Gewichtsverlies na de menopauze verlaagt de kans op borstkanker flink.*
Uit een studie over een periode van 24 jaar onder bijna 50.000 vrouwen blijkt dat overgewicht een veel grotere kans op borstkanker geeft. Vrouwen die na hun 18de levensjaar 25 kg of meer aankomen hebben wel 45% meer kans op het krijgen van borstkanker. De belangrijkste uitkomst was wel dat als je zelfs pas na de menopauze afvalt de kans op borstkanker met bijna 60% afneemt.
Gaining
Weight After Menopause Raises Breast Cancer Risk
A
woman who gains weight after the menopause raises her risk of developing breast
cancer, while a woman who loses weight after the menopause lowers her risk, say
researchers from Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health,
USA. You can read about this study in the Journal of the American Medical
Association (JAMA).
The researchers monitored 49,514 women for up to 24 years. They were looking at
rates of invasive breast cancer. They found that 15% of all the breast cancers
were as a result of women gaining over 4.4lbs (2 kilos) since they were 18 years
old. They also found that a woman who loses weight after her menopause reduces
her chances of developing breast cancer by 57% when compared to women who stayed
the same weight or put on weight.
Lead author, Dr. Eliassen wrote "An important finding from this study is
that weight loss may reduce breast cancer risk, even if weight is not lost until
after menopause. Although these data suggest that it is never too late to lose
weight to decrease risk, given the difficulty in losing weight, the emphasis
must also remain on weight maintenance throughout adult life.”
Here were some of their findings after monitoring 49,514 women for up to 24
years:
-- 4,393 developed invasive breast cancer
-- Those who gained 55lbs (25 kilos) or more since 18 years of age were 45% more
likely to develop invasive breast cancer when compared to women who did not put
on weight
-- Women who put on weight after the menopause had a significantly raised risk
of breast cancer compared to women who did not put on weight after the menopause
-- Women who lost weight after the menopause had a significantly reduced risk
when compared to women who did not lose weight or put on weight after the
menopause
-- Women who never used postmenopausal hormones also had a lower risk,
especially those who also lost weight after the menopause
As weight-loss is particularly difficult to achieve after the menopause, the
authors suggest that good bodyweight maintenance throughout life is the best
strategy to get optimum protection from developing breast cancer.
In most cases the researchers had to rely on the women being monitored trying to
remember what their weight was at 18 rather than collecting this data from
proper medical records.
Most women put on weight after the age of 18, and also after the menopause.
Title: “Adult Weight Change and Risk of Postmenopausal Breast Cancer”
A. Heather Eliassen, ScD; Graham A. Colditz, MD, DrPH; Bernard Rosner, PhD;
Walter C. Willett, MD, DrPH; Susan E. Hankinson, ScD
JAMA. 2006;296:193-201.
Link
to Abstract
(Aug. 2006)