Losing weight can reduce the risk of breast cancer

Quite a few studies have linked obesity to breast cancer, but a new study has examined its concrete effect. The study found that even weight loss of individual kilograms reduces the risk of getting sick, even if slimming occurs late in life

Losing weight can reduce the risk of breast cancer

Video: Campaign to raise breast cancer awareness

Excess body weight is a known and significant risk factor for breast cancer. Quite a few studies have already shown that too much body fat can raise sex hormones like estrogen, especially in postmenopausal women. But despite the knowledge that there is a link between extra weight and breast cancer, it has been difficult to learn how weight loss can affect a woman's chance of developing the disease.

Now, a new article published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute in the United States provides encouraging evidence for women age 50 and older, as it shows that almost any ongoing weight loss results in a reduction in the risk of breast cancer.

This diet lowers the risk of breast cancer

"We are grateful to say that it is not too late to reduce the risk of breast cancer if you have gained weight in the past, even after age 50," says co-author Lauren Theres, director of epidemiological research at the U.S. Cancer Research Society.

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The study relied on data collected through a project that combines diet and cancer research, which is essentially an international research system seeking to clarify the relationship between diet and cancer in women with no history of the disease. For the new study, researchers used data from 180,000 women living in the United States, Australia and Asia, all 50 years old and without cancer at baseline. Each woman also provided researchers with data on her weight and body mass index (BMI), as well as characteristics Her lifestyle and demographics.
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Affects various illnesses, including cancer. Weight (Supplier: Gipghy)

Weight Loss Diet (Photo: Giphy)

The researchers tracked participants' weight changes for 10 years after joining the study, and examined the survey data collected every few years to see if their weight was increasing, decreasing, or remaining stable (most studies used height and weight data in self-report). After that decade, they tracked the women for about another eight years to see how many had developed breast cancer and found that nearly 7,000 women had the disease.

Having included other factors that can affect breast cancer risk, like activity habits
Physical and hormone replacement therapy, researchers have found that the more weight a woman has lost, the lower her risk of breast cancer. Among women who did not use hormone therapy (sometimes used to replace hormones lost during menopause, and linked to breast cancer risk), a 2-pound reduction - and maintaining that weight - seemed to be enough to reduce the risk by about 18 percent compared to starting weight gain. She didn't seem to lose weight. A sustained weight loss of about 9 pounds or more has led to a lower 32 percent risk of contracting the disease.

Worth investing. Woman exercising (Photo: shutterstock)

Woman exercising (Photo: ShutterStock)

Given the association between body weight and cancer risk, the effects of weight loss appear to be much stronger in women who started the study with excess weight. This is an important finding, Tress noted, because about 70 percent of American adults are considered overweight or obese. "Healthy women do not need to lose weight," Tars clarified.

Tress's study failed to prove the cause and effect, but only found the relationship between weight loss and breast cancer. For that reason, she says, it is not entirely possible to say why weight loss can reduce the risk of cancer, although it likely eliminates some of the hormonal activity that causes weight gain.

Although breast cancer is almost always caused by a number of factors, the study highlights that there is something to be done to minimize the risk of women getting the disease, not to mention their chances of developing other chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease and other types of cancer.