Don't ignore the relationship between "visceral fat" and chronic diseases

hypertensionChronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and dyslipidemia are closely related to the accumulation of visceral fat, but they do not only affect these diseases. The "Obesity Diagnosis and Treatment Guidelines 2016" of the Japanese Obesity Society mentioned that colorectal cancer, some esophageal cancers, endometrial cancer, pancreatic cancer, kidney cancer, breast cancer, liver cancer and other cancers are all related to fat accumulation.

Is it really that scary that fat accumulation can cause cancer?
Not only the Japanese Obesity Society has made such a statement, but the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) and the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) also mentioned in a report released in 2007 that obesity can increase the risk of various cancers, including esophageal adenocarcinoma, colorectal cancer, kidney cancer, postmenopausal breast cancer, and endometrial cancer.

So what percentage of all cancers are caused by obesity? A well-known paper was published in 1981, which used the results of a large-scale survey conducted before to speculate on the causes of cancer. It comprehensively analyzed and investigated the cancer rates of various causes of cancer. 35% of cancers are caused by diet and lifestyle, 30% by smoking, followed by viral or bacterial infections, drinking, etc.
In 1996, the Cancer Prevention Center at Harvard University in the United States also conducted a similar study. Among the causes of cancer deaths, dietary habits and obesity in adulthood accounted for 30%, smoking also accounted for 30%, and other reasons were lack of exercise, drinking, etc.
This is American data and cannot be directly applied to Asians because the ease of visceral fat accumulation in American whites and Asians is very different. However, among the causes of cancer,Eating habits and obesityIt accounts for 30~35%, which is indeed an astonishing result.
There is currently no research report targeting Asians to investigate what proportion of all cancers are caused by obesity. However, the public diet is gradually becoming more Westernized, and cancers such as colorectal cancer, breast cancer, and prostate cancer, which originally had a high incidence rate among Europeans and Americans but a low incidence rate among Asians, are all on the rise.

There was a large-scale study on colorectal cancer in Japan, in which a report pointed out that compared with people with a BMI of less than 25, men with a BMI of more than 27 were 1.4 times more likely to develop colorectal cancer.
The following chart is a survey of the percentage of obese people with a BMI of 20 or above among men and women aged 25 and over. The percentage of obese people among women has remained at around 20%, while the percentage of obese people among men has doubled over the 1976 years from 2006 to 30, and has remained at a high level of around 30%. Based on this, the number of people suffering from colorectal cancer is unlikely to decrease.

Please take out your most recent health check-up report and confirm whether your waist circumference is normal. If it exceeds the standard, how much it exceeds the standard. This is for your health.
Originally, colorectal cancer was a cancer with a low incidence in Asians and a high incidence in Europeans and Americans. However, the incidence of colorectal cancer among Japanese immigrants to the United States has been rising. The incidence of the first generation of Japanese immigrants is comparable to that of white Americans. By the second and third generations, the incidence has not only increased, but may even exceed that of white Americans. This fact tells us that if Asians continue to have European and American eating habits, their risk of colorectal cancer will be higher than that of white Americans.