Cases of six cancers soar in young people including bowel, pancreatic & kidney – ‘because they’re too fat’

RATES of cancers linked to obesity are rising faster in millennials than any other generation, an alarming new study has warned.

Six of 12 cancers directly caused by piling on excess body fat are climbing faster in young people, compared to just two out of 18 non-obesity related cancers.

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Bowel, endometrial, gallbladder, kidney, multiple myeloma (a kind of blood cancer) and pancreatic cancers are all on the rise among 24-38-year-olds.

It's the first study of its kind to examine the trend between obesity-related cancers in young American adults.

Having excess body fat is known to be a carcinogen - AKA cancer-promoting.

Extra body fat doesn't just sit in our bodies keeping us warm, it's active.

It actually sends signals throughout our bodies, telling our cells to divide more often; cancer tumours develop when cells divide too much.

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The obesity crisis has meant younger people spending longer periods of their lives carrying excess body fat than previous generations.

And scientists led by Dr Hyuna Sung, believe that exposure to carcinogens in early life may have a massive influence on cancer risk over the course of the upcoming years.

A few years ago, scientists found that early onset bowel cancer in the US were on the rise in places where people tended to be obese.

In a new study, published by The Lancet Public Health, the same group of scientists analysed 20 years of data for 30 cancers in 25 states from the Cancer in North America database.

They found that the rates for six of the 12 obesity-related cancers had increased in young adults.

The risk of bowel cancer, endometrial, pancreatic and gall bladder cancers in millennials, for example, was double the rate baby boomers had at the same age.

But when it came to non-obesity-related cancers - including those usually caused by things like smoking - rates either had dropped or stabilised.

We want governments to take action by changing our daily environments to make healthier choices easier.”

How does being overweight or obese increase our risk of cancer?

Fat has two main functions: to provide a source of energy and to send signals to the rest of the body.

Fat is super important - you'll die without enough of it.

But having too much body fat can result in sending signals around the body that can cause damage.

These signals can cause levels of insulin and other growth hormones to rise - promoting cells to divide.

They can also cause inflammation as well as excessive amounts of oestrogen, which again can make cells divide too fast - particularly in the breast and womb.

Belly fat is especially dangerous

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Apple-shaped people run the biggest risk of things like bowel, kidney, oesophageal, pancreatic, and breast cancers.

It isn’t clear exactly why this is, but it could be to do with how quickly certain chemicals from fat can get into the blood.

According to , obesity is the second biggest preventable cause of cancer in the UK - with more than one in 20 cancer cases being caused by excess weight.

The more weight you put on and the longer you're overweight, the higher your risk.

Obviously, being a bit overweight doesn't necessarily mean that you're guaranteed to develop cancer but you're more at risk that someone of a healthy weight.

If more of us managed to maintain a lower weight, around 22,800 cases of cancer could be prevented every year in the UK - and that's not to be sniffed at!

The fatter you are, the more definite the link with cancer becomes.

Are obese kids equally at risk?

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Oddly, no. The link between obesity and cancer is only in adults.

But the thing about childhood obesity is that kids who are overweight tend to grow into overweight adults; children who are obese are around five times more likely to grow into obese adults.

And that means that they're way more at risk from developing cancers at some point in their lives.
Susannah Brown, Acting Head of Research Evidence at World Cancer Research Fund: “These (new) figures are very worrying.

"Overweight and obesity is occurring at an ever earlier age due to unhealthy 'Western diets' and new technologies which encourage children to spend long periods of time being inactive, such as sitting in cars and watching television.

"Overweight and obese children are more likely to be overweight adults, increasing their risk of developing a number of different diseases in later life, including 12 cancers.

"Although the absolute risk of these cancers is small in younger adults, these findings have important public health implications," said Dr Ahmedin Jemal, senior author of the paper.

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Dr Jemal said that the large increase in obesity among young people and the increasing risks of obesity-related obesity meant that we might see a "halting or reversing" of the progress achieved in reducing the number of cancer deaths in recent years.

"Cancer trends in young adults often serve as a sentinel for the future disease burden in older adults, among whom most cancer occurs."

The scientists concluded that new strategies are needed to deal with the rates of premature deaths from obesity-related diseases.

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