Being Overweight Can Increase Your Risk of Liver Cancer

By Medical Expert Team

Mar 05 , 2018 | 1 min read

A new study suggests that being overweight increases the risk of liver cancer. Peter Campbell, the co-author of the study, has found that diabetes, obesity, and a high body mass index can increase your chances of liver cancer. Read on to learn about this study and its unexpected results.

What were the results of the study?

Peter Campbell and his colleagues examined the data of 1.57 million adults to see if there was a relationship between type-2 diabetes and liver cancer.

a. The study found that compared to people with a normal Body Mass Index (BMI), obese people had much higher risks of liver cancers.

Similarly, increasing waist circumference raised the risk of liver cancer. Presence of DM more than doubled the risk of liver tumor, even adjusting for other possible causes (166%).

What can I do to lower my risk of liver cancer?

Dr. Archit Pandit, Consultant – Surgical Oncology, Max Super Speciality Hospital, Shalimar Bagh says as the study showed, liver cancer isn’t only related to excess alcohol intake and viral hepatitis infection; obesity can be a key factor as well. By changing your diet, exercising regularly, and staying fit, you can lower your chances of diabetes and obesity, and subsequently, reduce your risk of liver cancer.

How is this important from a public health perspective?

These results are important as type-2 diabetes and obesity are extremely common; over 5% of Indians are morbidly obese and as many as 50 million suffer from type-2 diabetes. While other risk factors such as hepatitis B or hepatitis C can also increase the risk of liver cancer, these are both much less common than obesity and diabetes.

Peter Campbell says that “Along with reducing known risks—excess alcohol consumption and hepatitis infection—maintaining a healthy body weight, eating healthy, and staying physically active to reduce the risk of diabetes may be important preventive strategies to reduce the risk of liver cancer.”

By taking control of your daily habits, from what you eat to how much you exercise, you can take control of your future. Staying fit and keeping your body in tip-top shape can ensure that liver cancer doesn’t affect your future.

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