Obesity Can Double The Risk of Cancers!!

According to a recent report published in the Lancet medical journal, obesity can cause the risk of several cancers like those of the bowel, kidney, and breast to almost double up. Risk of numerous blood cancers such as adult leukemia, multiple myeloma and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma also increases with increase in body fat.

Andrew Renehan, a cancer specialist at the University of Manchester led the study. Renehan made his analysis after looking into the results of about 282,000 men and women, of what happened to people whose body mass index (BMI) increased from the normal range (18 to 25) to overweight ( more than 25) or from overweight to obese (above 30).

The study also showed that gender too plays a very important role between obesity and certain cancers. For eg, for men, the risk of thyroid cancer rose by a third, while colon and kidney cancers rose by almost 24 percent. When women gained more than necessary weight, their risk gall of bladder cancer rose by almost 59 percent, while 34 percent was the increase in the kidney cancer rate.

Obesity has become a world-wide phenomenon now days; the reasons are multiple some of them include more fast food, less exercise and unhealthy eating habits.

The mantra for staying lean and cancer-free is really simple, all you need to do is to eat sensibly and exercise regularly. Follow it, for not only will you look good, you will stay disease-free too.

Smoking kills almost a million in India per year!!

“Smoking is harmful to Health” - This is a statutory warning printed on all cigarette packets. Yet the question arises as to how many people pay heed to this warning. Statistics will reveal a very small number. Majority knowingly jump in the fire or continue to smoke, risking even the lives of those around them, due to passive smoking.

A recent research has revealed that smoking kills almost a million people in India per year. More so the high smoking risk among Indians was a surprise when actually Indians start smoking at a later age and even smoke less than their European and American counterparts.

Also smoking results in most Indians dying from Tuberculosis rather than cancer as Indians prefer Beedis, that are traditionally leaf wrapped and hand rolled rather than manufactured brand filters. And since most of them never quit till death, the risk just doubles.

The study also revealed that almost 120 million people smoke in India, majority being men. Due to smoking most men in India get infected with asymptomatic tuberculosis - that is, smoking damages the lungs to such an extent that the latent infection cannot be sustained, eventually leading to death.

Illiteracy is one of the evil causes of smoking, for half of the Indian smokers are illiterate and barely 2% quit smoking in their lives. For the other half literate people who continue to smoke in spite of being aware of the dangers involved, the Indian health authorities are rooting for tobacco companies to print images of diseases that are tobacco related. But politicians want to save their vote banks in the name of protecting jobs of tobacco workers.

The research which was recently published was based on a study of the smoking history of 74,000 Indian who had recently died and 78,000 Indians living.

Well research or no research, smoking is injurious to health - is a known fact. And yet people continue to...smoke!

Courtsey:Rueters