October is Breast Cancer awareness month and today I want to discuss its relationship with weight gain. Overweight and obese women have a higher risk of being diagnosed with breast cancer, especially after menopause. Being overweight also increases the risk of breast cancer coming back in women who have had the disease. Extra fat cells mean more estrogen in the body and estrogen can make hormone-receptor-positive breast cancers develop and grow. This is a concern because 70% of postmenopausal women in the US estimated to be affected by excess weight. In premenopausal women with estrogen-receptor positive disease being obese is associated with 34% increased chance of breast cancer death.
The location of the extra weight also matters. Extra fat around your belly may increase the risk more than the same amount of extra fat around your thighs or hips. Waist circumference is a simple way to know if you are at risk. Women with a waist circumference equal or more than 35 inches are at risk. Below, the is a diagram showing how and where to measure waist circumference. If your measurement is more than 35 inches find help. Keeping a healthy weight is one of the ways to keep Breast Cancer away. Read more about how to lose weight and keep it off for good at my previous article “Tips for a healthy weight loss”.
