Date published: 2007/08/20
The BBC says:
Obese people may be less likely to develop prostate cancer but more likely to die of the disease, a study says.
Researchers found the cancer was much less likely to develop in people who are insulin resistant - a pre-diabetes condition linked to obesity.
But they were more likely to develop an aggressive form of the disease likely to spread to other parts of the body.
...
Lead researcher Dr Par Stattin said: "The suggestion that obese people are less likely to develop prostate cancer is provocative.
...
Dr Stattin said more research was needed to confirm the findings, and pin down the reasons.
...
Dr Greg Martin, of the World Cancer Research Fund, which funded the study, said the findings demonstrated just how closely obesity was related to cancer.He said: "While this study suggests that obese people could be less likely to develop prostate cancer in the first place, it is important to remember that being overweight significantly increases your risk of developing a number of different cancers, and is bad for your overall cancer risk."
And Dr Chris Hiley, of the Prostate Cancer Charity, said: "Men should not get the impression that there is an up side to obesity because it looks as if it might prevent prostate cancer. This is not the story at all.
"Cancer and heart disease are the biggest causes of preventable deaths and getting your weight under control with a healthy diet and lifestyle cuts the risk of both."
Well why are these findings allegedly "provocative"? Presumably because the likes of Martin, Hiley and lots of other people spend all their time demonising obese people, and we can't possibly have anything where obesity might be deemed to be a plus, can we. So it is necessary to point out there are zillions of negatives to obesity. Of course nobody ever bothers to mention the obvious zero sum game, namely that everybody has to die, so if obese people are more likely to die of one cause, they must be less likely to die of something else. So this kind of numbers comparison is a bit pointless. More to the point is quality of life and (according to some people) longevity.
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