An overweight person
IN PHOTO: An overweight person REUTERS/Regis Duvignau

Overweight people are at increased risk of developing cancer, especially cancer of the breast, endometrium, colon and rectum.

Studies, including one by the National Cancer Institute, USA, indicate that there is a direct link between obesity and cancer. Doctors even say that unless the obesity epidemic is controlled, obesity could overtake smoking as the leading cause of cancer.

The Overseas Development Institute found that Indians constitute one in three adults who are obese; a total of 1.46 billion people across the world. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, which followed 90,000 American adults, revealed that the heaviest participants were more likely to die of cancer than participants with healthy weight.

Both obesity and cancer result from the body losing its ability to burn fat as fuel. Obesity is linked to excess levels of insulin circulating in the blood, and this can cause harmful cell proliferation. It also increases oxidative stress levels in overweight people, increasing the risk of cancer. Excess fat cells, when partially metabolised, become carcinogenic. In women, obesity exposes them to higher estrogen levels because estrogen is produced in fat tissue. Obese women therefore have more estrogen, which leads to insulin resistance and the development of more fat tissue, which produces more estrogen, making it a cycle that increases the risk of estrogen-sensitive cancers.

In Turkey, about 79,000 new cancer cases were attributed to smoking and obesity. Lung cancer was the most common among men, while women usually suffered from breast cancer. Of the total 97,000 cancer cases among men and 62,000 cancer cases among women, 40,000 cases were attributed to obesity. Lung cancer mostly affects men who smoke more than women do. Obesity, as a cause of cancer, affects women more than men as two-thirds of the obesity-related cancer cases were among women.

An awareness campaign has been started in Turkey among schoolchildren so that they change their unhealthy eating habits. Introduction of dried nuts and fruits in school meals and the construction of bicycle lanes are among the projects being undertaken to fight obesity in Turkey.

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