Current News on Obesity
Obesity Increases the Risk of Cancer
Recent studies have confirmed and even strengthened the data that confirms the link between obesity, defined as a body mass index of 30 or more, and cancer. The link is significant even though in an American Cancer Society study done in 2002, only 1% of Americans polled “identified maintaining a healthy weight as a way to reduce cancer risk.”
There has been a known link between for some time between weight and “cancers of the uterus, kidney, esophagus, gallbladder, colon and rectum, and breast (in postmenopausal women).” More recent studies indicate a significant increase in “cancers of the liver, pancreas, prostate, cervix, ovary, and stomach (in men), as well as non-Hodgkin lymphoma and multiple myeloma.”
With breast cancer and prostate cancer, the 2nd most common cancers in women and men respectively, the issue is compounded. In both cases obesity increases the risk of having the cancer, but also increases the risk of death due to the cancer.
With obesity directly linked to nearly 90,000 cancer deaths annually in the US, it is simply not a statistic that life insurance underwriters, or people who are overweight can afford to ignore.