signs – not only for you, but also for your mates and family. Check out a list of signs and symptoms. You can also fill out an anxiety and depression checklist.

One in 8 men experiences depression at some stage of their life. Men are more likely to recognise and describe the physical symptoms of depression (such as feeling tired or losing weight) than women. Men may acknowledge feeling irritable or angry, rather than saying they feel low. Visit our Hornsby doctors today!

 

Bowel Cancer

What is Bowel cancer?

Bowel Cancer is the second most common cancer in both men and women in Australia and is more common in people over the age of 50. Bowel cancer, also known as colorectal cancer, develops from the inner lining of the bowel and is usually preceded by growths called polyps, which may become invasive cancer if undetected.

Symptoms

• change in bowel habit with diarrhoea, constipation or the feeling of incomplete emptying
• thin bowel movements
• blood in the stools
• abdominal pain, bloating or cramping
• anal or rectal pain
• a lump in the anus or rectum
• weight loss
• fatigue
• unexplained anaemia.

Causes

• inherited genetic risk and family history
• inflammatory bowel disease
• polyps in bowel
• high red meat consumption, especially processed meats
• obesity
• high alcohol consumption
• smoking

 

High Cholesterol

A healthy diet and regular exercise can help to lower the level of cholesterol in your blood.

Adopting healthy habits, such as eating a nutritional diet and exercising, will also help to prevent your cholesterol levels from becoming high.

It’s important to keep cholesterol in check because high cholesterol levels increase your risk of heart disease and stroke.

Children are least likely to have high levels of cholesterol and only need to have their levels checked once or twice before they are 18 years old.

Saturated Fat

There are two main types of fat: saturated and unsaturated. Eating foods that are high in saturated fat can raise cholesterol levels in the blood.

Foods that are high in saturated fat include:

• meat pies
• sausages and fatty cuts of meat
• butter
• lard
• cream
• hard cheese
• cakes and biscuits
• foods that contain coconut or palm oil

Try to replace foods containing saturated fats with foods that are high in unsaturated fats, such as:

• oily fish (for example salmon)
• nuts (for example, almonds and cashews)
• seeds
• vegetable oils and spreads (for example, sunflower, olive, corn, walnut)

Trans fats also raise cholesterol levels. These fats can be found naturally at low levels in some foods, such as animal products, including meat and dairy.

To help you have a healthy diet, try to cut down on foods that contain trans fats or saturated fats, and replace them with foods containing unsaturated fats.

You should also reduce the total amount of fat in your diet. Try microwaving, steaming, poaching, boiling or grilling instead of roasting or frying. Choose lean cuts of meat and go for low-fat varieties of dairy products and spreads (or eat just a small amount of full-fat varieties).

Fibre

There are two different types of fibre: soluble fibre and insoluble fibre. Most foods contain a mixture of both.

Soluble fibre can be digested by your body — insoluble fibre cannot — and soluble fibre may help reduce the amount of cholesterol in your blood.

Good sources of soluble fibre include:

• oats
• beans
• peas
• lentils
• chickpeas
• fruit and vegetables

Try to include more of these foods in your diet. Aim to eat at least five portions of fruit and vegetables each day.

 

Male Pattern Boldness

Male Pattern boldness is the most common type of boldness. This happens to all men at one point in their lives sometimes as young as 30 and most commonly at 50 and 60 years old.

This condition gets its name from a pattern it follows. In the first stage the hair gets thinner and you get a receding hairline followed by hair loss on the crown (top of scalp). After this a horseshoe shape forms at the back and side, then you may go completely bold.

Prevention or Treatment

For this specific condition there is no cure but there is treatment that can slow the process like creams that are applied to the scalp. This condition is inherited genetically and can happen to anyone at any age above 30.

 

Erectile Dysfunction

Erectile dysfunction, or impotence, means not being able to get or keep an erection that is sufficient for sexual intercourse. Many men have erectile dysfunction at some time in their lives.

Having trouble keeping erect from time to time is fine. If erectile dysfunction is an ongoing issue, however, it can cause stress, affect your self-esteem and contribute to relationship problems. Problems getting or keeping an erection can also be a sign of an underlying health condition that needs treatment and a risk factor for heart disease.

Causes

• health issues that affects your nerves like a spinal chord injury, parkinsons disease, alzheimers and more
• ageing
• reduced blood flow caused by therosclerosis
• obesity/high cholesterol or high blood pressur

Causes can also have to do with the heart, brain and physocological issues like depression and anxiety.