Where fat is stored, as opposed to how much you have, may be a major risk factor for colon cancer.
Researchers found that they could detect twice as many cases if they assessed people’s waist and hip sizes, rather than using body mass index (BMI).
People with a large belly and narrower hips, sometimes called “apple-shaped,” were up to 40 percent more likely to be diagnosed than those with a “pear-shaped” body.
In comparison, when looking at BMI alone, patients with the highest BMI were 23 percent more likely to develop colon cancer than those with the lowest BMI.
Study of nearly half a million adults suggests having “central obesity” is more dangerous than your weight.
This increased risk could be due to a type of body fat called visceral fat that surrounds organs like the colon and creates harmful inflammation, which can lead to the growth of cancer cells.
BMI is simply a person’s weight compared to their height and is used around the world to help determine whether a person is underweight or overweight.
However, the researchers said BMI does not detect cancer cachexia, a phenomenon found in three out of four colon cancer patients that causes them to lose lean muscle.
Researchers suggested that having more fat around the abdomen and hips could increase the risk of colon cancer (file image)
A 2023 study found that a person’s fat distribution was more important to their overall fat than just their body weight. Fat around the midsection, which stresses crucial organs, increases the risk of diseases that could lead to premature death.
Since BMI does not distinguish between muscle and fat, it can make a person appear thinner even if they have greater amounts of body fat and could classify a fit person as overweight or obese because they have more muscle.
However, waist and hip measurements do not reflect muscle loss, so researchers suggest they might be better indicators of central obesity.
For reasons like this, experts have called on health authorities to move away from BMI and focus on body roundness index (BRI) to determine risks for diseases such as heart disease and diabetes.
The study comes as cOlon cancer has It increased in the US over the past two decades.and healthy people between 20 and 30 years old are increasingly suffering from the disease.
Just over 160,000 Americans are affected by the disease each year and 50,000 die.
In the UK, 44,000 Britons are diagnosed each year and approximately 16,800 deaths occur.
Experts are racing to find the cause and risk factors that could help them determine who is most at risk.
Researchers writing in JAMA Network Open have found that where people store fat may play a bigger role than overall weight.
The researchers looked at 458,543 adults aged 40 to 69 from the UK Biobank database.
The team regularly followed the participants for 14 years.
Participants were divided into four groups based on BMI, waist circumference, and waist-to-hip ratio.
Waist circumference is the distance around the waist, just above the hips, and is used to measure abdominal fat.
Meanwhile, the waist-to-hip ratio compares your waist circumference to your hip measurements.
According to the BMI system, a score of 18.5 to 25 is healthy. A score of 25 to 29 counts as overweight, and more than 30 means that a person is obese, a stage at which the chances of getting sick skyrocket.
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BMI groups ranged from 24 to 30. A BMI of 25 to 29 is considered overweight and more than 30 is obese.
For waist circumference, women’s groups were defined as 29 inches or less, 29 to 32 inches, 32 to 36 inches, and 36 inches or more.
For men, these waist circumferences ranged from 35 inches or less, 35 to 38 inches, 38 to 40 inches, and 40 inches or more.
The waist-to-hip ratio for women was divided into the following groups: 0.77 or less, 0.77 to 0.81, 0.81 to 0.86, and 0.86 or more.
For men, these were 0.89 or less, 0.89 to 0.93, 0.93 to 0.98, and 0.98 or more.
According to the CDC, the average waist circumference for women is 39 inches and 40.5 inches for men.
Most women have a waist-to-hip ratio of 0.8. This is around 0.9 for men.
The team said storing weight around the waist “showed a stronger and more consistent association” with colon cancer risk than BMI.
Overall, they found that 17 percent of colon cancers could be attributed to a high waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio, or about one in six.
Meanwhile, a high BMI was linked to 10 percent.
The researchers wrote: “These findings suggest that core obesity metrics are likely to more fully reflect the proportion of colorectal cancer cases attributable to obesity.”
The team also found that women with the highest waist circumferences had a 22 percent increased risk of colon cancer, while men had a 53 percent increased risk.
Meanwhile, women with the highest waist-to-hip ratio were 24 percent more likely to develop colon cancer compared to a 59 percent higher risk in men.
The stark gender difference could be because men tend to store more fat around their midsection than women, while women store more fat around the hips and buttocks.
Based on the findings, the researchers estimated that one in six colon cancers in the study could be attributed to a high waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio.
The team said: “Based on our results, a greater proportion of CRC cases were attributable to excess weight than commonly assumed, and central obesity had greater relevance with respect to the incidence of CRC related to obesity.” obesity”.
The researchers recommended focusing on waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio over BMI when calculating BMI risk.
They also noted that their findings “underscore the importance of efforts to limit and overcome the obesity epidemic in CRC prevention.”