New information: Breast cancer survival and obesity

I’ve been wondering about this for the last eight years - since my own breast cancer diagnosis. Even then I was reading snippets of information that was highly suggestive that even being ‘overweight’ could seriously affect my own ability to remain cancer free over time. I had lost a considerable amount of weight prior to my diagnosis, nearly 40 pounds, but there was nearly a ten year span were I was getting increasingly overweight for my 5’3” frame. At my top weight, I was almost 164. At time of diagnosis, I was about 126. today, I average about 136, and I monitor my weight very closely - and my diet.

Today, my BMI is in the very healthful range, but BMI doesn’t tell the whole story. The composition of your body is crucial. I have been up to the UNR Medical School Center for Metabolic Studies several times since my cancer went into remission, and had a complete body composition analysis. My ratio of lean tissue to fat is excellent. Yeah, it could also be better, too. I keep my insulin levels down and on an even keel with a diet very low in refined/simple carbohydrates, and high in whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables. Lean protein in moderation. I exercise religiously. As you will see, insulin levels could be driving part of the train with some sub-types of breast cancer.

Mine was a Triple Negative, but each cancer is a hghly diverse population. You can have cells that don’t conform to the sub-type. They’re wild cards. Rogues. Little hidden assassins.

When I look around today, and see so many young women that are overweight and obese, it frightens me. I see a breast cancer epidemic in the making.

Read on:

Weighing the impact of obesity

by Melissa Weber

The research has been pretty clear: Obese women with breast cancer are at higher
risk for recurrence and death. But now, new findings suggest the poor outcome
for obese patients depends on whether they have the most common
subtype—estrogen receptor–positive, HER2-negative breast cancer.

Obese women treated with chemotherapy after surgery had worse overall survival
and disease-free survival than non-obese patients

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Sugar, obesity and metabolic syndrome

This is a very interesting article about how the overabundance of sugar - particularly fructose and high-fructose corn syrup - may be contributing to the childhood obesity epidemic. It almost goes without saying that the same causes may contribute to why you and I - adults - have such a difficult time controlling weight.

What I found particularly interesting here is that Lustig suggests that declines in activity levels among young people may be a result of eating a diet high in sugars.

Sugar is a poison, says UCSF Obesity Expert

By Jeffrey Norris

The rise of obesity is usually blamed on too much eating and not enough exercising, but Robert Lustig, MD, a UCSF pediatric neuroendocrinologist, asks us to look beyond the obvious.

Yes, more Americans are overweight today than 30 years ago. Kids are still getting heavier, compared with prior generations of kids. That leads some UCSF researchers to warn that heart disease and other health problems will grow in future decades.

But behaviors that some might refer to as gluttony and sloth are merely consequences of the true cause of the epidemic, Lustig says. Food was just as abundant before obesity’s ascendance. The problem is the increase in sugar consumption. Sugar both drives fat storage and makes the brain think it is hungry, setting up a “vicious cycle,” according to Lustig.

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The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite

Available at the mavenandmeddler.com amazon.com store: http://astore.amazon.com/mavenandmeddl-20?node=8&page=12

From Publishers Weekly
Conditioned hypereating is a biological challenge, not a character flaw, says Kessler, former FDA commissioner under presidents Bush and Clinton). Here Kessler (A Question of Intent) describes how, since the 1980s, the food industry, in collusion with the advertising industry, and lifestyle changes have short-circuited the body’s self-regulating mechanisms, leaving many at the mercy of reward-driven eating.

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High Fructose Corn Syrup: Not off the hook yet

I’ve really worked at getting the HFCS out of my families diet for several years now, and more recently eliminating fructose - mainly in the form of sweet beverages, including fruit juice. I’ve not only managed to keep the weight more stable, but actually lost a couple of pounds.

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Health and wellness factoids

Courtesy of the University of California Berkeley Wellness Letter, April, 2009 issue:

For the first time, more Americans are obese than merely overweight. about 34% of us are now obese, up from 23% two decades ago, while the percentage for overweight has stayed at 33%. And 6% are severely obese, double the earlier number. For someone 5’8” tall, overweight is 165 to 196 pounds, obese is over 197 pounds, and severely obese starts at 263 pounds, based on body mass index (BMI). To figure out where you stand, go to the BMI calculator at the National Heart, Blood and Lung Institute.

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Obesity epidemic

I watched this show on Discovery Health the other night, and was shocked beyond words at just how horrible it can be to become morbidly obese. It was really almost more than I could take, and I’ve spent a lot of time in cancer wards.

If there was ever a giant ad for eating right and getting enough exercise, this show would have to be it. Should you have a chance to watch it, do. We probably all know somebody who could benefit from some support, encouragement or as a last resort, some intervention.

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Obesity worsens locally advanced breast cancer prognosis

Friends and family may wonder why I seem so obsessed with keeping my weight in check after breast cancer. Although I was of a very small, normal weight at time of my diagnosis, I had previously been about 40 pounds overweight during my late 30’s and early 40’s. I don’t know if there is a definite link, but it’s sure suspicious. This I know, adipose fat feeds the body estrogren, and that will feed estrogren receptor positive breast cancer.

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