In Brief
Weight Loss Curbs Cancer Promoting Inflammations
Excess weight promotes inflammations that are regarded as fostering cancer. Together with American colleagues, Cornelia Ulrich from the DKFZ and the National Centre for Tumour Diseases (NCT) Heidelberg conducted a study on overweight women to find out, whether the inflammation values could be reduced by sportive activity and/or a reduction in calorie intake. Both changes in lifestyle were highly effective: The reduction of calorie intake on its own or in combination with sportive activity lowered the inflammation parameters by more than a third and thus to an extent comparable to anti-inflammatory medication. Weight loss can therefore be regarded as an effective contribution towards cancer prevention. Epidemiologists attribute about 25 per cent of all cancer incidents worldwide to excess weight and a lack of physical exercise.
