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Obesity Increases Cancer Risk

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - We know that being obese is bad for the heart and it certainly does not help with your breathing either. And, the more weight you carry on your body, the greater the odds of developing cancer.

Considering the fact that we are facing an obesity epidemic, a much quoted study in the journal The Lancet is quite distressing.

Remember, obesity increases the risk of developing diabetes as well as various forms of heart disease. Now, this study was a big one. It looked at 141 articles involving over 282,137 cancer cases and 20 different types of cancer. They used it to calculate the cancer risk associated with a 10 pound weight gain in the average person.

Another interesting point, different forms of cancer were worse in men than in women. For instance, weight gain increased the risk of colon cancer more in men than in women.

Reported By Dr. Brian McDonough, KYW Newsradio Medical Editor

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