Breast Cancer and Weight Issues Linked

I was talking with a friend of mine the other day and she told me that not a lot of the people she knew were aware that being overweight was one of the risk factors that can lead to breast cancer. I told her I knew weight loss is a balanced diet and exercise was good for your health, but really didn’t know the extent of the cancer link.

I don’t feel too bad because I read a global survey by the International Union against Cancer (UICC) that found around 40 per cent of people in North and South America, Australia, New Zealand and West Asia do not know about the link between weight and cancer. In other regions such as Africa and South East Asia, the survey revealed that awareness is even lower, with respectively 41 and 49 per cent of people saying there is no link between weight and cancer.

I later found out that there are estimates that suggest cancer will soon become the leading cause of deaths, and that weight plays an important role in this. I thought the US was mainly concerned about obesity trends, but it seems almost every other country is worried also.

This survey interviewed 40,000 in 39 countries and found that those who are most at risk from some cancers minimize their own risks. What this means that 25% of those who drink and smoke daily think that smoking cigarettes does not increase the risk of cancer. The same is true of people who are already obese or overweight.

What I was not aware of is that the author of the report, Terry Slavin stated that "Thirty to 40 per cent of cancers could be preventable if people led healthier lives, tackling overweight and obesity."

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) an estimated 22 million children under five are overweight today, and the problem is growing.

"Overweight and obesity are part of the causal chain for many cancers," Professor David Hill, the president of the UICC said in a news release to launch the initiative.

This is well established in science but not adequately understood in the community. In fact, current lack of public understanding of the link between body weight and cancer probably parallels our attitudes to smoking and cancer in the late 1950s."

Another report from the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2007 showed that cancer will become the leading cause of death worldwide by 2010, more than heart disease. Cancer is also rising in developing countries, the World Health Organization reported.

This may be because developing countries are copying the eating habits of developed countries. Where they used to eat a lot of plants and fruits, but the shift towards technology and fast foods is increasing the number of cancers. This brings up the issue of how do we teach these countries not to take the examples of developed countries? Surely not by our example so far.