One of the largest medical studies ever undertaken has confirmed what many public health officials already feared: Being overweight can give you cancer.
It is already established that excess body fat is an important cause of diabetes, heart disease, stroke and early death. But the link between obesity and cancer is not as well known. On Tuesday the Million Women Study in the United Kingdom found that overweight and obese women are at higher risk of developing and dying of cancer.
Specifically, the study found that excess weight causes cancers of the esophagus, endometrium (uterine lining), ovary, kidney and pancreas, as well as leukemia, multiple myeloma and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
It is already established that excess body fat is an important cause of diabetes, heart disease, stroke and early death. But the link between obesity and cancer is not as well known. On Tuesday the Million Women Study in the United Kingdom found that overweight and obese women are at higher risk of developing and dying of cancer.
Specifically, the study found that excess weight causes cancers of the esophagus, endometrium (uterine lining), ovary, kidney and pancreas, as well as leukemia, multiple myeloma and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
It also causes breast cancer -- but only in post-menopausal women. Being overweight before menopause appears to reduce the risk of breast cancer.
