Men – particularly Black men – who pile on the pounds as they get older put themselves at greater risk of prostate cancer, a new study shows. After following almost 84,000 middle-aged and older U.S. men for close to a decade, researchers discovered that White and Black men who had gained weight since the age of 21 had a higher risk of developing prostate cancer. But, compared with White men who gained fewer than 10 pounds, those who gained more had twice the risk of being diagnosed with advanced or aggressive prostate cancer. Among Black men, the risks began increasing after a 25-pound weight gain – though the link was seen only with early-stage and less-aggressive prostate tumors, and not advanced cancer. “These results do not warrant a change in the current public health messages about obesity,” Dr. Elizabeth A. Platz, another researcher on the work and an associate professor of epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, said in a written statement. “Men of normal weight in all racial/ethnic groups should be encouraged to avoid weight gain,” she said, “and men who are overweight and obese should be encouraged to lose weight for good health in general.”
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