Obesity responsible for 4percent of cancers in world – Study

Doctors have always warned people who are overweight to watch and monitor their health. A recent study has mentioned that being overweight or obese is the culprit for four percent of cancers across the globe. So far two thirds of the Americans and more than two billion people across the globe are overweight. Experts have predicted that the figure is only expected to be increased in the upcoming decades.

The major reason behind the increasing weight of the people is the poor diets specially noticed in the western countries and this contributes to risk not only for Obesity but also to seven of the leading causes of death in the US. A global study was conducted by the Harvard University and Imperial College London, which suggested that excess body weight is not just a risk factor but is also responsible for 544,300 cancers a year across the globe.

However, the rates differ significantly. Obesity accounts for about seven percent of cancers in the US where the citizens are wealthy but are not so active. It is less than one percent in some of the poorer nations like India and Ethopia. The authors have urged public policy chances to reverse the rising trend of obesity and the cancers associated to it.

The US and other Western Countries is facing an epidemic like situation in terms of cancers. Identifying a beginning and a clear start of an epidemic is not possible but the waistlines and the BMIs have been growing in the US since the 1970s. Then not more than seven percent of the American population was obese and 13 percent was overweight. By 90s the obesity rates doubled in the US to 15 percent of the adult population. Since the past 20 years, the problem has quickly accelerated. Now the situation is that one in three American adults is obese.

Photo Credits:Pixabay