When weight loss is a sign to get checked for these cancers

To say weight loss is big business is an understatement. The global market is estimated to surpass $405 billion by 2030.

But roughly 80 percent of people who lose a significant amount of weight won’t maintain that weight loss for a year. And one study found on average, dieters regain more than half of the weight they lose within two years.

That’s probably a sign the “lose weight fast and easy” gimmicks are just that. Real, lasting weight loss takes time and commitment to a healthy lifestyle.

But weight loss can also be associated with serious health problems… unintentional weight loss, especially if it occurs in a short amount of time warrants a checkup…

Possible root cause of unintentional weight loss

Dana Farber researchers recently assessed 40 years of data gathered from 157,474 participants in two large studies — the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up study — which ran from 1976 to 2016 collecting, among other things, weight, exercise and diet habits of participants.

“We wanted to differentiate healthy weight loss from unhealthy weight loss,” says Dr. Qiaoli Wang, a research fellow at Dana-Farber and the manuscript’s first author.

Results showed that weight loss of greater than 10 percent of body weight during the previous two years was linked with an increased rate of cancer during the next year compared with those who hadn’t lost weight in that time frame.

When breaking down by specific type, the researchers found recent weight loss was associated with significantly higher risk of these cancers:

• Upper gastrointestinal tract (including esophageal, stomach, liver, biliary tract and pancreatic)
• Hematological (including non-Hodgkin lymphoma, multiple myeloma, and leukemia)
• Colorectal
• Lung

By contrast, it was not connected with increased risk for other types of cancer like melanoma or breast, genitourinary or brain cancers.

“Healthy weight loss can come from dietary changes or increased exercise,” Wang says. “But unhealthy weight loss that occurs unexpectedly can be due to an underlying cancer.”

Patients with advanced cancer often lose weight unintentionally. But in the past, weight loss wasn’t linked with early-stage disease. This study, however, found similar levels of weight loss happened before diagnosis of both early and late-stage cancer.

This means that unintentional weight loss could be a sign of a developing cancer, and that could help diagnose the cancer earlier when treatment could be more effective.

The study confirms findings from past research that linked unexpected weight loss with increased cancer risk. In fact, the American Cancer Society says an unexplained weight loss of 10 pounds or more may be one of the first signs of cancer.

See your doctor immediately

If you experience unintended weight loss over a short period of time, you should definitely consult your doctor. The quicker you do, the better the odds that whatever is going on inside your body can be caught before too much damage is done.

“Sometimes weight loss is due to more exercise or a healthier diet, and this can be beneficial to people’s health,” says lead investigator Dr. Brian Wolpin, director of the Gastrointestinal Cancer Center at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and director of the Hale Family Center for Pancreatic Cancer Research.

“However, when a patient experiences unintentional weight loss not due to healthier behaviors, seeing your primary care doctor is appropriate, so they can determine whether additional evaluation is necessary for other causes of weight loss, including cancer.”

Cancer prevention can be part of healthy lifestyle habits, some of which also help maintain a healthy weight…

The Mediterranean diet is a great anti-cancer diet and a clear winner for healthy weight loss. It encourages eating more vegetables (like broccoli, the cancer-slayer), fruit (like these cancer-fighting ones) and fish — and doesn’t include ultra-processed foods which have been linked to cancers including  liver cancer and colon cancer.

And don’t forget that quite a few nutritional supplements are backed up by research that attests to their cancer-prevention benefits, too…

• Vitamin D
• Resistant starch
• Aspirin (but check with your doctor to be sure the potential benefits outweigh any risks especially if you have existing conditions.)

Sources:

Study suggests that unintentional weight loss is a signal to see a doctor — ScienceDaily

Cancer Diagnoses After Recent Weight Loss — JAMA

[Latest] Global Weight Loss and Weight Management Market Size/Share Worth USD 405.4 Billion by 2030 at a 6.84% CAGR: Growing obesity rate to propel market growth — Facts & Factors (Industry Trends, Revenue, Statistics, Segmentation, Report)

Unexpected Clues Emerge About Why Diets Fail — Scientific American