It's time for couch potatoes to sit up and take notice. Obesity and inactivity are not only undesirable, they carry a significant risk of pancreatic cancer too.
According to a study conducted by researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health in conjunction with the departments of Nutrition and Epidemiology in Boston, the risk of pancreatic cancer is significantly increased in individuals who are obese and do very little physical exercise. Obesity and lack of physical activity could account for almost 15% cases of pancreatic cancer over and above those caused due to smoking.
The researchers studied almost 50,000 men and more than 1 lakh women between the ages of 30-75 years who were overweight and did not have cancer at the beginning of the study. These participants were followed up for 20 years and were tested after the completion of the study. The study was based on two prior research projects undertaken on health care professionals in America.
The results showed that people who had a Body Mass Index (BMI) of more than 25 units were at an increased risk of developing cancer of the pancreas. This risk increased radically for individuals whose BMI was more than 30 units. In normal individuals, the BMI ranges from 20-23 units. The study also showed that physical exercise was inversely related to cancer. The more exercise a person did, lesser were his chances of suffering from the condition. Smoking has been traditionally seen as the basic cause of pancreatic cancer. However, obesity and lack of physical exercise make a person prone to diabetes which is also a known causative factor in pancreatic cancer.
If the relationship is further substantiated, it may be another factor in the list of risks due to obesity.
JAMA, 2001 Vol. 286, No. 8