Overweight and obesity is the second biggest cause of cancer in the UK. If you are overweight you are more likely to get cancer than if you are a healthy weight.
Being overweight doesn’t mean that you’ll definitely develop cancer. But the risk is higher the more overweight you are and the longer you are overweight for. If you are overweight, avoiding putting on more weight and losing weight will help reduce your risk of cancer.
There are lots of benefits to keeping a healthy weight. These include having increased energy, and less risk of conditions such as heart disease, stroke and joint pain.
Extra fat in the body doesn’t just sit there, it’s active and send out signals to the rest of your body. These signals can tell cells in our body to divide more often, which can lead to cancer.
The signals released by fat cells can affect:Growth hormones – too much body fat can cause levels of growth hormones to rise, which tells cells to divide more often. This raises the chance that cancer cells will develop.
Inflammation – immune cells go to areas of the body where there are lots of fat cells. This can lead to inflammation, which causes cells to divide quicker. Over time, this can increase the risk of cancer.Sex hormones – after the menopause, fat cells produce the hormone oestrogen. This hormone can make cells in the breast and womb divide more often, which increases the risk of cancer developing.
These are the main ways extra body fat can cause cancer that scientists have identified so far. But research continues to find out more.
There is lots of high-quality research showing the link between excess weight and cancer. This research has been going on for decades and has involved millions of people.
We can be sure that obesity causes cancer because the risk increases the more weight is gained and the longer it is held for. There are also good explanations for how fat cells can cause cancer to develop.
This doesn’t mean that everybody who is overweight will develop cancer. But the risk is higher for people who are overweight or obese.
