Here's to your good prostate health!

Prostate diseases: risks, symptoms and treatments

The prostate gland is a small walnut-sized gland that is located between a man's bladder and rectum and plays a role in the reproductive process. During orgasm, the prostate creates a fluid that mixes with other fluids and with seamen to help fertilize the ejulate. But for a gland that provides such a limited function, the prostate can cause immense problems. Some men will suffer from an inflammation of the prostate called prostatitis; others will deal with BPH, a condition associated with an enlarged prostate; and one out of ten American men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer at some point in his life. Who's at risk for prostate disease?

Men at any age can develop prostatitis but the more serious prostate diseases, BPH and prostate cancer, are usually not a problem until age fifty or so. However age alone is not the only factor in developing serious prostate problems. Men with a family history of prostate disease are more susceptible to contracting BPH or prostate cancer than other men. Married men, for reasons largely unknown, are more likely to suffer BPH than single men. And African American men are two-and-a-half times more likely to be diagnosed with BPH and prostate cancer than men from all other ethnic groups.

(more)