Preventing weight gain may be as important as weight loss
Losing weight is a goal of many American’s and researchers at Columbia University give women one more reason to continue to work towards that goal.
Looking at data from a study of nearly 2,000 Long Island women ages 20 to 98 the researchers discovered another possible link between weight gain and breast cancer.
The researchers found that women who gained more than 33 pounds throughout their adult years had a 60 percent greater risk of developing breast cancer when compared to their peers who only gained 6 or 7.
But they also found that young and middle-aged women who lose weight may lower their risk of the disease.
The greatest risk seemed to come from weight gain after the age 50. Compared with women whose weight was stable at this time, those who put on 25 pounds or more were 62 percent more likely to develop breast cancer.
So regardless of your age, but especially for women who are peri menapausal, now is the time to begin to modify your lifestyle. Don’t rely on diets to fix your weight, look instead at the causes of your weight gain and adjust those.
