Medical Experts Warn Against Prostate Cancer, Call For Lifestyle, Food Check

Medical experts have suggested lifestyle modification and improved diet intake as a panacea to prostate cancer and the pains of menopause among men and women.

Three senior medical consultants from the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH) and Ilọrin General Hospital, Dr Lola Owolabi, Oseni Ismaila and Aremu Isiak respectively made the call on Monday in Ilọrin.

They spoke with journalists at the Correspondent Chapel of the NUJ as part of the ongoing three-day press week programme in Ilorin, Kwara State.

On prostate enlargement, Dr Ismaila Oseni, a Consultant Urologist, described prostate among men as normal “as long as you are not castrated”.

He however warned of the danger of its naivety, management, and control.

He linked its spread and dangerous poise to irregular and unchecked diets.

Oseni noted that lifestyle modification could check or reduce the menace.

“The risk factors aside from alcohol and smoking are diet. Do away with dairy foods like animal fats and red meats and go for white meats like (white) rabbits, chicken and turkey,” he said.

He also advised regular exercises and screening, especially for men above 40 years.

“Avoid misinformation; prostate cancer is not contagious,” he said.

Dr Owolabi listed pains in women at the age of menopause to include weak bones, vaginal dryness that may ensure painful sexual intercourse, mood change, loss of air and depletion of hormones.

She, however, advised healthy diets with less carbohydrates, light clothing, frequent cold rather than hot baths, water-based lubricants and hormone replacement therapy that must not be used beyond five years.

The gynaecologist consultant dispelled the belief that irregular sex induces early menopause which she described as “an ageing process among women.

“It is the absence of eggs that prompt normal and regular menopause; it has nothing to do with sex,” she said.