Today in America, more than one-third (about 36 percent) of our country’s adult population is considered obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The lethal combination of inactivity, availability of processed “convenience” foods and increasing portion sizes is leading Americans into an unprecedented health epidemic that has consistently risen for more than a decade. Aside from the physical limitations obesity inflicts on the body, it also carries significantly increased risks for some leading causes of preventable death in America, including heart disease, high cholesterol, Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and stroke, to name a few. The list of conditions that are worsened by obesity is a lengthy one, affecting body systems across the board — including cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, endocrine and, though less often talked about, urological health.
Obesity affects urological well-being in a variety of ways, ranging from inconvenient conditions such as overactive bladder to life-threatening kidney or prostate cancer. Most people are surprised to learn that being overweight can contribute so strongly to these conditions. Education is the key to prevention, and understanding the ways in which obesity has an impact on urological health and cancer risk may help ultimately reduce its prevalence.
[See: 10 Questions to Ask Your Doctor About Prostate Cancer.]
Kidney stones are made of salt, minerals and other substances normally found in urine. When the body is dehydrated and the normal balance of water is thrown off, these substances stick together like stones and either cause intense pain and damage as they pass through the urinary system, or actually get stuck in the path and have to be surgically removed. The incidence for kidney stones in obese people is almost double that of those at a normal weight. This can be attributed to the fact that obese people require much more water to stay adequately hydrated, and in turn are much more likely to become dehydrated and form stones.
Carrying around extra weight will undoubtedly put extra pressure on the bladder, raising the risk for overactive bladder and/or stress incontinence. The strong urge to urinate frequently or the inability to hold urine in while sneezing or jumping found in these conditions can only be compounded by the pressure the excess weight adds. Obesity may also lead to other conditions that affect blood flow and/or nerve activity in the bladder, further contributing to overactive bladder.
Now for the men out there, obesity and low testosterone are very tightly linked. About 50 percent of obese men will also show symptoms of low testosterone, including fatigue, reduced muscle mass, increased body fat and low sex drive. Included in the low sex drive is not only a weak desire for sex, but also difficulty forming and maintaining an erection, which is commonly referred to as erectile dysfunction, or ED. This can be extremely bothersome for a man who still wishes to carry on a regular sex life and can have quite an impact on quality of life. In addition to ED being connected with low testosterone, obese men have a higher rate of erectile dysfunction due to weakened blood vessels. Erections occur when the vessels fill with blood, and the reduced blood circulation in the weakened vessels makes it difficult to fill completely.
[See: 8 Weird Ways Obesity Makes You Sick.]
Along with having a hand in many of these undesirable urological conditions (which aren’t always life-threatening, but can interfere with quality of life), obesity is directly correlated with an increased risk of developing many types of cancer, including prostate and kidney cancer.
Obese people are nearly twice as likely as those of normal weight to develop renal cell carcinoma, or kidney cancer. This increased risk is attributed to hormonal changes that happen inside the body due to an abnormally high level of body fat, and these changes not only affect kidney cancer risk, but other cancers, as well. In fact, weight-related hormonal changes in men may alter the amount of a protein in the body called prostate-specific antigen, or PSA, the same protein that is examined in the identification of prostate cancer. In obese males, the hormones may make the PSA reading level lower than it should be, making diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer much more difficult and increasing the chances of it going untreated or diagnosed at a later and more dangerous stage. This difficulty in diagnosis is compounded by the fact that obese men (with a BMI of 30 or higher) have a nearly 60 percent higher risk in developing prostate cancer. Another obesity-related factor involved in the increased risk of cancer development is something called insulin resistance. This phenomenon often happens as a precursor to Type 2 diabetes in obese people, when the body has a surplus of insulin in the blood that cannot be used by the cells. These high levels of insulin may promote the development of both kidney and prostate cancer.
[See: U.S. News’ 38 Best Diets Overall.]
Unfortunately, losing weight once you already have kidney or prostate cancer will not automatically cure the cancer, but it can help facilitate better treatment and minimize other side effects. On the other hand, some conditions, such as overactive bladder or erectile dysfunction, can sometimes be cured by losing body mass and returning to a normal weight. The good news is that unlike heredity or race, obesity is a controllable lifestyle factor, and every single person has the capability to reach and maintain a normal weight, giving themselves the best outlook for both urological and overall health in the future.
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What’s the Link Between Obesity and Urological Health? originally appeared on usnews.com
