Can Obesity Increase the Risk of Cancer?

Posted By Suborna Fermi Posted on Oct 23, 2021

It is well known that Cancer is a deadly disease. Everyone is aware that smoking and drinking are the main causes of cancer, but obesity is one of the reasons why a non-smoker or abstainer can get cancer. Obesity often results from, If you consume high amounts of sugars and fat but do not burn off the energy through exercise or daily life activities, much of the surplus energy will be stored by the body as fat.

Many studies showed that obesity is linked with different kinds of cancers including Endometrial cancer, Esophageal adenocarcinoma, Gastric cardia cancer, Liver cancer, Kidney cancer etc. One is considered as obese, if his/her BMI is greater than 35kg/m2. It is suggested by the doctors to maintain a BMI between 21 to 23kg/m2. Taking excessive junk food or high sugar containing diet and lack of physical activity can make you obese.

How Obesity increase the risk of cancer

• Obese people often have low-level inflammation, which can cause DNA damage that leads to cancer.
• Obese people often have increased blood levels of insulin, this condition may promote the development of kidney and indometrial cancer.
• Human body has mutated cells, these mutated cells make multiple copies of the cells than actually required, and an excess number of cells demand more energy. An Obese patient tend to have higher amount of fasting glucose, which allows these cells to multiply easily.
• Fat produces adipokines, hormones that may stimulate or inhibit cell growth. Fat cells may also have effects on cell growth regulators, including mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) and AMP-activated protein kinase.

Healthy lifestyle and physical activity is good for you. Losing weight or avoiding putting on more weight can reduce the risk of cancer, stroke and any other heart disease. There are lots of other benefits of maintaining a healthy weight.