The 100-Calorie Secret - Never Diet Again!

High blood pressure, strokes, heart attacks and diabetes are well recognized complications of being overweight. The association of cancer and obesity is much less publicized. An increase in breast and colon cancers in obese individuals has been well documented. The association of  pancreatic cancer the fourth leading cause of cancer related deaths  and weight gain has not been as widely publicized.

In the June 24th issue of Journal of the American Medical Association, Dr's Li and Morris provide convincing evidence of the important association of pancreatic cancer in overweight individuals.This includes only mildly obese as well as obese people.

Using a BMI of 25-29, they found people  even in the 14-39 year age group to have a much greater chance of cancer than their normal weight counterparts( ratio 1.67).  For men between 15 to 59 the ratio was even high (ratio 1.8).

Not only was the incidence higher in overweight people, the age of onset was 2-6 years earlier. A little unusual was the fact that even early onset obesity was associated with these changes.

The authors speculate that insulin resistance seen in obesity  and/or the tendency to high blood sugars  direct effect on tumorgenesis. Other cancers related to obesity include breast, ovary,
prostate and colon.