Slash your cancer risk

Being obese brings life threatening consequences, one of which is cancer.  Obesity caused by poor lifestyle choices such as diet are the cause of one in eight hospital admissions for women over the age of 50 according to information from a new study.

According to researchers  from the University of Oxford found that hospital admissions for women over 50 are commonly caused by issues related to obesity or being overweight, and that these issues accounted for roughly 2 million days in hospital a year in the UK.

This information has come to light from research that was part of the Million Women Study - one of the biggest health research projects currently being carried out in the UK.  The researchers found the information by looking at the diseases in women with a high body mass index (BMI) of more than 25, including type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

However, although these diseases are common with women over the age of 50 with a high BMI, the study found that most of the issues were to do with cancer.  Weight is one of the big risk factors for breast cancer, BUT it is also one of the few that can actually be altered.

Lead author, Gillian Reeves explains:

"A lot of the work I do is related to cancer.  A lot of the risk factors for breast cancer, in particular, you can't change.  In some sense, it is quite nice to think this is a modifiable risk factor - there is a lot to be gained by not putting on excess weight."

The Million Women Study estimates that the annual bill to the taxpayer by overweight or obese women over 50 and their hospital visits is around 598 million Euros based on one NHS bed costing 299€ per day.

This study has been running since 1996 and looks at changes in health of the whole population over time, looking at about a quarter of all the women in the UK between the ages of 50 and 64 with a total of 1.3 million women participating in the study.

36% of the participants were overweight, and roughly 18% were obese bringing the total of women with weight issues to 54% of the participants - this is just a few percent lower than the official figure of women in England with weight issues - 58%.

The hospital admissions for overweight women in relation to the health problems they were suffering were as follows:

• Cataract surgery = 45,000 admissions
• Gallbladder disease = 35,000 admissions
• Breast Cancer = 34,307 admissions
• Heart Disease = 32,483 admissions

The study has determined that weight was a major factor in both minor and major ailments.  Women
with a BMI over 25 were at a bigger risk for diabetes (74% of admissions) and knee replacements (66% of admissions), and one in five heart attacks were due to weight issues.  The study found that the more weight a woman gained the more likely she was to spend time in hospital and it also found that women with a BMI of higher than 25 were LESS likely to smoke or drink with meant that their health issues were due only to being overweight rather than due to other unhealthy habits.


So, choosing a healthy lifestyle with a balanced diet and regular exercise will mean that your risk of serious health problems including cancer, will be far less than if you don't.  So remember this the next time you reach for a chocolate biscuit with your mid-morning coffee.

A healthy lifestyle really is easy to achieve.  There is so much information at your fingertips that will help you to make healthy choices - your body will thank you for it and so will the medical community.  The truth is, as I said 2 weeks ago, even with everything we know nowadays about what constitutes a healthy diet and the need for regular exercise, and we are STILL getting fatter and sicker, but what it really comes down to is what YOU choose to do.

Social Nutrition:  You can make an appointment to improve your health with Social Nutrition either in person (Madrid) or online (Skype).  Just send an email to lucycarr@socialnutrition.com