Obesity and Cancer

The CDC has released a report on obesity and cancer. In its MMWR they provide some details. They note:

Overweight and obesity are associated with increased risk of 13 types of cancer. These cancers account for about 40 percent of all cancers diagnosed in the United States in 2014, according to the latest Vital Signs report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Overall, the rate of new cancer cases has decreased since the 1990s, but increases in overweight- and obesity-related cancers are likely slowing this progress. About 630,000 people in the U.S. were diagnosed with a cancer associated with overweight and obesity in 2014. About 2 in 3 occurred in adults 50- to 74-years-old. The rates of obesity-related cancers, not including colorectal cancer, increased by 7 percent between 2005 and 2014. The rates of non-obesity related cancers declined during that time.

This is not a startling new fact. Ten years ago when discussing changes in Healthcare financing, I wrote extensively about this. Obesity drives up free radicals and free radicals result in both methylation and BRCA and PARP repair defects. Thus massive DNA errors and in turn many malignancies. It would be of interest to see how many X rays would equal a certain BMI in terms of cancer risks. But that notwithstanding, we now accept the risk of cancer from obesity.

But the real problem is that we penalize pre-existing conditions but not obesity. Those who are obese will soon be costing us trillions. That is real money and money we do not have. The real-real problem is that many of these obese are young people. One need just walk into any shopping mall or airport and one sees them all over. Worse, in looking at hurricane relief efforts, there is massive obesity in those being rescued, and worse yet in many of the first responders. This will lead to massive healthcare burdens as time goes by. Furthermore these burdens can be chronic thus burdening the system for long periods.

To again reference the MMWR:

Overweight- and obesity-related cancers accounted for 40% of all cancers diagnosed in 2014, and varied substantially across demographic groups. Endometrial, ovarian, and postmenopausal female breast cancers accounted for 42% of new cases of overweight-and obesity-related cancers in 2014, which is reflected in the higher overall incidence of overweight- and obesity-related cancers among females. For cancers that occurred among both males and females, however, the incidence of most cancers was higher in males.

 This problem demands some response. Now.