BMI and Cancer Risk

Increased body weight puts us at risk for developing a variety of health conditions. This is not news to anyone. Those who are overweight or obese are more at risk for high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, sleep apnea, diabetes, stroke, liver disease, and more. It’s also important, however, to understand that increased body mass index (BMI) - the ratio of your body’s height to weight - can also be an indicator of your potential risk for developing certain types of cancer.

In fact, the American Cancer Society estimates that about one in three cancer-related deaths in the United States are connected to body weight; making losing weight priority number one in taking control of our health. It has been shown that increased BMI is connected to cancers such as pancreatic, breast, ovarian, prostate, liver, colon/rectum, and more.

It is believed that increased weight causes inflammation in the body thus causing an imbalance in our natural immune system and hormone levels. This imbalance, in turn, can affect cell division which can result in cancer.

There is no better time to get healthy than now. To lower your risk of a variety of health conditions and potentially lower your risk of developing cancer, it’s important to eat healthy, exercise, and stay in balance.

It is recommended to lower the number of calories that we ingest on a daily basis by eating smaller portions and reducing our intake of fried foods and those foods that are high in fat and calories. Instead, we should be increasing our intake of whole fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and lean proteins. There is a seemingly ongoing discussion about the potential connection between sugar and cancer but regardless it’s recommended that we limit our intake of sugar as much as possible.

There will always be a good reason to lose weight and live our life at a healthy BMI. Lowering our risk of developing cancer is another fantastic reason to let go of the excuses and get healthy.

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