Prevent cancer by changing your lifestyle

pic source: blog.aicr.org (American Institute for Cancer Research)

There is definitely more to gaining excess body fat than just not being able to fit into your favorite jeans – being obese can also increase your cancer risk. While there are people who have been technically overweight their entire life and are perfectly healthy, becoming obese (BMI>30), especially if that body fat is mostly centered around your abdomen, is a medically defined risk factor for getting certain cancers, among those cancers of the digestive system (oesophagus, colorectum, gall bladder, pancreas), as well as breast cancer (in postmenopausal women), ovarian and kidney cancer. According to the “European Code against Cancer, 4^th edition” [1], about 4-38% of these cancer types can be attributed to obesity. Though these figures might sound grave, there is also good news: losing weight dramatically diminishes cancer risk! However, even if you are at normal weight, healthy diet, active lifestyle and moderate-to-low alcohol consumption are highly advisable as means of cancer prevention. That means, it is totally up to you to decrease your cancer risk.

So what is it about excessive body fat that makes it so dangerous? After all, isn’t it just our energy stores? Not exactly. It has been widely recognized lately that body fat is a metabolically active tissue that produces hormones and cytokines (adipokines and pro-inflammatory cytokines). Increased body fat accumulation can also lead to hormonal imbalances, e.g. insulin resistance. Due to disruption in sex hormone production, obesity can also cause infertility in women (that can be cured by losing weight). Insulin and hyperinsulinaemia can also stimulate cancer cell proliferation and tumor growth. Hyperinsulinaemia can indirectly promote cancer by increasing the circulating levels of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), which has been linked to cell proliferation, as well as aging. Leptin, produced by the fat tissue, can also be pro-inflammatory and favor cancer-friendly environment.

So what are the official recommendations of European Code against Cancer? As stated in a recent article (see [1]), they are pretty much common knowledge: don’t smoke, limit your alcohol intake, avoid too much sun exposure, eat a healthy diet, be physically active, try to achieve normal body weight. Last but not least: don’t forget to undergo regular check-ups. Even if you are doing your best to live a healthy life, it does not hurt to pay a visit to the doctor’s office once in a while!

(1) This post is based on the following article:

“European code against cancer 4^th edition: Obesity, body fatness and cancer” by Anderson AS et al in Cancer Epidemiology 2015.