Overweight women less likely to develop breast cancer?

  • I was just reading today's newspaper and found this article:

    A shocking new Harvard study claiming overweight women are less likely to develop breast cancer caused head scratching in the medical community yesterday.
    In a 15 year study of 113,130 premenopausal registered nurses, subjects with a body mass indes of 30 or more had a 19% lower risk of developing breast cancer than women with a BMI of 20 to 22.4.
    A BMI over 30 is considered obese and between 25 and 29.9 overweight.
    Lead researcher Dr. Karin Michels told Reuters the results are "puzzling. It is not a good public health message."
    Queens Cancer Center director Dr. MArgret Keneny was skeptical.
    "We're on somewhat shaky ground as to what fat and breast cancer have to do with one another." Keneny said.
    Michels believes decreased ovulation in overweight women plays a role and noted that postmenopausal obesity still increases breast cancer risk. The results appear in the Archives of Internal Medicine.


    I just typed that word for word. I think it's kind of interesting. Of course I never take "studies" to be 100% accurate. But it is interesting to think that maybe there is some truth to it. Although by no means will I be dropping my current weightloss journey over it.
  • I'm pretty sure I could find at least 20 studies done in the last five years or so that refute this. I'm going to go read the original study you cited. It really contradicts everything I've ever read before. There have been some very definite correlations with obesity and breast and colon cancers.

    Mel
  • Yes, I have no doubt whatsoever that there would be at least 20 articles saying the exact opposite. It goes against everything I've ever read or heard on the subject.
  • Did the paper cite where the new study was published?

    Mel
  • It just says: The results appear in the Archives of Internal Medicine.