I think it is time for one of my irregular updates on a favorite subject, and one of my personal failings: being overweight or obese.
The information yesterday from the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) that excess body fat (who doesn’t have excess body fat???) causes an extra 100,500 cases of cancer every year in this country didn’t help matters.
First, let’s talk about the science.
Since my colleagues at the American Cancer Society first published their research on the impact of overweight and obesity on the incidence and deaths from cancer several years ago, there has been an increased recognition of the role that weight plays in increasing deaths from a number of cancers.
The sad truth, as we have known for some time and confirmed once again yesterday by the AICR, is that people still don’t get it, that being overweight or obese can increase your risk of developing and dying from cancer. Just like high blood pressure, heart disease and other maladies, how much you carry around every day makes a real difference in your risk of getting cancer.
The information from AICR highlights some of that increased risk:
Every year, 49% of uterine cancers, 35% of esophageal cancers, 28% of pancreatic cancers, 24% of kidney cancers, 21% of gallbladder cancers, 17% of breast cancers, and 9% of colorectal cancers are linked to excess body fat.
That translates into the total number of cancers related to excess body fat every year, which is 100,500!!!! (For comparison, the American Cancer Society estimates there will be a total of close to 1.5 million new cases of invasive cancers diagnosed in the United States in 2009.)
We don’t know for certain why this relationship exists. As noted by the AICR, the strongest evidence is that excess fat increases levels of sex hormones and other hormones in our bodies that may be related to cancer growth. There is other research that suggests excess body fat lowers immune function and increases oxidative stress in the body, which in turn can cause damage to DNA and lead to cancer.
And then there is the other side of the issue, namely what is the relationship between excess body fat and survival once a cancer has been successfully treated.
According to the AICR, overweight and obesity are associated with poorer outcomes. So, they say that the “take-home message” for cancer survivors is that it is not too late to become physically active, since regular physical activity improves cancer survival.
Again, the reason this occurs isn’t known with certainty. It may have to do with the fact that insulin levels are lower in people who exercise, and that may have a positive influence on survival. The report also notes that higher insulin levels are associated with inactivity and overweight.
So where does that leave us?
Once again, we need to repeat after me: maintain a healthy body weight, and if you are overweight or obese, it’s time to get with the game. And eat a diet that emphasizes plant sources for energy, like fruits and vegetables.
I wish it were that easy. I have opined here time and again about my own problems with weight control. I know the pain and agony of trying to lose weight. I have spent countless years at the effort, including long hours on the exercise machines. And yet, even after some modest success, I find it is so easy to fall off the wagon. But I keep reminding myself that the trick is to get back on, and keep trying, and that’s what I am doing, once again.
We all have stresses in our lives that compete with our good intentions to do better and either get healthy or stay healthy. For me, the major stress is a fairly intense travel schedule with lots of meals in hotels or restaurants, where I have little or no control over how the food is prepared. Sometimes it seems that no matter how polite you are when you ask to have your food prepared a certain way, it frequently seems like a “random walk” when it arrives on your plate with the sauces and butter slathered everywhere you didn’t want it.
And then those are the little snacks that show up everywhere, whether on the plane, at a meeting, in an airport or just walking along the street or driving in the car. 100 calories here and 100 calories there can add up real quickly to real pounds, before you realize what you are doing to yourself. So you get on the treadmill or take a walk for an hour and realize that all you have done is burn off a couple of cookies. Talk about frustration!!!!
So you inevitably end up with those too frequent moments when you say, “I don’t care. I am going to treat myself and the heck with it.” That emotion is usually followed by something like buyer’s remorse, when you realize the next day that those 10,000 steps only went to pay back a small portion of last night’s gluttony.
I could go on and on, but what will that accomplish? I bet almost everyone reading this blog has had the same experience. I know the odd are that that is the case, since the majority of us in this country are currently overweight or obese. I have lots of company.
The report from the AICR is simply one more reminder that what we eat and what we do when it comes to our daily activity over a lifetime truly impacts our health and the length of our years.
So I will do the same thing I am going to ask you to do, and that is get back on that wagon. Do what you need to do, do what you can do. And then we can all help each other do what is best for our health.
And while I’m at it, maybe this is a good time to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving. Just don’t eat too much stuffing with the turkey.
