Obese women face greater cancer risk: Study
Reported October 02, 2009
NEW DELHI: Two separate medical findings simultaneously released on Friday have sounded the tocsin for Indian women.
In the first study, nearly six crore women in India above the age of 15 have been found to be overweight, bordering on obesity. Shockingly, a separate study found obesity to be the leading cause of cancer these days, specially in women, with about one in 12 new cases of the disease due to excess weight. European researchers say obesity now accounts for up to 8% of cancers on the continent.
The first study, published in the Journal of Nutrition, examined how many women in the reproductive age group in three south Asian countries India, Nepal and Bangladesh have become overweight/obese in a decade-long period between 1996-2006. The prevalence of obesity in this age group of women increased by almost 6% in Bangladesh, 8.5% in Nepal and 4% in India. Though India reported the lowest percentage increase, in absolute numbers of obese women, it is far higher than both Bangladesh and Nepal.
After researching national data from eight demographic and health surveys that studied 19,211 women in Bangladesh, 19,354 in Nepal and 1.6 lakh women in India, experts found that the prevalence of overweight-obesity increased from 2.7% to 8.9% in Bangladesh, 1.6% to 10.1% in Nepal and 10.6% to 14.8% in India.
These increases were observed in both rural and urban areas and were greater in rural areas.
Professor Anoop Misra, director of Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases at Fortis Hospital, said the prevalence of overweight women had increased substantially in Bangladesh, Nepal, and India.
India has around 39.42 crore women above age of 15, which means around 5.8 crore of these women are overweight and obese. This goes to show that women in India are at higher risk of developing diabetes and
heart disease, primarily due to sedentary lifestyle.
Meanwhile, another study has clearly said shedding some extra pounds could greatly protect women against cancer. Scientists say being overweight accounts for up to 14% of cancer deaths in men and 20% of cancer deaths in women.
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. Though scientists dont know why obesity increases cancer risk, they think it may be linked to hormones. Fat people produce more hormones, such as estrogen, that help tumours thrive.
Source : The Times of India
