obesity

Obesity

An article was recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine noting 13 types of cancer that are increased in cases of obesity. Urologically this includes Kidney cancer. You need a membership to see the original article.  But a summary is included here.

What Was The Strongest Link?

The strongest association was with uterine cancer and post-menopausal breast cancer. The only environmental factor that has been found to have a stronger association with malignancy is smoking. This should be a wake-up call to all non-smokers that obesity is the factor about your life that is the best opportunity to control to change your risk of cancer, not to mention the other health and non-health advantages of appropriate body weight.

Metabolic and hormonal aberrations are known to be associated with obesity, which could account for the increased risks. So what can be done? Well if you are overweight find a way to lose that weight, although no study has yet been done to see if risk then decreases, so the best solution is to avoid excessive weight gain in the first place, and certainly don’t add to any excess weight you have now.

Some of the more popular diets these days emphasize a low carb approach. Even with significant amounts of bacon, eggs, meat, and other fats in the diet, measures such as cholesterol often improve. This is thought to be due to lower need for insulin release and activity. Insulin changes the way the body metabolizes what you eat. Insulin clearly plays a good and important role but this was probably based on the typical human diet of many thousands of years ago, hence the conflict. If you do change your diet or want to initiate an exercise program make sure you see your doctor first and are monitored afterwards. Dr. Newman of Las Vegas Urology can help with your urologic conditions.