Numerous research has established how obesity impacts the wellbeing of an individual. According to Medical News Today, the health effects of bearing extra abdominal fat also include cardiac failure, high blood pressure, stroke, breast and colorectal cancer, and Alzheimer's disease.
Visceral fat, which is located in the abdominal cavity of a human, is often known as "active fat" because it changes the way hormones operate in the body. Therefore, an abundance of visceral fat may have potential adverse effects.
Cancer and obesity: What's the risk?
A Harvard study has shown that cancer cells can fight with immune cells for fuel through a high-fat diet. Experts say that obesity hampers immune function and accelerating tumor development.
In a press release, Harvard scientists established mechanisms correlated with obesity that drive the development of tumors. These include metabolic shifts and persistent inflammation. Yet, a comprehensive explanation of the interrelation between cancer and obesity has remained elusive.
A high-fat diet lowers the numbers and antitumor activity of CD8+T cells, a form of immune cell that researchers at Harvard Medical School said within tumors. This happens because, in reaction to enhanced fat supply, cancer cells reprogram their metabolism to help gobble up energy-rich fat molecules, rob T cells of food, and promote tumor development.
The experts found out that there is a metabolic tug-of-war between T cells and tumor cells, which varies with obesity. The findings serve as a framework to help grasp how obesity impacts cancer and the effect on clinical effects of patient metabolism, the authors said.
This result indicates that a treatment that may succeed in one context might not be as successful in another, which, considering the obesity crisis in our culture, needs to be better understood.
The analysis offers a guide to investigating the interplay, according to researchers, that can enable experts to continue to learn in different ways regarding cancer immunotherapies and combination therapies.
The Growth of Obesity-Related Cancers
Obesity-related cancers include breast, cervical, liver, meningioma, thyroid, and colon cancers. The researchers cautioned that when individuals accumulate more weight, the chance of developing these diseases increases.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, around 630,000 Americans have been diagnosed with overweight and obesity-related cancer in the United States. There were around two out of three instances in people aged 50 to 74 years of age.
Although the amount of new cases among baby boomers (people over the age of 50) has also risen, the growth has not been as steep or important.
While it is not well known the cause of the association between obesity and some cancers, there is evidence to suggest different hypotheses.
Several experiments have attempted to describe the impact of obesity on colorectal cancer and, finally, on the intestinal microbiota.
However, researchers have recognized that much needs to be known regarding the role of obesity in developing those cancers.
Experts suggest that clinicians formulate ways to directly address abdominal fat while evaluating weight reduction with an obesity-associated cancer patient.
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