Heart Disease Risk Factors also Linked with Urinary Tract Problems

By Kathryn Doyle

(Reuters Health) - Lower urinary tract problems are linked with metabolic syndrome, two new studies show.

In one study, men with metabolic syndrome were almost twice as likely to be treated for urinary symptoms than men without the syndrome, researchers found.

The study didn't look at what would happen if metabolic syndrome improved. But still, the researchers say, "Prevention of such modifiable factors by the promotion of dietary changes and regular physical activity practice may be of great importance" for helping men with urinary tract symptoms.

Frequency, urgency, and bladder leakage have all been associated with obesity, and may also be associated with metabolic syndrome, the authors wrote Deember 8 online in BJU International.

Researchers at Saint-Louis Hospital and Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris, led by Pourya Pashootan, studied 4,666 men (mean age 55) who visited their general practitioners in November 2009.

A quarter of the men were obese. Roughly half the men had metabolic syndrome.

Almost 39% had moderate lower urinary tract symptoms, and 9% had severe symptoms.

Previous studies have suggested an association between metabolic syndrome and annual prostate growth rate, the authors note. An enlarging prostate may then lead to urinary tract symptoms, according to Dr. Mike Kirby of The Prostate Centre in London, who wasn't involved in the study.

"For men the link between metabolic syndrome and enlarging prostates is strong," Kirby told Reuters Health by phone.

"The toxic fat in the belly produces a growth factor that makes the prostate grow, and that toxic fat is part of metabolic syndrome," he said.

Obesity has been linked to prostate inflammation, said Cosimo De Nunzio of the department of urology at the University La Sapienza in Rome, who was not part of the new research.

Other recent evidence indicates metabolic syndrome may also be associated with prostate cancer, he told Reuters Health by email.

"Men go to the doctor with lower urinary tract symptoms and the doctor deals with bladder and prostate but forgets to look at the rest of the man around the prostate," Kirby said.

Lifestyle interventions like weight loss, physical activity and health eating habits are the foundation of reducing metabolic syndrome, and may also alter prostate growth rate, the authors write.

"Diet and exercise are critically important," Kirby said.

Another study in the same issue of BJUI, by Dr. Richard Stubbs of Wakefield Hospital in Wellington, New Zealand and colleagues, found that lower urinary tract symptoms also tend to improve after weight loss surgery, regardless of how much weight is lost.

Urinary tract symptoms or erectile dysfunction can be signs of metabolic syndrome, which increases the risk of many other dangerous conditions, and urologists should keep this in mind, Kirby said.

"If we persuade doctors to think laterally, there is great potential to do something to prevent diabetes, heart attacks and strokes," he said.

SOURCES: https://bit.ly/1yFA28f and https://bit.ly/1BUgRJ9

BJUI 2014.

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