Plant-Based Diets Improve Sexual Function, Urinary Health in Prostate Cancer Survivors

A diet rich in fruits, vegetables, grains, and nuts can help men who have undergone prostate cancer treatment recover sexual and urinary function. The news comes from a prospective study published in the American Cancer Society Journals and gives prostate cancer survivors hope of managing and improving some of their symptoms through nutrition and diet. The study is believed to be the first of its kind to link better urinary health to nutrition. A research team from New York University (NYU) Grossman School of Medicine and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health polled 3,505 health care professionals with nonmetastatic prostate cancer. All of them had early-stage prostate cancer that had not yet spread to other organs. The average age of men diagnosed was 68. Almost half of the men in the study (48 percent) underwent surgery to remove the prostate gland to treat the cancer. Thirty-five percent received radiation therapy as their primary treatment....