According to Cancer Research UK, obese women have approximately a 40 percent increased risk of developing a weight-related cancer than women of a healthy weight. Overweight women are apparently more at risk of developing at least seven types of cancer – including bowel, post-menopausal breast, gallbladder, womb, kidney, pancreatic and oesophageal cancer.
For every 1000 obese women, 274 are diagnosed with a bodyweight-linked cancer in their lifetime, in comparison to 194 in every 1,000 healthy weight women. There have been a variety of explanations for this increased risk, but one possibility is that cancer is linked to a fat cell’s production of hormones –especially oestrogen which is thought to fuel the development of cancer.
Dr Julie Sharp, head of health information at Cancer Research UK, said:
“We know that our cancer risk depends on a combination of our genes, our environment and other aspects of our lives, many of which we can control – helping people understand how they can reduce their risk of developing cancer in the first place remains crucial in tackling the disease.”
She advocates making lifestyle changes such as maintaining a healthy weight through diet and exercise and cutting out smoking.
The Links Between Obesity and Cancer
It’s estimated that 18,000 people in the UK develop cancer as a result of being overweight or obese every year. In the US, one study, using NCI Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) data, estimated that in 2007 in the United States, about 34,000 new cases of cancer in men (4 percent) and 50,500 in women (7 percent) were as a result of obesity. While the ratio of cases that can be attributed to obesity varied widely for the different cancer types, obesity is certainly a factor for some cancers, particularly endometrial cancer and oesophageal adenocarcinoma where 40% of those diagnosed are obese.
Obesity is a big problem. In the US, results from a 2007-2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) demonstrated that 68 percent of U.S. adults aged 20 years and older were overweight or obese. This was an increase on the 1988-1994 study, where only 56 percent of adults age 20 and older were overweight or obese, and the number of children who are overweight or obese has also increased – with 17 percent of those aged 2 to 19 showing as overweight or obese in the 2007–2008 survey. Fast forward to 2030 and projections of future health and economic needs estimates that there will be 500,000 additional cases of cancer in the United States due to obesity.
The Relationship Between Obesity and Cancer
Obesity has been linked to the following cancer types:
- Breast (after menopause)
- Colon and rectum
- Endometrium (lining of the uterus)
- Oesophagus
- Gallbladder
- Kidney
- Pancreas
- Thyroid
How Does Obesity Cause Cancer?
If you are overweight or obese the body has more fat than it needs in storage. This excess fat can cause cancer in a number of ways.
- Fat cells in the body are active and produce hormones and proteins that are released into the bloodstream and carried around the body. They act as ‘chemical messengers’ and can affect most areas of the body, therefore increasing the risk of several different types of cancer.
- Having an excess of fat can change the level of the sex hormones in your body – such as oestrogen and testosterone and this may well increase your risk of cancer.
- High insulin levels are a common feature of many cancers. People who are overweight or obese have much higher levels of insulin in the body.
- Too much fat around the belly in apple shaped people has been linked to bowel, kidney, oesophageal, pancreatic, breast, and womb cancers.
- People who are overweight may have less healthy diets or do less exercise than those who have a healthy weight.
The Link Between a Sedentary Lifestyle and Cancer
It’s important to bear in mind that even if you are not obese you are still at risk of cancer. It’s a fact that too much sitting around can lead to many cancers regardless of the weight you tip the scales at, and a sedentary lifestyle is also a cause of heart disease and diabetes.
According to a pooled data study that looked at 4 million participants with 70,000 cases of cancer, every two extra hours spent sitting is associated with a 10% increased chance of developing cancer of the womb lining in women, and the risk for bowel and lung cancer are raised by 8% and 6% respectively, regardless of how much exercise is taken when not sitting. Even physically active people who sit down for too long are increasing their risk of cancer.
The pooled data study analysed questionnaires and interviews that probed lifestyle habits and total sitting time (watching TV etc.). The comparison demonstrated a significant and increased risk for three specific cancers among the more sedentary – bowel, endometrial (womb lining) and lung. Anyone spending longer in their seats than two or three hours per day, put themselves at risk for every two extra hours they spend sitting down.
There was no relation between sitting for too long and cancers such as breast, ovarian, testicular or prostate cancers, or cancers of the stomach, oesophagus and kidneys, or non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
How Do I Know If I Am Obese?
People are classed as obese when they have an abnormally high and unhealthy proportion of body fat. Medical practitioners can measure obesity using the body mass index (BMI) which is calculated by dividing a person’s weight (in kilograms) by their height (in meters) squared. BMI provides a more accurate measure of obesity or being overweight than weight alone.
There have been guidelines established by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) who use the following categories for adults over the age of 20.
| BMI | BMI Category |
|---|---|
| Below 18.5 | Underweight |
| 18.5 to 24.9 | Normal |
| 25.0 to 29.9 | Overweight |
| 30.0 and above | Obese |
You can work out your own BMI by using the calculator supplied by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute here http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/educational/lose_wt/BMI/bmicalc.htm
How to Lose Weight Permanently
Losing weight permanently means making lots of small changes and sticking to them every day. This will be much more effective than spending hours in a gym and coupled with leading a less sedentary lifestyle you will start to feel healthier in next to no time.
10 Tips for Safe Weight Loss
- The most effective and very easy ‘diet’ program is to simply eat all the fruit you like, from the moment you rise as your breakfast until you noon meal. You may also drink water and teas and fruit juices all morning, but no other foods. You then follow on by eating a normal healthy noon meal and evening meal.
- Eat regular meals at the same time every day – small meals more often will ensure you don’t snack.
- Avoid all refined fats and consume only cold pressed (or Extra Virgin) fats and oils, especially cold pressed macadamia oil as this has helped many lose weight.
- Walk more. Buy a pedometer and try and walk 10,000 steps per day.
- Choose healthy snacks – fruit and vegetables we need five portions of each per day.
- Read your food labels and scrutinise them for refined fat and sugar content.
- Reduce your portions – except for vegetables
- Stand up. Break up your sitting time and make sure you stand up for ten minutes out of every hour.
- Choose water as your drink of choice.
- Enjoy your food. Slow down and savour it.
Burn Those Calories with Peak Exercise
The hottest celebrity trend in fitness currently is the Peak Fitness Program. Gone are the days of cardio and jogging or long distance running, gym workouts and aerobics classes. Instead, the focus is on the intensity of the exercise rather than how long it lasts. This type of high-intensity exercise is especially beneficial for us as we age. It requires less time and it benefits your heart and body.
‘Peak exercises’ raise the heart rate beyond the normal aerobic threshold and push it into a maximum intensity limit. This sounds extreme, but it is actually appropriate and safe for even the more senior of us. Interval training improves fitness by building new capillaries and a stronger heart and lungs, while the muscles benefit through the creation of more mitochondria, the tiny motors that power cells.
You can choose an exercise that you really enjoy – such as swimming, walking, cycling or skiing etc. Do a 3 minute warm up at your regular speed followed by a 30 second burst of intense exercise. Followed by 90 seconds at regular speed/intensity. You repeat this 30 seconds/90 seconds at least 8 times for best results.
The burst of intense exercise should leave you panting and almost out of breath when you finish. You then catch your breath again during your normal 90 second exercise. It should take around twenty minutes in total and you should perform this 2 or 3 times a week. Cool down for four minutes afterwards to avoid sore muscles.
This is a total 20 minute workout. Because you do the 3 minutes warm up and the 4 minute cool down you will probably not experience any muscle soreness!
By following this exercise and sticking to a healthy diet plan you should be able to cut down on your level of obesity, reduce your risk of cancer and make a real difference to your health.
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