Obesity Linked to Rise in Colorectal Cancers in 20 & 30 Year Olds

What’s the link between obesity and cancer? It puts you at higher risk of developing colorectal cancers.

Your weight can put you at risk of cancer in your 20s and 30s.

According to new research published in respected journal JAMA, those with obesity, that is Body Mass Index of over 30, had nearly doubled risk of early-onset colorectal cancer compared to those with a BMI of 18.5 to 22.9.

Nearly 85000 women were monitored from 1989 to 2011, as part of a cohort study titled Nurses Health Study II.

This is a worrying finding for India where obesity rates have doubled in the last few years and are expected to go up by 5% of all population by 2025. The number may not sound too high, but in a country that battles malnutrition on the other end of the spectrum, it is a cause of concern.

While nearly 55 per cent of all colorectal cancers occur in developed countries, in India, it is the 4th most common type of cancer among women and 5th in men.

The reason obesity is being linked to cancer is because it causes inflammation in the body.

The researchers mapped early-onset colorectal cancers against BMI — both now, and when they were 18 — to figure out whether having a higher BMI at any point in a person’s life was associated with greatest colorectal cancer risk before age 50.

So people with obesity (a BMI of 30) had nearly double the risk of early-onset colorectal cancer compared with women in the normal BMI range (18.5 to 22.9).