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Today, overweight and obesity are increasing due to diet and inactivity. Being overweight is one of the risk factors for many diseases such as heart disease, blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and especially it is found that being overweight increases the risk of cancer. In particular, the rate of colon cancer in overweight people is also higher than in people of normal weight.
1. What is overweight and obesity?
Overweight, obesity is the accumulation of excess and abnormal fat in a certain area of the body or the whole body. This causes many harms to health.
To accurately calculate the level of overweight and obesity, the World Health Organization (WHO) often uses the Body Mass Index (BMI). BMI is calculated by dividing your weight (kg) by the square of your height (m).
Excess when an adult has a BMI between 25 – 29.9. Obesity when BMI > = 30. Overweight and obesity have many causes such as: A sedentary lifestyle; unscientific eating habits; have some hormone disorders such as hypothyroidism, cushing's syndrome...; related to genetic factors...
According to many studies, scientists have found that being overweight and obese is a high risk factor for many diseases including: Cardiovascular disease, diabetes , cancer,...
2. Does being overweight increase the risk of colorectal cancer?
Colorectal cancer is an abnormal proliferation of cells lining the colon or rectum and these cells can invade nearby organs or metastasize to distant organs. Often colorectal cancer will develop from colorectal polyps.
So far it is not clear what causes colorectal cancer, but lifestyle-related risk factors are the most important. In particular, the relationship between diet, weight and exercise is most closely related to the risk of colorectal cancer.
Being overweight or obese can not only increase the risk of many dangerous diseases, but it is also a risk factor for colorectal cancer. Research has found that being overweight or obese increases the risk of colorectal cancer by 30% compared to the general population. There may be an increase in both men and women, especially in men, the risk is higher.
Có nhiều nguyên nhân ung thư đại trực tràng trong đó có thể kể đến như thừa cân
In fact, being overweight and obese not only increases the risk of colorectal cancer, but increases the risk of most cancers developing in the body. Through many studies, it has been found that the mechanisms that make overweight and obesity increase the risk of cancer include:
Inflammatory process: When there are many fat cells in the body, immune cells will increase cytokine secretion, thereby promoting the process of chronic inflammation, causing cells in the body to divide faster. When this condition occurs over a long period of time, it can cause DNA damage that leads to cancer. Growth hormone: Having too much body fat can lead to increased levels of insulin and insulin-like growth factors-1 (IGF-1). Elevated levels of insulin and IGF-1 cause cells to divide faster, more often. It can promote the development of colon cancer, kidney cancer, prostate cancer and endometrial cancer. Increased levels of sex hormones: Fat tissue in the body produces excess estrogen. Estrogen produced by fat cells can cause breast and endometrial cells to divide more rapidly. Thereby increasing the risk of mutating into malignant cells and causing cancer. The above are 3 main mechanisms by which being overweight and obese increases the risk of cancer.
3. How to maintain a reasonable weight?
Control weight, limit many chronic diseases and especially an effective cancer prevention measure. Some measures that can be applied to help control weight include:
Change to a healthy diet: Eat more green vegetables, fruits and whole grains; Limit intake of foods of animal origin; high-energy foods such as fast food; foods and drinks high in sugar; fried food; Do not eat dinner too late or eat late at night. Limit alcohol, tobacco, and tobacco use. Increase exercise: This is a measure to help the body burn excess calories and make the body more flexible. Should practice sports such as walking, yoga, cycling ... every day at least 30 minutes. Being overweight is an important risk factor for colorectal cancer. Therefore, controlling weight is an effective measure to prevent colorectal cancer. In addition, in high-risk people such as people over 50 years old, family history of cancer, etc., it is advisable to conduct cancer screening to be detected and treated as soon as possible.
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