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60 / Health Issues Caused by Obesity
Think for a moment about the following statistics. Women who gain twenty
pounds more after age eighteen have a 15 percent higher risk of
post-
menopausal
breast cancer, and women who gained fifty-five pounds had a
45 percent higher risk, and 33,000 breast cancer cases each year are due to
obesity. Large waist size (abdominal obesity) is associated with
colorectal
cancer. The higher a person’s BMI is, the greater his likelihood of developing
esophageal
cancer. The American Cancer Society attributes undesirable
dietary practices and resulting weight issues to nearly one-third of the
580,000 annual cancer deaths in the United States alone.
Granted, the relationship between obesity and cancer is mostly statisti-
cal. The numbers show that obese people suffer from greater cancer rates,
but a direct cause and effect relationship has yet to be proven or understood.
Nevertheless, study after study confirms a link exists. The first studies asso-
ciating obesity with cancer began as early as the 1940s. Over the decades
since then, medical opinions have shifted back and forth regarding any rela-
tionship, but current wisdom supports a definite connection.
For example, the American Cancer Society recently concluded a large,
long-term study of this connection and found increased rates of kidney,
stomach, and uterine cancers among the obese. It also found increased rates
of cancers like colon, rectal, and prostate in men; and cervical, ovarian,
gallbladder, and breast in women. Clearly researchers see an association, but
they don’t understand exactly why it exists.
That’s not surprising when you realize that not all cancers are alike. Each
form is a unique disease in and of itself. Individual types of cancer exhibit
distinct cellular characteristics, progress at certain speeds, respond to differ-
ent therapies, and metastasize (spread) to different sites. Why? As of yet, no
one really knows. The profiles of each cancer and each person with cancer are
simply too varied to draw any single conclusion. For example, environmen-
tal exposure might explain one malignancy, while genetic factors or lifestyle
determine another. Or a combination of known and unknown elements may
be the culprit. Given all conceivable causes of cancer, isolating one specific
cause with absolute certainty becomes practically impossible. And if we don’t