Here are eight more reasons to watch your weight: A group of international researchers has linked eight more types of cancer to being overweight.
That’s in addition to five types of cancer that the same group tied to excess weight in 2002.
For their latest study, the researchers reviewed more than 1,000 studies of excess weight and cancer risk analyzed by the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).
The results were published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Cancer prevention expert Dr. Graham Colditz of the Washington University School of Medicine chaired the IARC Working Group. In a statement issued by the school, he explains:
“The burden of cancer due to being overweight or obese is more extensive than what has been assumed. Many of the newly identified cancers linked to excess weight haven’t been on people’s radar screens as having a weight component. … This is another wake-up call. It’s time to take our health and our diets seriously.”
The latest study links excess weight to the following types of cancer:
- Stomach
- Liver
- Gallbladder
- Pancreatic
- Ovarian
- Meningioma (a type of brain tumor)
- Thyroid
- Multiple myeloma (a type of blood cancer)
The researchers previously linked excess weight to these types of cancer:
- Colon
- Esophagus
- Kidney
- Breast
- Uterine
For most of these 13 cancers, the researchers found a direct relationship between body mass index (BMI) and cancer risk. That means, the higher your BMI, the greater your cancer risk.
BMI is a measure of weight that also takes height into consideration. Use a free online BMI calculator like that of the National Institutes of Health if you don’t know your own BMI.
Like the National Institutes of Health, the IARC defines an overweight person as having a BMI of 25 or more and an obese person as having a BMI of 30 or more.
If you are trying to lose a few pounds, you might want to check out “9 Best Low-Cost Exercises for Weight Loss.”
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