Being overweight increases risk of cancer

-

In the British Medical Journal (BMJ) this week there is an article about excess weight and cancer risk. 

With an estimated 62% of the UK adult population being classed as overweight, doctors have been concerned about people being overweight for some time. This article highlights grave reasons for concern other than heart disease.  

This weeks BMJ literature review covers many different academic papers, asking the question " what is the strength and validity of evidence for an association between being fat and risk of developing or dying from cancer"?

After a rigourous review of the evidence, the article showed strong evidence for association with obesity in 11 cancers. The commentary the article explains that there is a clear association between developing cancer and high BMI or high abdominal circumference.

It seems that being fat increases the risk of most digestive system cancers as well as uterus and postmenopausal breast cancer. 

The conclusion is that we must prevent excess adult weight gain to reduce our risk of cancer. Also data measurements suggest that excess body fat in childhood increases the risk of cancer in later life.


Many people are unaware that being overweight causes increased risk of cancer, most of us think about heart disease risk which is also important; however it is clear that with excess fat come changes in metabolism, which push us towards a high-risk state and can cause many different life shortening diseases, from cancer to heart disease and diabetes.


Dr Ben Sinclair Linked In Profile
Twitter: Follow @menshealthtips 

Comments

Post a Comment

Please leave constructive comments/links here. I will try to respond as soon as possible.
Your comment will not be shown if deemed offensive or inappropriate.

Popular posts from this blog

Whole Man Theory

-
Image
The Integrated Health Pyramid Copyright   Sinclair Health Limited 2011 Back in Medical School in 1998 I had a strange dream one night and woke up with this image of a blue equilateral pyramid in my mind. I wrote it down and discussed it with my friend now a GP Dr Michael Bazlinton. I nicknamed this diagram the Integrated Health Pyramid and it underpins my practise. Back then I often talked to colleagues about what used to be called holistic medicine - treating the person and the physical problem, not just seeking disease but aiming to balance all areas of life to create positive wellbeing which in turn underpins good health. I had a vision of a multidisciplinary clinic with all the services required for integrated health under one roof revolving around a primary care base. My dream clinic would comprise of General Practise, visiting medical specialties, Osteopathy and Acupuncture for physical conditions, with internal referrals to Mental Health in the form of Psycho
Read more

My Melanoma Scar Story

-
Amazingly I am now back in the comfort of my own home, sitting on the sofa and watching "In the night garden" with my daughter.  Mr Dewar the surgeon just called to check everything was going OK and to explain what happened while I was asleep - they took 2 nodes from the groin and he put in 3 layers of stitches into the leg wound and a lot of local anaesthetic. A call at home from the surgeon - that's what I call service! After the anaesthetic I awoke feeling remarkably refreshed, like when you've had the perfect amount sleep in the afternoon. My surgeon did a fantastic job of blending the scar into the normal tension lines of my leg skin, so that when I move it doesn't pull or stretch the internal stitches.  This is however not the finished product and he explained that a large leg scar can be uncomfortable to carry with movement and tightening over the years. Because I am very fair skinned the scar is likely to end up rather purple, so I have to come up
Read more

Integrated Health Pyramid Model of Health

-
Image
The concept of wellbeing and the inclusion of the Spiritual realm of health as a source of strength and balance are now more widely accepted in modern western culture and medicine, unlike when I first conceived of the pyramid more than 20 years ago , when spiritual care was nothing more than a nod towards the patients belief system. I was just embarking on my career as a GP entrepreneur back in 2011 when I last wrote of the Integrated Health Pyramid and my outlook and practise have undergone a few upgrades and bolt on interests since then. Creating space for new projects gave birth to new opportunities and experiences; these have shaped and refined my integrated health model further, as has working in personal and corporate health sector. Here is the refined version of the pyramid model, which currently represents an ugrade to the traditional Bio-Psycho-Social medical model: The Integrated Health Pyramid helps patients and clinicians look at the whole picture of health o
Read more