According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, a staggering 42% of American adults classify as obese. In addition to other serious health complications, obesity increases the risk of people developing 13 forms of cancer. A recent SciTechDaily article discussed a new study from Cleveland Clinic that suggests that weight loss can reduce the risk of cancer. Specifically, people who underwent bariatric surgery had a 32% lower chance of getting cancer, and 48% lower risk of dying from it.
The research project, dubbed SPLENDID (Surgical Procedures and Long-term effectiveness in Neoplastic Disease Incidence and Death, included 30,000 obese patients from the clinic, 5,000 of whom had undergone bariatric surgery. After 10 years, 2.9% of the surgery patients and 4.9% of the non-surgical group got cancer linked to obesity; 0.8% of patients in the surgery group and 1.4% of the non-surgical group died from said cancer.
