Breast Cancer and Obesity Connection

by Renee Dietz | More from this Blogger

01 Nov 2006 09:45 PM

While most people know that obesity is dangerous when it comes to diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, and stroke, many women are unaware that obesity has also been linked to breast cancer. The greatest risk indicator is for women that carry excess weight around the tummy and in the upper body region. Today, experts have identified that approximately 50% of all women (and men) with breast cancer are obese.

One of the reasons this is believed to be true is that being able to identify lumps or abnormalities in the breasts of someone overweight is far more difficult than someone of normal size is. Therefore, cancerous tumors are often missed by people performing a self-exam. While studies are leaning more and more to a definite connection between breast cancer and obesity, the level of obesity at which point risk increases has not yet been determined.

Another possibility is that obese women store xenestrogens in the extra fat cells. Because xenestrogens are extremely dangerous compounds that act much like estrogen, the body becomes polluted. Additionally, any woman who struggles with excessive weight, specifically those women nearing menopause years, should change eating habits and incorporate exercise into the daily regimen to lose weight. The problem is that post-menopausal women that are obese have much greater levels of estrogen and testosterone, which actually increases the chance of breast cancer by 50%.

To give you an idea of how serious too much weight is in relation to breast cancer, just 44 pounds of excess weight is enough to double the risk. That alone should be reason to get serious about dropping the extra pounds. In addition, a new study just released by Yale University discovered that morbidly obese women are three times more likely to develop breast tumors that are detected at a later stage, meaning the chance for treatment and recovery is greatly diminished.

From one study to the other, the same results have been found. The good news about obesity and breast cancer is that both are treatable if done properly. While you might need to be aggressive with lifestyle change, you can lose the weight. If you have trouble doing this on your own, talk to your doctor about intervention. Additionally, if breast cancer is detected early enough, it is highly treatable.

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Learn more about Renee Dietz

I have been a successful, published writer for the past 26 years, offering a writing style that is informative, creative, and reader-friendly.

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