The Fat That Increases Cancer Risk

It’s been well-known for quite a while that fat around your waistline is bad for your heart. But now researchers have also found that where your body deposits fat also increases your cancer risk.

When your stomach starts to bulge, your risk for cancer also bulges.

“Given the worldwide obesity epidemic, identification of high-risk individuals is important, as it allows targeting of preventive and therapeutic measures,” says researcher Kathryn A. Britton, M.D., an instructor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

Britton and other researchers used CT scans to study specifically located fat deposits for direct associations with disease risk. In testing more than 3,000 people and tracking their health for seven years, they found that those with abdominal fat had more heart attacks and tumors than folks whose fat was deposited in other parts of the body.