If you want to lessen your chances of getting cancer, better cut down on belly fat

After smoking, being obese is the biggest cause of cancer which can be avoided. For every 11 cm increase in the waistline, the risk of obesity related cancers goes up.

Besides high body mass index (BMI), individuals with increased belly fat may be at a greater risk of developing cancer, including of the breast and bowel, especially in older adults, researchers have warned. Being overweight or obese is the single biggest preventable cause of cancer after smoking.

The findings revealed that for every 11 cm increase in the waistline, the risk of obesity related cancers such as breast, bowel, womb, oesophageal (food pipe), pancreatic, kidney, liver, upper stomach (gastric cardia), gallbladder, ovarian, thyroid, etc., escalates by 13 per cent. Adding nearly eight cm to the hips increases the risk of developing bowel cancer by 15 per cent.

“Our findings show that both BMI and where body fat is carried on the body can be good indicators of obesity-related cancer risk. Specifically, fat carried around the waist may be important for certain cancers,” said lead author Heinz Freisling and scientist at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC-WHO) in France.

Carrying excess body fat can change the levels of sex hormones, such as oestrogen and testosterone, cause levels of insulin to rise, and thus lead to inflammation, all of which are factors that have been associated with increased cancer risk, the researchers explained.

The researchers combined data from around 43,000 participants who had been followed for an average of 12 years and more than 1,600 people were diagnosed with an obesity-related cancer.

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