Health researchers have known for quite some time that women who pack on extra pounds are putting themselves at higher risk for certain types of cancer.
Researchers have also long believed that inflammation is associated with the development of cancer, and those extra pounds are often responsible for triggering inflammation in the body.
Now a groundbreaking study has now shown postmenopausal women who are overweight or obese but lost at least 5 percent of their body weight could measurably lower markers of inflammation, thus lowering their risk for future cancer.
To see if women could change inflammation biomarkers without drugs by simply changing their lifestyles, Anne McTiernan, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Prevention Center at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, led the Nutrition and Exercise Study for Women (NEW), a four-year randomized controlled trial study.
For the NEW study, Dr. McTiernan and colleagues assigned 439 women to a weight loss intervention with the goal of losing 10 percent of their body weight over one year with diet alone, combining diet with aerobic exercise, or exercise without diet modifications.
The researchers measured participants’ inflammation biomarker levels throughout the study. Biomarkers are distinct substances in the body that indicate if certain health conditions are present.
McTiernan and colleagues found women in the diet and exercise group who lost at least 5 percent of their body weight benefited the most, but even those in the diet only group who lost weight saw measurable benefits. However women in the exercise-only group saw little effect on their inflammation biomarker levels.
Possibly as much as one-quarter of all cancers are due to excess weight and a sedentary lifestyle, the study said.
Packing on too much weight is linked to esophageal cancer, postmenopausal breast cancer, endometrial (lining of the uterus) cancer, as well as colorectal cancer, kidney, pancreatic, thyroid, gallbladder, and possibly other cancer types, according to the National Cancer Institute.
The standard measure used to determine if a person has a healthy weight or not is the body mass index (BMI). The measure uses a person’s height and weight to calculate his or her overall fat versus muscle makeup.
Women who are classified as overweight have a (BMI) between 25 and 29. A woman is obese if her BMI is 30 or above. A healthy-weight woman has a BMI of 18.5 to 24.9 percent.
Just how much of a collective weight problem does the United States have? The answer might surprise you.
According to results from the 2007-2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 68 percent of U.S. adults, age 20 years and older, are overweight or obese. By contrast, in 1988-1994, 56 percent of adults in the same age group were overweight or obese.
If the current obesity trends continue, by 2030 it is estimated Americans will experience an increase of 500,000 additional cancer cases.
However, NHANES found if every U.S. adult reduced their BMI by just 1 percent (roughly 2.2 pounds for an average weight person) not only would the U.S. cancer burden not increase, we could avoid 100,000 new cancer cases.
Although the NEW study has it limitations, “it adds to the growing understanding we have about the link between obesity and cancer, and it appears we can directly affect inflammation through non-pharmaceutical means,” said Dr. McTiernan in a written statement. “We are not talking about drastic weight loss here, anyone can do this.”
To see what your BMI is, try The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention’s easy-to-use BMI calculator at http://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/assessing/bmi/
The results of the NEW study are published in the May 1, 2012 edition of Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.
Lynette Summerill is an award-winning writer and Scuba enthusiast living in San Diego, CA with her husband and two beach loving dogs. In addition to writing about cancer-related issues for EmpowHER, her work has been featured in newspapers and magazines around the world.
Sources and consumer information:
“Effects of a Caloric Restriction Weight Loss Diet and Exercise on Inflammatory Biomarkers in Overweight/Obese Postmenopausal Women: A Randomized Controlled Trial.” Anne McTiernan et al. Cancer Res;72(9) 2314-2325. May 1, 2012.
http:www.aacrjournals.org
Obesity and Cancer Risk Fact Sheet. National Institutes of Health. Accessed online at:
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/obesity
Why Cancer and Inflammation? Yale J Biol Med. 2006 December; 79(3-4): 123–130. Published online 2007 October. Seth Rakoff-Najoum. Abstract at:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1994795
Key Statistics from NHANES. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Accessed online 30 April 2012 at: http://wwwn.cdc.gov/nchs/nhanes/bibliography/key_statistics.aspx
Weight Loss Led to Reduction in inflammation. AACR News Release. Jeremy Moore. 1 May 2012
Reviewed May 1, 2012
by Michele Blacksberg RN
Edited by Jody Smith