Did You Know?
allnurses is the largest community for nurses on the web. We now have over 388,636 members! Join today to network with other nurses, laugh, share, and much more.
| |  Obesity is now the leading cause of cancer
Originally Posted by NYDailyNews The leading cause of cancer these days is obesity, according to The Associated Press, with about 1 in 12 new cases of the disease due to excess weight.
European researchers say that obesity now accounts for up to 8% of cancers on the continent, according to the AP.
“Obesity is catching up at a rate that makes it possible it could become the biggest attributable cause of cancer in women within the next decade,” University of Manchester cancer expert Andrew Renehan told the AP. He spoke this week at a joint meeting of the European Society for Medical Oncology and the European Cancer Organization.
The news on this side of the pond’s not much more encouraging. Obesity and being overweight account for up to 14% of cancer deaths in men and 20% of cancer deaths in women, according to the National Cancer Institute. Some 20% to 30% of common cancers such as colon, postmenopausal breast, uterine and esophageal may be related to being overweight and to a lack of physical activity, according to the institute.
 Search Tags None  | 
| | Advertisement Sponsored Links | | | | No. 1 | 
Sep 25, 2009, 09:36 AM
Re: Obesity is now the leading cause of cancer Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com
Hmm. After reading Sandy Szwarc's blog I'm pretty sceptical about the way obesity research is conducted, the way researchers formulate their conclusions, and the way this is then reported in the popular media. After all, Glenn Gaesser's metastudy shower a 40% lower incidence of cancer in overweight and obese people, and the American Cancer Society reports that lifestyle (not weight) plays a part in 85% of cancers.
Ah-ha, you may say - and obesity is a result of lifestyle! But as a bariatric surgery release form states: Keep In Mind: Slender individuals have adult diabetes. Slender individuals have heart attacks. Slender individuals develop arthritis and have joint problems. Slender individuals have strokes and develop cancer. If obese individuals have these problems more commonly than the slender, it is because the same bad health habits just don't happen to cause obesity in some individuals "fortunate" enough to be slender no matter what they eat. They may be slender but they could very likely die just as early in life as someone who is overweight.
Not all people with unhealthy lifestyles are fat or obese, and not all obese or fat people have unhealthy lifestyles. I'm still waiting for the focus to shift from the way we look to the way we live.
| | No. 2 |
Sep 25, 2009, 11:49 AM
Re: Obesity is now the leading cause of cancer
Amen and wOOt talaxandra!!
Suspect research is definitely an appropriate description.
And I like your "slender" list! 
steph
| | No. 4 |
Sep 25, 2009, 12:53 PM
Updated
Sep 25, 2009 at 12:59 PM by carolinapooh
Re: Obesity is now the leading cause of cancer
Statistics, IMHO and most of the time, amounts to being not much more than snake oil science.
Didn't get the result you want? Try this test instead...
HATE that stuff.
While I don't think there's any way to reliably and irrefutably prove a lot of the stuff we now accept as fact, the truth is if you're morbidly obese, you didn't get that way by exercising (and please don't bring up BMI - that's also a load of garbage - that's a formula made up over a hundred years ago by some mathematician) - and by not exercising you're setting yourself up for all sorts of problems.
So it is lifestyle - and it affects how you look.
I know all about the looks thing - Jim Fixx was a running guru and dropped dead of heart disease/heart attack; fitness didn't help Flo-Jo 2/2 an unknown defect; my grandfather was built like a rail and had high blood pressure (and worked his butt off, I might add); I have a friend who exercises like a fool, eats like a health nut, and found out at her last physical her cholesterol was 265 - and she's 28 and gorgeous with a body anyone would envy! There's no discounting heredity and a crappy hand of genes.
But - and I'm not being critical here, folks, because there but for the grace of God go I, and I recognize that - extremely, dangerously overweight folks didn't get that way by going to the gym every day and eating their veggies. I'm sorry if I offend, because I don't mean to, but while there are those who carry around that extra ten pounds regardless of what they do (and I know they exist), people who are one hundred or more pounds over what I consider being "normally overweight" didn't get that way by exercising. And if you don't exercise, and you don't eat right, you have increased your risk for cancer regardless of your hereditary status and whether you actually develop the disease or not.
it's like speeding. Speed on the interstate and your risk of getting a ticket or having a major accident increases - whether that's actually what happens or not on that particular day, the risk has increased, you just haven't gotten caught yet. And you might not get caught (and stats/experience say you WON'T) - but the greater risk is still there regardless of the outcome.
| | No. 6 |
Sep 25, 2009, 02:24 PM
Re: Obesity is now the leading cause of cancer Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com Originally Posted by talaxandra 
Ah-ha, you may say - and obesity is a result of lifestyle! But as a bariatric surgery release form states: Keep In Mind: Slender individuals have adult diabetes. Slender individuals have heart attacks. Slender individuals develop arthritis and have joint problems. Slender individuals have strokes and develop cancer. If obese individuals have these problems more commonly than the slender, it is because the same bad health habits just don't happen to cause obesity in some individuals "fortunate" enough to be slender no matter what they eat. They may be slender but they could very likely die just as early in life as someone who is overweight.
Not all people with unhealthy lifestyles are fat or obese, and not all obese or fat people have unhealthy lifestyles. I'm still waiting for the focus to shift from the way we look to the way we live.
From reading that page, I believe the thrust of the statement about slender people was to take away the hope that all troubles will vanish once one has obesity surgery. From reading the rest of the page, it is not in there to say that if you're obese and concerned about your health issues related to obesity, it's okay to stay obese because skinny people have some of the same health issues as well. It is definitely not a "obesity is good" cheerleader document.
In the first paragraph he says, "Preventive therapy would have kept them from becoming obese in the first place."
| | No. 7 |
Sep 25, 2009, 07:54 PM
Re: Obesity is now the leading cause of cancer Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com Originally Posted by applescruffette From reading that page, I believe the thrust of the statement about slender people was to take away the hope that all troubles will vanish once one has obesity surgery. From reading the rest of the page, it is not in there to say that if you're obese and concerned about your health issues related to obesity, it's okay to stay obese because skinny people have some of the same health issues as well. It is definitely not a "obesity is good" cheerleader document.
In the first paragraph he says, "Preventive therapy would have kept them from becoming obese in the first place."
I certainly don't think obesity is good. My point was that all the attention is paid to BMI and appearance, rather than diet and exercise as ends in themselves. I posted the bariatric surgery section because he points out that some people have an unhealthy lifestyle but it isn't visible.
There's no question that eating a balanced, moderate diet high in unprocessed foods, and getting a variety of regular moderate exercise (strength, endurance and cardiovascular) ought to be part of everyone's life. As long as we concentrate on size and appearance rather than these aspects - for their own benefits, not to aid or maintain weight loss - fat people will feel like failures and unhealthy thin people will feel smug and not at risk of lifestyle diseases.
Our society is so hysterically fat-phobic that any message saying anything except "FAT KILLS! BE THIN OR DIE! SELFISH FAT PEOPLE ARE COSTING US ALL MILLIONS A YEAR AND DRAGGING DOWN THE COUNTRY'S LIFE EXPECTANCY! SAVE THE CHILDREN!" doesn't get heard.
I don't advocate thin people gaining weight, or fat people aiming to become obese. I advocate a predominantly healthy lifestyle regardless of size, and research falsely telling people that being fat increases your cancer risk doesn't help anything - fear isn't a good long term motivator, and ramps up anxiety (and therefore comfort eating and other self-soothing behaviours). If we could shift focus to healthy behaviours as ends in themselves then weight stability wouldn't be a sign of failure and a reason to abandon healthy behaviour.
Note: although I've quoted applescruffette, this isn't aimed at her but is instead a combination of explanation of my quote and anti-fat phobic vent
| | No. 8 |
Sep 26, 2009, 10:10 AM
Re: Obesity is now the leading cause of cancer
This study is not the only study to prove a link to obesity and cancer. I don't believe they are looking merely at BMI's but lifestyles. I think we need to get beyond the defensiveness of being obese and look at the facts. Originally Posted by pubmed Obesity and Cancer: The Role of Dysfunctional Adipose Tissue. van Kruijsdijk RC, van der Wall E, Visseren FL.
Departments of 1Vascular Medicine and 2Pathology and Medical Oncology, University Medical Center Utrecht, the Netherlands.
Overweight and obesity are health problems of epidemic proportions, increasing the risk not only of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes mellitus but also of various types of cancer. Obesity is strongly associated with changes in the physiological function of adipose tissue, leading to insulin resistance, chronic inflammation, and altered secretion of adipokines. Several of these factors, such as insulin resistance, increased levels of leptin, plasminogen activator inhibitor-1, and endogenous sex steroids, decreased levels of adiponectin, and chronic inflammation, are involved in carcinogenesis and cancer progression. This article reviews these mechanisms, focusing on adipose tissue dysfunction as a unifying causal factor. Although understanding of the link between obesity and cancer might provide therapeutic targets, preventing overweight and obesity still remains number one priority. (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2009;18(10):OF1-10). http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1...?dopt=Abstract Originally Posted by National Cancer Institute - What have scientists learned about the relationship between obesity and cancer?In 2001, experts concluded that cancers of the colon, breast (postmenopausal), endometrium (the lining of the uterus), kidney, and esophagus are associated with obesity. Some studies have also reported links between obesity and cancers of the gallbladder, ovaries, and pancreas (4).
Obesity and physical inactivity may account for 25 to 30 percent of several major cancers—colon, breast (postmenopausal), endometrial, kidney, and cancer of the esophagus (4).
Preventing weight gain can reduce the risk of many cancers. Experts recommend that people establish habits of healthy eating and physical activity early in life to prevent overweight and obesity. Those who are already overweight or obese are advised to avoid additional weight gain, and to lose weight through a low-calorie diet and exercise. Even a weight loss of only 5 to 10 percent of total weight can provide health benefits (4). - How many people get cancer by being overweight or obese? How many die?In 2002, about 41,000 new cases of cancer in the United States were estimated to be due to obesity. This means that about 3.2 percent of all new cancers are linked to obesity (7).
A recent report estimated that, in the United States, 14 percent of deaths from cancer in men and 20 percent of deaths in women were due to overweight and obesity (8).
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/f...t/risk/obesity | | No. 9 |
Sep 26, 2009, 10:35 AM
Re: Obesity is now the leading cause of cancer
People who counter anti-obesity health claims are not necessarily being defensive. Once again, I'm not positing that a sedentary lifestyle, particularly in combination with a poor and excessive diet, are good. I'm not saying that being super obese is associated with a long and healthy life. I'm saying that being thin or 'normal weight', as an end in itself, ought not be a goal. Diets don't work in the long term for the overwhelming majority of people; bariatric surgery is fraught with complications and - after forty years, there are still no long term studies on its health benefits.
Studies also show obesity lowers the risks of a number of diseases, from both the indience and mortality of a number of cancers (including pre-menopuasal breast cancer), COPD, TB, mitral valve prolapse, intermittent claudication, eclampsia, premature birth, premature menopause and some menopausal symptoms, anemia, type I diabetes, peptic ulcers, scoliosis and suicide, as well as reducing the likelihood and severity of stroke and osteoporosis. Why aren't these facts well known? Because we live in an increasingly fat phobic society.
Fear sells, safe prejudices appeal, and after two decades of both being ramped up neither has seen a societal change for the better.
When so much research indicates that many of the health risks associated with being fat are related to weight cycling and stress, it makes sense to focus on interventions that are known to be successful at promoting health.
Once again, what I'm saying, in a reasoned and non-defensive way, is that varied moderate regular exercise and a varied, predominantly unrefined, moderate diet ought to be advocated for everyone, irrespective of weight. That this ought to be the goal, not what size pants you wear.
|
| 360 members
2,569 guests 2,929
| 29 | | | 0 | | | 2 | | | 8 | | | 20 | | | 2 | | | 13 | | | 63 | | | 13 | | | 12 | |
| 41 | | | 1 | | | 13 | | | 2 | | | 9 | | | 17 | | | 11 | | | 16 | | | 16 | | | 39 | | | 14 | | | 20 | | | 23 | | | 19 | | | 24 | |
|
Nursing News