In the last 10 years, there have been an additional 20,000 cases of kidney cancer in the UK and the obesity crisis is to blame for it. According to Cancer Research UK, the new cases of kidney cancer have increased drastically by 40% over the last 10 years.
Just like how smoking can steadily cause damage to cells over time, increasing the risk of cancer; carrying excess weight can build up damage over an individual’s lifetime. The link to being overweight and kidney cancer is suspected to be due to the hormone, insulin. Insulin is important to breaking down the carbohydrates and fats in your body, but being overweight can result in insulin resistance. This means the body doesn’t respond properly to insulin, leading to the levels of insulin in the body to go up.
Every year 4,300 people die from kidney cancer in the UK. This can be easily avoided through making little changes in diet and increasing the amount of exercise you do each day in order to help get to and maintain a healthy weight. This can be as simple as lowering the amount of sugar in your diet by switching up your lunch time chocolate bar for a piece of fruit, adding more vegetables to your dinners and going for a 30 minute walk each weekend instead of lounging about on the sofa. These are just small sacrifices to make to ensure you lead a longer and happier life with your loved ones for the future.
Click here to read the full article from the Times.
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