Going by facts and figures, breast cancer is one of the most common types of cancer in women. Over 1 million women all over the world are diagnosed with breast cancer each year, mostly women in the age group of 50 and above.
There are several awareness measures being taken in various parts of the world, highlighting the major causes of concern to make sure the disease is diagnosed early. While there are many factors that cannot be controlled, there are ways to control the risk of developing the disease.
Worldwide obesity is a figure that has been rising steadily. As a matter of fact, the figure has almost doubled since the past two decades, as on 1980. Obesity was once considered to be a problem only in the high income nations however; the issue of becoming overweight and/or obese is dramatically rising. When the urban areas are concerned, the figures have been rising steadily.
Obesity is commonly associated with several health complications, such as cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, diabetes and some types of cancer. Reports from the World Cancer Research Fund and the International Agency for Research on Cancer concluded that there is enough evidence, convincing, that being overweight or obese can lead to breast cancer post menopause.
The increased risk of getting cancer in women who have gained weight is mainly due to the high levels of estrogen in their body. Since the fat tissue is one of the largest estrogen sources among women after menopause, overproduction of estrogen can cause breast cancer.
Interestingly, there are several twists and turns to the convincing evidence produced by researches.
According to present research, no matter how heavy a woman’s body is, in terms of weight, it doesn’t increase the risk of breast cancer before menopause; it may, rather, reduce the risk.
However, scientists do not agree to this fully. But since the diagnosis of breast cancer is more common after menopause, the chance of breast cancer in post-menopausal women outweighs all its potential benefits on cancer.
This is a tricky question that scientists and researchers have to face very often. Firstly, there are only a few people who actually lose their body weight as adults. Thus, it is very difficult for them to find a team of women for study. Next, those who have lost weight fail to maintain the result. Maintained result of weight loss for a long time is rare.
People, both men and women, who have gone through bariatric surgery, can keep off their weight loss for long. This is quite encouraging. Women undergoing bariatric surgery are less likely to develop or suffer from cancer than women who are obese. That’s another interesting fact to note.
There is no end to the answer of whether body weight is directly or indirectly related to breast cancer. How much to lose weight in order to reduce this risk? When to start? Is age a factor for weight loss? While the direct relationship between breast cancer and weight loss is not understandable, it is evident that avoiding weight gain can be helpful.