BMI a Major Cancer Risk Factor

Body mass index (BMI) is a measure of body fat based on height and weight that applies to adult men and women.  A BMI of 18.5–24.9 is defined as normal weight; whereas a BMI of 25–29.9 is considered overweight and a BMI of 30 or more signals obesity.  The World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) warns that high BMI is now a major cancer risk factor, responsible for nearly 4%, or 481,000, of new cancer cases globally in 2012.  The study found that North America has the  worst cancer problem linked to weight, with 111,000 obesity-related cancers diagnosed in 2012, accounting for 23% of global cancer cases linked to high BMI.  In Europe, obesity is to blame for around 6.5% of all new cancers a year, about 65,000 cases.  Observing that: “A quarter (about 118 000) of the cancer cases related to high BMI in 2012 could be attributed to the increase in BMI since 1982,” the study authors observe that: “Assuming that the association between high BMI and cancer is causal, the continuation of current patterns of population weight gain will lead to continuing increases in the future burden of cancer.”