Hyderabad: According to the results of a study conducted by the Centre for Disease Control, obesity may be one of the causes of breast, ovarian, endometrial, gallbladder, oesophageal and gastric cancers.
The researchers have deemed these cancers preventable and said that they can be avoided by controlling one’s weight.
Dr Mohana Vamsy, a senior cancer specialist, says, “Obesity is one of the main causes of breast and endometrial cancers in women. A high-fat diet along with a sedentary lifestyle is a reason for the development of these diseases. Earlier, these problems were confined to urban areas, but now we are receiving cases from semi-urban and rural areas as well due to a change in their lifestyle.”
Dr Vamsy says that in order to control weight, one’s diet should be rich in fruits, vegetables and lean foods, and one should indulge in some form of physical exercise.
The study has been conducted on the basis of data collected from over 2 lakh people between 2013 and 2016. During this period, the incidence of obesity-related cancers has been found to have risen by seven percent.
Dr Amit Jotwani, a senior cancer specialist, says, “Two years ago, breast cancer overtook cervical cancer in India, and one of the reasons for this was obesity. A changing lifestyle has added to the burden of the disease.”
About 15 percent of the total population of India can be classified as obese. In Telangana, 26 percent of females and 23 percent of males below the age of 49 are obese, according to the data available with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
