The Times

Kaya Burgess

Gerry Gajadharsingh writes:

“With over 55,000 cases of breast cancer diagnosed in the UK it will be useful to have additional lifestyle strategies to help reduce a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer. The study below looked at over 180,000 women from the USA, Asia and Australia over 50 years of age, with almost 7,000 developing breast cancer (almost 4%), over a 10-year period.

 Even those women with a modest weight loss (2 to 4.5kg), cut their risk of breast cancer by 13%. The average weight loss on a Metabolic Balance programme is 2 to 4kg in 2 weeks!

 Those women who lost over 9kg reduced their risk by 26%.

 It is well known that fat cells release pro inflammatory cytokines and oestrogen, and of course we would expect that women taking HRT (usually oestrogen replacement), would not expect this risk reduction, the study confirms this. Hormones in the drugs “may overwhelm more moderate changes in hormones” due to weight loss, the study suggested.

 A simple way of losing weight is to simply stop eating in between meals and choose low glycaemic load carbohydrates. For further information you can read by iBook if you wish

https://www.thehealthequation.co.uk/ibook/ “

Women who lose excess weight in middle age can reduce their risk of breast cancer by up to 26 per cent, a study has found.

Keeping the pounds off could significantly lower the chances of developing breast cancer after the age of 50 compared with remaining overweight, the researchers said.

Excess weight has been identified as a risk factor for various cancers but few studies have examined whether this risk can be decreased by losing weight in middle age and later.

New research has found that even “modest” weight loss can reduce the danger. “Given that breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women worldwide, the question of whether weight loss can reduce breast cancer risk is of great public health importance,” the study said.

The American Cancer Society and the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health analysed data taken from ten separate studies on 180,885 women from the US, Australia and Asia who were 50 or older. Their weight was tracked across a ten-year period and the researchers identified 6,930 cases of breast cancer.

Women who lost between 2kg and 4.5kg (4.4lb and 10lb) cut their risk of breast cancer by 13 per cent. Women who lost between 4.5 and 9kg (10 to 20lb) had a 16 per cent lower risk, and those who lost 9kg or more reduced their risk by 26 per cent.

Women who lost 9kg or more and then put some — but not all — back on still had a 23 per cent lower risk. “Our results suggest that even a modest amount of sustained weight loss is associated with lower breast cancer risk for women over 50,” Dr Lauren Teras, lead author of the study, said. “These findings may be a strong motivator for . . . women who are overweight to lose some of that weight. Even if you gain weight after age 50, it is not too late to lower your risk of breast cancer.”

The study also suggested that losing weight could reduce sex hormones in the body. This may explain why the reduction in breast cancer risk was not observed in women using post-menopausal hormone therapy, according to the report published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Hormones in the drugs “may overwhelm more moderate changes in hormones” due to weight loss, it said.

The study found that women who gained up to 13.4kg (2.1st) after the age of 50 but then lost it all again did not have an increase in risk compared with women whose weight was stable.

Dr Teras said: “Perhaps equally as important, these results suggest that gaining weight and then losing it confers the same breast cancer risk as keeping a stable body weight.

“Prevention of the most common cancer worldwide may be a particularly motivating factor for the near epidemic numbers of overweight women.”

About 55,200 cases of breast cancer are diagnosed in the UK every year, according to Cancer Research UK. The study was supported by grants from the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and National Cancer Institute in the US.