Three Startling New Discoveries Have Just Been Made About Breast Cancer to Help You Prevent the Disease

3 New study makes surprise discovery that women of normal weight may possess an increased risk of breast cancer because of high levels of body fat

A new study has made a surprising discovery: Even women within a normal weight range may have an increased risk of invasive breast cancer if they have high body fat levels.

As per the CDC (center for disease control and prevention), among the biggest risk factors of breast cancer was overweight and obesity after menopause. However new evidence from latest studies now proves that it is more body fat rather than bodyweight which increased a risk of the disease.

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The study

Author Neil Iyengar from the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, NY presented the research study at the recent American Association for Cancer Research Special Conference.

Titled Obesity and Cancer: Mechanisms Underlying Etiology and Outcomes, the study pointed out body fat as one of the biggest risk factors of breast cancer. Said Doctor Iyengar “It was previously unknown whether individuals who have a normal BMI but increased body fat have an increased risk of developing cancer." He went on to add that the risk of invasive breast cancer increased in postmenopausal women having a normal BMI and high levels of body fat which also meant that “a large proportion of the population has an unrecognized risk of developing cancer."

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Body fat, not weight, increases risk of breast cancer

Till now the relation of body fat and invasive breast cancer has not been researched because of the difficulty in calculating how much BMUI is made up of fat and how much skin bones and muscles. Researchers used a special technique called dual X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) that enables specialists to measure different elements of body composition like body fat.

The study over a period of 16 years fo9llowed 3,460 volunteers whose BMI (within normal readings of 18-25) was analyzed and without previous diagnosis of breast cancer. Over the years, those diagnosed with the disease were followed up for invasive breast cancer. They were also assessed for estrogen receptor positivity in reference to various cancers where malignant cell growth could be caused by exposure to estrogen. At the end of the study, 186 women had developed invasive breast cancer among which 146 showed signs of estrogen receptor positivity.

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Startling results showing why physical exercise is important for burning body fat

After analyzing the data the researchers found that women with normal BMI but high body fat possessed almost twice the risk of estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer in comparison to those with low levels of body fat in their BMI

The risk was also increased by 35% for every KG of body fat. Dr. Iyengar also noted that physical activity was low in those with body fat which means that PHYSICAL ACTIVITY IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT EVEN FOR THOSE NOT OBESE OR OVERWEIGHT. There are several specific and accurate exercises for women to burn body fat which can be done either at home or in a gym and should be started today if you think you have body fat.

"We hope that our findings will alert women to the possibility of increased breast cancer risk related to body fat, even if they have a healthy weight," he adds.

Hopefully, these three latest breast cancer discoveries will go a long way in improving the lives of women with the disease and even prevent it.

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