Each 2-2.5 st weight increase linked to cancer risk increase. AIBU to think those of us who can have a duty to lose weight?

[LapsedTwentysomething]

And by that, I mean most of us. I have PCOS am 2.5st above the highest point of my healthy weight range. PCOS makes weight gain spectacularly easy and loss more difficult but I'm also a comfort eater and can address this. I just choose to make excuses.

Link here. This particularly caught my attention: 'each 13-16kg (2-2.5 stone) of extra weight an average adult gained was linked firmly and linearly to a greater risk of six cancers'. My mum was diagnosed with one of the cancers listed at an advanced stage last year. She has never been overweight. What the fuck am I doing to myself / my DCs / DP / the NHS?

AIBU to think this is actually quite stark, and it's imperative that those if us who need to and can lose weight should just Get On With It? I know this stuff isn't new but those links are clearee than ever.

Excuse that clumsy thread title.

Is it really anything new? I think most people know that being overweight/obese has a lot of health risks including the increased risk of cancers.

Unfortunatly there is a big difference between knowing your overweight and wanting to do something about it and being able to do something about it

This isn't going to go well...

With pcos, i am most concerned about the increased heart risks and diabetes. (At bmi 21)
Try an app to monitor your intake.

I don't care if it goes well or not.

I can't stick to an app like MFP and I can't handle 5:2. I signed up to WW online last week which is fine for me as I just eat normally but have to keep control of portions. Trying to exercise a lot over summer but can't sustain it at this level once summer' sober.

Yes but that is perpetuating the blame culture that surrounds cancer. I weigh 8 and a half stone, am 5ft 8 and I still got breast cancer. I attended workshops with other women diagnosed, none were overweight.

I just wish they'd research the other causes of cancer instead of harping on about weight/diet. Yes this will help but there is no magic bullet. I still exercise and eat healthily, whether this will stop the cancer from coming back who knows..

I can't be bothered to wade through the stats, but I'd imagine the increased risk still meant a fairly minimal chance of actually developing a particular cancer over a lifetime.

Being overweight lowered the risk of prostate cancer, and some cancers didn't seem to be weight correlated at all, so it's swings and roundabouts.

And they say themselves that they don't know whether losing weight will lower the risk.

I'll take my chances as I am now I think. We will all die of something, and very old age isn't something I particularly aspire to.

That's an interesting point. Something my mum is really angry about is that she's never smoked / drunk to excess / been overweight and she leads an active life. Just the way she is. No gimmicks or anything. So I do understand that weight is only one factor - but my perspective is that I want to limit the risk.

If it helps, it helps. It's one way people can proactively try to reduce risk. This thread is now going to fill up with peoples stories about heavy drinking smokers who lived to 99 etc, but that misses the point.

And it isn't blaming people to research the possible causes of such a brutal disease. We need more research, not less.

I can see this POV too. But mum is 58 and is incapacitated as much due to the side effects of drugs than the cancer itself. She struggles to walk due to corns. Has constant diarrhoea. Is fatigued all the time. Her old self is partially lost already. She's too young.

YABU, duty to whom?! No one has a duty but a choice often, yes.

A duty to ourselves and our family. That's how I feel. I would also feel badly about creating extra pressure on the NHS, personally, if I knew I was at risk but had done nothing to try to address it.

But how big is the risk? Have you read the paper?

Interesting question.

I think we all have a duty to look after ourselves for the sake of our partners and children, but how far do you take it? I'm a smoker, but I eat very healthily, do a reasonable amount of excercise, don't drink much, am not overweight.

I know I should give up smoking, and if have done in the past, but it's bloody hard, and I'm not prepared to beat myself up constantly for doing something I shouldn't do when the fact is that I might end up with cancer or any other serious health issue regardless of whether I give up. I'm not about to feel guilty with regards to the NHS, because I easily pay my fair share of tax into the system and take very little out of it. But if I didn't then I'd probably feel more responsibility to not end up as a burden on the state, because I am lucky enough that I could do something about my vices if I made enough effort.

Being healthy is great, but living a perfectly healthy lifestyle just doesn't suit everyone, and personally I don't see the point in making staying alive as long as possible a persons main focus in life. There's more to a life than the number of years it lasts.

God no I don't want to live a perfectly healthy lifestyle. That would be unsustainable for me. I drink plenty of wine as am cutting down but certainly not giving up. I don't smoke - used to sometimes but didn't particularly like it and d

Having a baby creates extra pressure on the NHS....

Oops. Don't miss it.

Not interested in clean eating but do avoid too much processed stuff.

Having a baby also contributes to the NHS.

Most people take out more than they put in though.

I heard on the radio leukemia mentioned. Now I thought that was a 'random' thing.

My mum was overweight and didn't die of one of these. Dad was a skinny minny and did.

Surely its all to do with diet, exercise, and a dose of luck/genes.

I'm a bit of a rebel by nature and I just wish people would stop telling me what to do one here. Lecturing does not help.

This subject must come up about 10 times a day on mn. I think it's been covered.

My very slim, healthy, non smoking, cancer suffering husband says hi.

For PCOS a low/no carb diet would get the weight off you a lot more effectively.

So does my mum. Hi. She asked me and my DBs to try lead healthier lifestyles. Different strokes I suppose.

If you look at past cancer scare mongering articles you'll find that almost anything you do or eat allegedly increases your risk of cancer even things that were previously suggested to reduce the risk...