Organs Does obesity increase the risk of cancer?

Organs: Obesity increases the risk of cancer?

Obesity is usually a burden on our organism. In addition to possible sequelae such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and joint problems with increased cancer risk has now been added to a possible health risk.

Dr. Michael Karin, a professor of pharmacology at the University of California San Diego's Gene Regulatory and Signaling Laboratory, has shown in animal experiments on overweight mice fed on high-fat diets that the liver of the livestock forms a tumor disease even when it is lightly loaded. The reason for this is supposed to be a slight inflammation of the liver which is chronified.

It is caused by two factors: Increased fat storage locally in the liver cells and a massive increase of pro-inflammatory messengers in the blood. This causes liver cells to degenerate faster. The messengers include interleukin-6 (IL-6) and the tumor necrosis factor (TNF).

Karin, head of the study, and his research colleagues published their study yesterday, Friday, January 22, 2010, in Elsevier's journal „Cell“ (No. 140, Issue 2).

You have no doubt that if these results are transferable to us humans, anti-inflammatory agents in obese people can significantly reduce the risk of liver cancer in the future. „The chronic inflammatory response triggered by obesity and increased production of IL-6 and TNF could also increase the risk of other tumors“, adds Dr. Michael Karin added. Further studies must now show whether these results are transferable to the human organism and therapeutically useful for prophylaxis in the future. (Thorsten Fischer, Naturopath Osteopathy, 23. 01. 2010)

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