Being overweight is not only an esthetic problem – it also causes cancer! |
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Since last year, excess weight has been considered an alarming health condition for which the best treatments and prevention systems are being sought globally.
The scientists have been warning for years of a dangerous connection between being overweight and getting cancer.
A 2011 UK study discovered that excess weight and obesity caused a five percent of cancers.
Only three years later, the respectable medical magazine The Lancet published the results of a shocking new study.
According to the new data, obese people have 60 percent higher risk of developing cancer.
Excess weight used to be blamed for 41 percent of uterine cancers and 10 percent of cases of liver, kidney, bowel and bladder cancers.
However, it is currently considered that obesity increases the risk of uterine cancer by 62 percent, bladder cancer by 32 percent, renal cancer by 25 percent and cervical cancer by 10 percent.
A research performed in the UK on about five million people over the age of 16 has shown that excess weight significantly increases the risk of developing cancer of:
- breasts (postmenopausal)
- bowels
- kidneys
- uterus
- stomach
- urine bladder
- cervix
- thyroid gland
- lungs
- pancreas
- prostate
- liver
- ovaries
- blood (leukemia)
How excess kilos "invite" cancer in the body
Breast cancer
Excess weight and obesity have been proven as causes of breast cancer in more than 100 international studies.
Recent data show that obese and significantly overweight women have three times higher risk of developing breast cancer after menopause compared to women of normal weight.
The cause is the hormone estrogen to which breast cancer is particularly sensitive and which is produced in fatty tissues after menopause.
The more fatty tissue, the higher levels of estrogen, increasing the cancer risk.
Colon cancer
Worrisome data reveal an increased incidence of colon cancer. Obese people, especially men, run a higher risk of developing this form of cancer than women, according to the data.
Studies show that excess weight can cause cancer in 13 percent of cases, but obesity raises the risk to almost 50 percent, which is truly alarming, the experts claim.
The risk is proportional to the waist circumference, in other words the quantity of fatty tissue accumulated in the abdominal area.
People whose waist exceeds 119 cm for men and 106 cm for women belong to already endangered groups of people with a twice higher mortality rate and a higher likelihood of chronic illnesses like diabetes type 2, heart disease and cancer, the experts warn.
Apart from improved dietary habits which include plenty of fruits and vegetables, the experts insist it is necessary to implement everyday exercise, because diet alone isn't sufficient.
Uterine cancer
No less than a third of uterine cancer patients in the UK are overweight and obese women, the medical data show.
A significant role is played by estrogen, produced by fatty cells.
The experts have found another reason in insulin, a hormone which regulates sugar in the organism and helps the body to use the energy obtained through food.
Excess weight causes the insulin levels to rise, but at the same time the body develops resistance to the increased quantities of the hormone.
Some studies suggest that elevated insulin levels stimulate the growth of cancer cells in the uterus walls.
The sources used for this article include:
[url=http://www.obesity.org]http://www.obesity.org[/url]
[url=http://www.cancerresearchuk.org]http://www.cancerresearchuk.org[/url]
[url=http://www.thelancet.com]http://www.thelancet.com[/url]
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