Tips for Keeping a Healthy Prostate

1. Maintain a Balanced Diet

They’re probably not your favorite part of any meal, but green, leafy
vegetables are a good first step toward a healthy prostate. These
vegetables are full of important vitamins and antioxidants that keep you —
and specifically, your prostate — healthy.

So look for some

healthy recipes

Prostate cancer screening recommendations are different depending on
whether you’re in a high-risk or an average-risk group. If you are in a
high-risk group, you should consider getting screened for prostate cancer
starting at age 40. Men who are at normal risk are encouraged to consider
screenings starting at age 55.

Men with a higher risk of developing prostate cancer include:

• African-Americans
• People of Scandinavian descent
• Anyone who has two or more family members who were diagnosed with
  prostate cancer

Screenings can include a digital rectal exam and a prostate-specific
antigen (PSA) blood test. If your PSA test indicates an above-normal result
and you’ve had a normal digital rectal exam, you may be a candidate for the
prostate health index test. This blood test is similar to the PSA test, but
it provides results with a higher specificity. The test was FDA-approved in
2012, and Johns Hopkins is one of a few American medical centers to perform
the test regularly.

There are pros and cons to some prostate cancer screenings, and a decision
to begin screenings should be made with your doctor.